The Google team is implementing a new audio codec that will help improve the quality of video calls even when we have internet connection problems.
Google creates new audio codec to improve call quality on slow connections
A novelty that Google Duo users will be able to enjoy from the app for iOS and Android.
We have already become experts in dealing with video call problems, as they have become essential for communicating with family, friends and fulfilling work obligations. However, one of the most common problems has nothing to do with our equipment or the video calling app we use, but the big headache is usually a bad internet connection.
And you know, the audio is choppy, the video freezes, etc. The Google team was working to solve this problem using artificial intelligence:
An ongoing challenge in codec development, both for video and audio, is to provide ever-higher quality, useless data and minimize latency for real-time communication. To solve this problem, we have created Lyra, a very low-bitrate, high-quality audio codec that makes voice communication available even over the slowest networks.
To test the potential of this codec, the Google team shares a series of audios at this link. We see the original reference audio and another using the audio codec, Opus at 6kbps, with some interference. And of course, the third option is audio with Lyra, showing the clarity of the sound using only 3kbps.
So it offers better audio quality using only a fraction of Kbps of what one of the most popular audio codecs would use to deliver the optimum result. A system that is already being implemented in Google Duo, so users can enjoy uninterrupted audio calls, even when the internet is unstable.
