Though the standards that we call over may change, the audio experience of a phone call has remained largely the same for decades. Nokia is aiming to change that, with the company announcing that CEO Pekka Lundmark has made the world’s first immersive phone call over 3GPP Immersive Voice and Audio Services (IVAS) codec. Nokia calls this codec “the biggest leap forward in the live voice calling experience since the introduction of monophonic telephony.”
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The IVAS codec, which is part of the upcoming 5G Advanced standard, allows consumers to hear 3D spatial sound in real-time instead of today’s monophonic smartphone voice call experience.
“We have demonstrated the future of voice calls,” said Lundmark, who was also present for the world’s first 2G call in 1991. “This groundbreaking audio technology takes you to the caller’s environment creating a spatial and massively improved listening experience for voice and video calls, offering significant benefits for enterprise and industrial applications.”
Nokia says that the “vast majority” of smartphones on the market have at least two microphones, which would allow for immersive calling via the IVAS codec. “This is now becoming standardised … so the network providers, chipset manufacturers, handset manufacturers can begin to implement it in their products,” added Lukander.
