Wideband voice
Encyclopedia
Wideband Voice refers to the use of Wideband Codecs in Digital telephony
. Wideband Codecs use higher sampling rate
s than Narrowband Codecs or utilize embedded sub-band coding
techniques to effectively increase the bandwidth of the baseband
voice, from the traditional 200 Hz to 3.5 kHz used in Narrowband Codecs, to 50 Hz at the low end and anywhere from 7 kHz to 22 kHz .
at the high end, depending on the type of codec
used. This results in a significant improvement in voice quality since it allows the wideband codec to transmit consonants, sibilants and other subtleties of the human voice formerly lost by narrowband codecs and significantly adds to the intelligibility and quality of the speech signal.
In addition, some wideband codecs may use a higher bit-depths of 16-bits to encode samples, also resulting in much better voice quality.
Digital telephony
Digital telephony is the use of digital electronics in the provision of digital telephone services and systems. Since the 1960s a digital core network has almost entirely replaced the old analog system, and much of the access network has also been digitized...
. Wideband Codecs use higher sampling rate
Sampling rate
The sampling rate, sample rate, or sampling frequency defines the number of samples per unit of time taken from a continuous signal to make a discrete signal. For time-domain signals, the unit for sampling rate is hertz , sometimes noted as Sa/s...
s than Narrowband Codecs or utilize embedded sub-band coding
Sub-band coding
Sub-band coding is any form of transform coding that breaks a signal into a number of different frequency bands and encodes each one independently. This decomposition is often the first step in data compression for audio and video signals....
techniques to effectively increase the bandwidth of the baseband
Baseband
In telecommunications and signal processing, baseband is an adjective that describes signals and systems whose range of frequencies is measured from close to 0 hertz to a cut-off frequency, a maximum bandwidth or highest signal frequency; it is sometimes used as a noun for a band of frequencies...
voice, from the traditional 200 Hz to 3.5 kHz used in Narrowband Codecs, to 50 Hz at the low end and anywhere from 7 kHz to 22 kHz .
at the high end, depending on the type of codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
used. This results in a significant improvement in voice quality since it allows the wideband codec to transmit consonants, sibilants and other subtleties of the human voice formerly lost by narrowband codecs and significantly adds to the intelligibility and quality of the speech signal.
In addition, some wideband codecs may use a higher bit-depths of 16-bits to encode samples, also resulting in much better voice quality.