Skype introduces us to a new codec that they’ve been developing called “Opus” that will deliver better audio quality and fewer choppy calls. Initially Skype started thinking about Opus in March 2009 and started developing it in June of the same year. They wanted a codec that was “built for the internet” that everyone within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) could use.
Opus was made by Senior Skype Architect Koen Vos and a team of audio engineers, which was built upon a hybrid of their pre-existing SILK codec and Xiph.Org’s CELT codec. In the past a myriad of different codecs were needed to handle audio tasks, but with Opus it has essentially been streamlined.
Opus is expected to provide higher-quality audio, higher efficiency with lower data usage, and less choppy calls due to mechanisms that recover packet loss. Skype hasn’t announced when Opus will be released but it will become a standard across all Skype platforms.
Source: engadget
