The Ιnstitute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Crete, announced today the start of a collaboration with leading US audio solutions provider Audyssey Labs, located in Los Angeles, California, USA. Audyssey and FORTH have signed a licensing agreement that allows audio processing intellectual property developed by FORTH to be included in Audyssey’s suite of technologies offered to its customers.

FORTH is Greece’s premier research center with modern facilities, highly qualified personnel, and a long tradition of top-level basic and applied research within the European Research Area. Audyssey is well-known in the field of consumer and professional audio for developing algorithms and software that significantly improve the quality of sound experienced at home or inside the car. Audyssey’s products reach millions of people through major consumer electronics providers such as Denon, Marantz, and Toshiba, as well as car manufacturers including Jaguar, Volvo, and Audi.

Commenting on these developments, Professor Constantine Stephanidis, Director of the Institute of Computer Science (FORTH-ICS) at FORTH, said: “FORTH-ICS has always strived to link its research with industry. As a result, we have had several successful research commercialization efforts over the years. The latest collaboration agreement of our Institute with Audyssey Labs demonstrates the impressive depth and quality of research performed in our Institute and our commitment to getting products out of the lab and into the market, so that they can begin to improve the lives of the citizens”.

Professor Panagiotis Tsakalides, Head of the Signal Processing Laboratory (SPL) at FORTH-ICS, said: “We are extremely happy for starting what we hope to be a long-term collaboration with Audyssey Labs. Over the years, SPL researchers have developed several innovative signal processing algorithms that have been highly-recognized by the scientific community. Today’s announcement is yet another example of the tremendous efforts our engineers are making to dream beyond their research, to how they can improve our quality of life”.

Professor Athanasios Mouchtaris, leader of the audio signal processing activities at SPL, said: “I am very proud that our scientific results will find their way to the consumer, in the US and worldwide, through our collaboration with Audyssey Labs. We envision the relationship with Audyssey as an avenue for our audio research to reach the consumers and as balanced way to support the constant interchange between discovery and innovation”.

“We are pleased to be collaborating with FORTH and look forward to establishing a long-term relationship” said Professor Chris Kyriakakis, co-founder and CTO of Audyssey Labs. “FORTH has an excellent team of researchers in audio signal processing, which was no surprise to me having grown up in Greece and being familiar with the ample talent in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering in Greek academic institutes”.

It is anticipated that FORTH software will find its way to the US and worldwide markets within 2017, as part of the technology suite that Audyssey offers to its worldwide network of customers.

About: For more information about FORTH, the Institute of Computer Science, its Signal Processing laboratory, and Audyssey, can be found in the following links:

http://www.forth.gr/
http://www.ics.forth.gr
http://spl.edu.gr
http://www.audyssey.com

Contacts:
For further information about this announcement please contact Professor Athanasios Mouchtaris, mouchtar@ics.forth.gr, Tel. +30 2810391753.