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Trademark Program Overview

To indicate to consumers that products implementing the MPEG-H Audio System will interoperate correctly, Fraunhofer operates the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program. The program is optional and administered without charge by Fraunhofer. The program is designed to initially cover consumer end-user products for TV broadcast, for example TV sets, soundbars or set-top boxes.

Free of charge

Fraunhofer operates the program without any fees or charges. Manufacturers are responsible for testing fees charged by independent authorized test centers for end-product testing.

Complete and Thorough Testing Ensures Interoperability

While no testing program can guarantee to catch every bug, the program has been designed to thoroughly test the user interfaces, input and output connections, audio controls and processing, and basic MPEG-H decoding functions of a product. This ensures connection issues with other trademarked components are minimized.

Consumers Readily Identify MPEG-H Products

The MPEG-H Trademark is an indication to consumers that a product design has passed third-party testing to verify MPEG-H functions as it should, so they may purchase it with the confidence that it will work with other MPEG-H devices and deliver programming with advanced audio features.

Reduced Testing Effort

The program includes test bitstreams, test fixtures, worksheets, and procedures already designed to verify system features are implemented correctly, saving the time and effort to develop internal test programs. Advanced features of the MPEG-H system, including those outside the audio decoder, are tested as well.

Products Meet Broadcaster Expectations

The program test suites verify that products include the features and profiles that broadcasters use in their programming, preventing consumer disappointment when their device does not support viewing programs with additional audio elements.

Freedom to Innovate

The program does not constrain the look and feel of a manufacturer’s user interfaces, or demand a high level of reproduction quality. Manufacturers are free to select appearance and performance points that match their market requirements. Products are never inspected by Fraunhofer, only by independent authorized test centers. Manufacturers may also use the test materials for internal testing and development.

Authorized Test Centers

Fraunhofer operates the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program, but does not test products. Authorized test centers selected by Fraunhofer will perform product testing according to the program specifications. Manufacturers are free to choose any test center. Testing arrangements between a manufacturer and a test center are independent of Fraunhofer.

Licensed Decoder Providers

The following companies have been licensed to provide Decoder Test Certificates for decoder components or software that have been tested for compliance with the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program. End-product manufacturers may use these decoder components or software and accompanying certificate or test their own decoder implementations as a prerequisite to end-product testing.

Cadence

Licensed Original Design Manufacturers

The following companies have been licensed to provide end-product designs that have been tested for compliance with the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program. End-product manufacturers may offer these products under their own brand with the MPEG-H trademark by joining the trademark program.

Licensed Manufacturers

The following companies have been licensed to manufacture consumer products that have been tested for compliance with the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program.

Sony

Available Devices

The following devices have been tested for compliance with the MPEG-H Audio System trademark program. They are eligible for the “MPEG-H Audio” trademark.

Type Manufacturer Product Test Date Performance
Level*
Test
Version
Soundbar Sennheiser (Sonova) Ambeo Plus 27-10-2022 P3/P4 1.11
Soundbar Sennheiser (Sonova) Ambeo Max 21-12-2018 P3 1.04
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVR-A1H (US) 02-03-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-A1H (EU) 02-03-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVR-X4800H (US, JP) 21-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-X4800H (EU) 21-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVR-X3800H (US, JP) 24-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-X3800H (EU) 24-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Marantz (Sound United) AV 10 (US, EU) 21-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Marantz (Sound United) CINEMA 40 (US, EU) 21-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Marantz (Sound United) CINEMA 50 (US, EU, JP) 21-02-2022 P3/P4 1.00
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-A110 14-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-X8500H 14-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-X6700H 31-07-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Denon (Sound United) AVC-X4700H 04-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Marantz (Sound United) AV8805 14-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Marantz (Sound United) AV7706 14-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Marantz (Sound United) SR8015 31-07-2020 P3/P4 0.97
AVR Marantz (Sound United) SR7015 14-09-2020 P3/P4 0.97

Note that product variants for localization or different distribution may not be listed here if they are based on the same product platform. Such variants are still compliant with the trademark program if they bear the trademark.

* Performance Level is a indication of the MPEG-H capabilities tested in a product, such as the number of channels or objects that may be simultaneously decoded or the complexity of the supported loudspeaker configurations. It is not an indication of audio quality of the product. Performance Level P3 supports up to 16 channels or objects being decoded simultaneously and speaker configurations of 12 speakers or less.

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