Sensaura Announces World's Largest Audio IP Brokerage, Shares Customer Risk with Bold Business Model

20 August 2003 -- London UK -- Sensaura, the world's leading audio development and licensing company, today announced that it has created a world-class centre of excellence for audio Intellectual Property (IP) brokering. The company has developed the world's most extensive portfolio of audio IP including its own products and proven third party IP.

Sensaura is targeting applications in the automotive, consumer and communication sectors. Its products have the potential to be deployed in a wide variety of application ranging from mobile phone to high-end entertainment systems and from personal digital assistants to car infotainment systems.

Sensaura's IP products range from implementations of discrete algorithms such as Dolby and MPEG decoders through to complete audio IP solutions such as audio watermarking, text-to-speech and voice recognition solutions.

Sensaura has also announced that it will share product development risk with its customer with the introduction of a transparent royalty based licensing model. The company will work on a consultancy basis with a customer to integrate an audio solution as part of its product development and thereafter shares risk with the client by charging a quarterly licensing fee based on sales.

The Sensaura portfolio of intellectual property (IP) includes more than 55 worldwide patent filings with third party solutions from companies including Lucent Technologies and Nortel Networks.

Sensaura audio IP solutions include highly integrated, proven technology, allowing customers to improve development efficiencies, accelerate time to market and enhance product reliability.

Sensaura IP has a strong track record in the development and licensing of audio IP solutions. Its audio IP products are deployed in more than 60 per cent of PC sound cards sold worldwide, in addition to the Microsoft Xbox console which use Sensaura 3D positional audio solution.

"Formalising our IP brokering business and standardising on a shared risk business model is a bold move for Sensuara. It will enable our customers to benefit from efficiencies in terms of both engineering effort and cost," said Doug Balfour, managing director, Sensaura.

"The model that we have adopted for our audio IP brokering business is well proven in the electronics sector for both hardware and software intellectual property. By contrast audio IP has always been traded on an ad hoc basis. Sensaura has access to the world's largest library of audio IP and is looking to develop an international standard for its trading".

About Sensaura
Sensaura, based in London, is at the forefront of audio research, both in the PC and the consumer electronics market. Presently holding technology licensing agreements with vendors such as Yamaha, ESS Technology, Analog Devices Inc., Crystal/Cirrus Logic and NVIDIA, licensees of Sensaura 3DPA technology control in excess of 60 percent of the PC audio chip market worldwide.

In addition, Sensaura also provides audio middleware to the games developer market, supporting all the major platforms including the Sony PlayStation2 and Microsoft Xbox.

Sensaura retains strong links with its sister company, Central Research Laboratories Limited (CRL), EMI's former research centre, of which it was previously a business unit. Sensaura is a wholly owned subsidiary of the technology development and licensing company, Scipher plc.

For further details, check: www.sensaura.com.