London/Tokyo, 13 October 2020 – WOWOW, Japan’s leading premium pay TV
broadcaster, livestreamed a musical performance in real time using MQA audio with HD
video recently, firmly establishing WOWOW as the leader in sound quality for its live OTT
(over the top) broadcasting.

Virtuoso marimba player, Makoto Nakura, performed a selection of Bach repertoire in
Tokyo’s stunning Hakuju Hall. The audio was captured at 192/24, encoded in MQA in real
time, and encapsulated concurrently within the HD video file to deliver the highest quality
livestream to both on-site and remote audience members. MQA’s technology enables a
192/24 file to be ‘folded’ into a smaller file of 48/24 which is the standard for broadcast video.

Hideo Irimajiri, senior expert, engineering division and project lead at WOWOW, had
previously remarked, “It makes no sense that audio quality still lags behind, while video is
achieving higher definition with 4k and 8k resolution display,” and praised MQA’s technology
for ‘solving a problem’.

Regarding the latest livestream, Irimajiri-san stated, “Since the pandemic struck, artists and
broadcasters have been finding ways of bringing the live experience to audiences, with
varying degrees of success. Music not only consists of pitch, volume and timbre, but also
conveys emotion. Too much detail is lost with regular compressed audio. At WOWOW we
will be championing the tagline “conveys emotion” and the *HPL-MQA demonstration on 6
October is a precursor to this activity. Stay tuned.”

MQA founder Bob Stuart, commented, “MQA enables original audio playback in the areas of
VOD, broadcasting and livestreams, as well as recorded music for which we are most
known. WOWOW understands the importance of preserving natural sound and marrying it
with high definition visuals, and it’s exciting to continue pushing the boundaries with such a
forward-thinking broadcast partner.”

Musician Makoto Nakura added, “All of my concerts in spring and summer evaporated, and I
had no chance to play, so it became more and more important to get connected with our
audience, particularly in the best possible way. This is high resolution streaming and I’m very
proud to be part of this concert.”

The performance was streamed in real time using MPEG-4 ALS lossless technology (developed
by NTT SMARTCONNECT), which supports bit-perfect PCM data transmission. *HPL is a
binaural technology which enables 3D spatial audio to be rendered in 2 channels.