Opus (audio format)

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Filename extension .opus

Internet media type audio/ogg

audio/opus (RTP)

Developed by IETF codec working group

Initial release September 11, 2012

Type of format Audio

Contained by Ogg, Matroska, WebM, MPEG-TS

Extended from SILK, CELT

Standard RFC 6716

Open format? Yes

Website opus-codec.org

Opus

1/29
 Developer(s) Xiph.Org Foundation

Initial release August 26, 2012

Stable release 1.3.1 / April 12, 2019; 2 years ago

Written in C89

Platform Cross-platform

Type Audio codec, reference implementation

License 3-clause BSD license

Website Opus codec downloads

libopus

Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph.Org Foundation and
standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force, designed to efficiently code speech
and general audio in a single format, while remaining low-latency enough for real-time
interactive communication and low-complexity enough for low-end embedded
processors. Opus replaces both Vorbis and Speex for new applications, and several blind
listening tests have ranked it higher-quality than any other standard audio format at any
given bitrate until transparency is reached, including MP3, AAC, and HE-AAC.

Opus combines the speech-oriented LPC-based SILK algorithm and the lower-latency
MDCT-based CELT algorithm, switching between or combining them as needed for
maximal efficiency. Bitrate, audio bandwidth, complexity, and algorithm can all be
adjusted seamlessly in each frame. Opus has the low algorithmic delay (26.5 ms by
default) necessary for use as part of a real-time communication link, networked music
performances, and live lip sync; by trading-off quality or bitrate, the delay can be reduced
down to 5 ms. Its delay is exceptionally low compared to competing codecs, which require
well over 100 ms, yet Opus performs very competitively with these formats in terms of
quality per bitrate.

Modified discrete cosine ... – MDCT window functions: blue: Cosine,

red: Sine-Cosine, green: modified Kaiser-Bessel
As an open format standardized through RFC 6716, a reference
implementation called libopus is available under the New BSD
License. The reference has both fixed-point and floating-point
optimizations for low- and high-end devices, with SIMD
optimizations on platforms that support them. All known software
patents that cover Opus are licensed under royalty-free terms. Opus is widely used as the
voice-over-IP (VoIP) codec in applications such as WhatsApp and the PlayStation 4.

PlayStation 4 – The original PlayStation 4 console with a DualShock 4 controller ●

PlayStation 4 at E3 2013

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Features
Opus supports constant and variable bitrate encoding
from 6 kbit/s to 510 kbit/s (or up to 256 kbit/s per
channel for multi-channel tracks), frame sizes from
2.5 ms to 60 ms, and five sampling rates from 8 kHz
(with 4 kHz bandwidth) to 48 kHz (with 20 kHz
bandwidth, the human hearing range). An Opus stream
can support up to 255 audio channels, and it allows
channel coupling between channels in groups of two
using mid-side coding.
Possible bitrate and latency
combinations compared with other
Opus has very short latency (26.5 ms using the default
audio formats
20 ms frames and default application setting), which
makes it suitable for real-time applications such as
telephony, Voice over IP and videoconferencing; research by Xiph led to the CELT codec,
which allows the highest quality while maintaining low delay. In any Opus stream, the
bitrate, bandwidth, and delay can be continually varied without introducing any
distortion or discontinuity; even mixing packets from different streams will cause a
smooth change, rather than the distortion common in other codecs. Unlike Vorbis, Opus
does not require large codebooks for each individual file, making it more efficient for
short clips of audio and more resilient.

Voice over IP – Asterisk-based PBX for small business

As an open standard, the algorithms are openly documented, and
a reference implementation (including the source code) is
published. Broadcom and the Xiph.Org Foundation own software
patents on some of the CELT algorithms, and Skype
Technologies/Microsoft

Broadcom Inc. – Headquarters in North San Jose ● An Apple AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi card
that uses a ...
Skype Technologies – A Skype phone manufactured by SMC Networks (c. 2006) ● Skype
lounge at CES 2012

3/29
own some on the SILK algorithms; each offers a royalty-free
perpetual for use with Opus, reserving only the right to make
use of their patents to defend against infringement suits of
third parties. Qualcomm, Huawei,

Qualcomm – Headquarters
Huawei – Headquarters in Shenzhen, Guangdong ● In
Voorburg, Netherlands
France Telecom, and Ericsson

Orange S.A. – Orange Marine operates cable-laying ships ● As a result

of deregulation, Orange ...
Ericsson – Ericsson's headquarters in Kista, Stockholm ● Lars Magnus
Ericsson
have claimed that their patents may apply, which Xiph's legal
counsel denies, and none have pursued any legal action. The
Opus license automatically and retroactively terminates for any
entity that attempts to file a patent suit.

4/29
 Spectrogram of Opus-encoded audio as bitrate rises (~32 to
~160 kbit/s) clearly shows lowpass behavior and better
preservation of the band energy with CELT (compare original,
Vorbis, MP3, AAC).

The Opus format is based on a combination of the full-bandwidth CELT format and the
speech-oriented SILK format, both heavily modified: CELT is based on the modified
discrete cosine transform (MDCT) that most music codecs use, using CELP techniques in
the frequency domain for better prediction, while SILK uses linear predictive coding
(LPC) and an optional Long-Term Prediction filter to model speech. In Opus, both were
modified to support more frame sizes, as well as further algorithmic improvements and
integration, such as using CELT's range encoder for both types. To minimize overhead at
low bitrates, if latency is not as pressing, SILK has support for packing multiple 20 ms
frames together, sharing context and headers; SILK also allows Low Bit-Rate Redundancy
(LBRR) frames, allowing low-quality packet loss recovery. CELT includes both spectral

5/29
replication and noise generation, similar to AAC's SBR and PNS, and can further save bits
by filtering out all harmonics of tonal sounds entirely, then replicating them in the
decoder. Better tone detection is an ongoing project to improve quality.

The format has three different modes: speech, hybrid, and CELT. When compressing
speech, SILK is used for audio frequencies up to 8 kHz. If wider bandwidth is desired, a
hybrid mode uses CELT to encode the frequency range above 8 kHz. The third mode is
pure-CELT, designed for general audio. SILK is inherently VBR and cannot hit a bitrate
target, while CELT can always be encoded to any specific number of bytes, enabling
hybrid and CELT mode when CBR is required.

SILK supports frame sizes of 10, 20, 40 and 60 ms. CELT supports frame sizes of 2.5, 5,
10 and 20 ms. Thus, hybrid mode only supports frame sizes of 10 and 20 ms; frames
shorter than 10 ms will always use CELT mode. A typical Opus packet contains a single
frame, but packets of up to 120 ms are produced by combining multiple frames per
packet. Opus can transparently switch between modes, frame sizes, bandwidths, and
channel counts on a per-packet basis, although specific applications may choose to limit
this.

The reference implementation is written in C and compiles on hardware architectures

with or without a floating-point unit, although floating-point is currently required for
audio bandwidth detection (dynamic switching between SILK, CELT, and hybrid
encoding) and most speed optimizations.

Containers

Opus packets are not self-delimiting, but are designed to be used inside a container of
some sort which supplies the decoder with each packet's length. Opus was originally
specified for encapsulation in Ogg containers, specified as audio/ogg; codecs=opus ,
and for Ogg Opus files the .opus filename extension is recommended. Opus streams are
also supported in Matroska, WebM, MPEG-TS, and MP4.

Alternatively, each Opus packet may be wrapped in a network packet which supplies the
packet length. Opus packets may be sent over an ordered datagram protocol such as RTP.

An optional self-delimited packet format is defined in an appendix to the specification.

This uses one or two additional bytes per packet to encode the packet length, allowing
packets to be concatenated without encapsulation.

Bandwidth and sampling rate

Opus allows the following bandwidths during encoding. Opus compression does not
depend on the input sample rate; timestamps are measured in 48 kHz units even if the
full bandwidth is not used. Likewise, the output sample rate may be freely chosen. For
example, audio can be input at 16 kHz yet be set to encode only narrowband audio.

Audio Effective
Abbreviation bandwidth sample rate

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 NB (narrowband) 4 kHz 8 kHz

MB (medium-band) 6 kHz 12 kHz

WB (wideband) 8 kHz 16 kHz

SWB (super-wideband) 12 kHz 24 kHz

FB (fullband) 20 kHz 48 kHz

History
Opus was proposed for the standardization of a new audio format at the IETF, which was
eventually accepted and granted by the codec working group. It is based on two initially
separate standard proposals from the Xiph.Org Foundation and Skype Technologies S.A.
(now Microsoft). Its main developers are Jean-Marc Valin (Xiph.Org, Octasic, Mozilla
Corporation),

Koen Vos (Skype), and Timothy B. Terriberry (Xiph.Org, Mozilla Corporation). Among
others, Juin-Hwey (Raymond) Chen (Broadcom), Gregory Maxwell (Xiph.Org,
Wikimedia), and Christopher Montgomery

Wikimedia movement – Wikimania 2019 group photograph

Chris Montgomery – Christopher Montgomery (2010).
(Xiph.Org) were also involved.

The development of the CELT part of the format goes back to

thoughts on a successor for Vorbis under the working name
Ghost. As a newer speech codec from the Xiph.Org Foundation,
Opus replaces Xiph's older speech codec Speex, an earlier project of
Jean-Marc Valin. CELT has been worked on since November 2007.

The SILK part has been under development at Skype since January
2007 as the successor of their SVOPC, an internal project to make the
company independent from third-party codecs like iSAC and iLBC and
respective license payments.

In March 2009, Skype suggested the development and standardization of a wideband

audio format within the IETF. Nearly a year passed with much debate on the formation of
an appropriate working group. Representatives of several companies which were taking
part in the standardization of patent-encumbered competing format, including Polycom
and Ericsson—the creators and licensors of G.719—as well as France Télécom, Huawei
and the Orange Labs (department of France Télécom), which were involved in the
creation of G.718, stated objections against the start of the standardization process for a
royalty-free format. (Some of the opponents would later claim patent rights that Xiph
dismissed; see above.) The working group finally formed in February 2010, and even the
corresponding Study Group 16 from the ITU-T pledged to support its work.

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Polycom – Polycom VSX 7000 unit with dual displays. ●
Polycom Digital Tabletop Microphone with mute button
In July 2010, a prototype of a hybrid format was presented that
combined the two proposed format candidates SILK and CELT.
In September 2010, Opus was submitted to the IETF as proposal
for standardization. For a short time the format went under the
name of Harmony before it got its present name in October
2010. At the beginning of February 2011, the bitstream format
was tentatively frozen, subject to last changes. Near the end of
July 2011, Jean-Marc Valin was hired by the Mozilla Corporation
to continue working on Opus.

Finalization (1.0)
In November 2011, the working group issued the last call for changes on the bitstream
format. The bitstream has been frozen since January 8, 2012. On July 2, 2012, Opus was
approved by the IETF for standardization. The reference software entered release
candidate state on August 8, 2012. The final specification was released as RFC 6716 on
September 10, 2012. and versions 1.0 and 1.0.1 of the reference implementation libopus
were released the day after.

On July 11, 2013, libopus 1.0.3 brought bug fixes and a new Surround sound API that
improves channel allocation and quality, especially for LFE.

1.1
On December 5, 2013, libopus 1.1 was released, incorporating overall speed improvements
and significant encoder quality improvements: Tonality estimation boosts bitrate and
quality for previously problematic samples, like harpsichords; automated speech/music
detection improves quality in mixed audio; mid-side stereo reduces the bitrate needs of
many songs; band precision boosting for improved transients; and DC rejection below
3 Hz. Two new VBR modes were added: unconstrained for more consistent quality, and
temporal VBR that boosts louder frames and generally improves quality.

libopus 1.1.1 was released on November 26, 2015, and 1.1.2 on January 12, 2016, both
adding speed optimizations and bug fixes. July 15, 2016 saw the release of version 1.1.3
and includes bug fixes, optimizations, documentation updates and experimental
Ambisonics work.

Ambisonics – The array designed and made by Dr Jonathan

Halliday of Nimbus Records ● Naive single-band in-phase decoder
for a square loudspeaker layout.

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1.2
libopus 1.2 Beta was released on May 24, 2017. libopus 1.2 was released on June 20, 2017.
Improvements brought in 1.2 allow it to create fullband music at bit rates as low as 32
kbit/s, and wideband speech at just 12 kbit/s.

libopus 1.2 includes optional support for the decoder specification changes made in drafts
of RFC 8251, improving the quality of output from such low-rate streams.

1.3
libopus 1.3 was released on October 18, 2018. The Opus 1.3 major release again brings
quality improvements, new features, and bug fixes. Changes since 1.2.x include:

Improvements to voice activity detection (VAD) and speech/music classification

using a recurrent neural network (RNN)
Support for ambisonics coding using channel mapping families 2 and 3
Improvements to stereo speech coding at low bitrate
Using wideband speech encoding down to 9 kb/s (mediumband is no longer used)
Making it possible to use SILK down to bitrates around 5 kb/s
Minor quality improvement on tones
Enabling the spec fixes in RFC 8251 by default
Security/hardening improvements

Notable bug fixes include:

Fixes to the CELT PLC

Bandwidth detection fixes

1.3.1

libopus 1.3.1 was released on April 12, 2019. This Opus 1.3.1 minor release fixes an issue
with the analysis on files with digital silence (all zeros), especially on x87 builds (mostly
affects 32-bit builds). It also includes two new features:

A new OPUS_GET_IN_DTX query to know if the encoder is in DTX mode (last

frame was either a comfort noise frame or not encoded at all)
A new (and still experimental) CMake-based build system that is eventually meant
to replace the VS2015 build system (the autotools one will stay)

Quality comparison and low-latency performance

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Opus has been shown to have
excellent quality, and at higher bit
rates, it turns out to be competitive
with audio formats with much
higher delay, such as HE-AAC and
Vorbis.

In listening tests around 64 kbit/s,

Opus shows superior quality
compared to HE-AAC codecs,
which were previously dominant
due to their use of the patented
spectral band replication (SBR)
technology. In listening tests
Comparison of coding efficiency between Opus and other
around 96 kbit/s, Opus shows popular audio formats
slightly superior quality compared
to AAC and significantly better quality compared to Vorbis and MP3.

Opus has very low algorithmic delay, a necessity for use as part of a low-audio-latency
communication link, which can permit natural conversation, networked music
performances, or lip sync at live events. Total algorithmic delay for an audio format is the
sum of delays that must be incurred in the encoder and the decoder of a live audio stream
regardless of processing speed and transmission speed, such as buffering audio samples
into blocks or frames, allowing for window overlap and possibly allowing for noise-
shaping look-ahead in a decoder and any other forms of look-ahead, or for an MP3
encoder, the use of bit reservoir.

Total one-way latency below 150 ms is the preferred target of most VoIP systems, to
enable natural conversation with turn-taking little affected by delay. Musicians typically
feel in-time with up to around 30 ms audio latency, roughly in accord with the fusion time
of the Haas effect, though matching playback delay of each user's own instrument to the
round-trip latency can also help. It is suggested for lip sync that around 45–100 ms audio
latency may be acceptable.

Opus permits trading-off reduced quality or increased bitrate to achieve an even smaller
algorithmic delay (5.0 ms minimum). While the reference implementation's default Opus
frame is 20.0 ms long, the SILK layer requires a further 5.0 ms lookahead plus 1.5 ms for
resampling, giving a default delay of 26.5 ms. When the CELT layer is active, it requires
2.5 ms lookahead for window overlap to which a matching delay of 4.0 ms is added by
default to synchronize with the SILK layer. If the encoder is instantiated in the special
restricted low delay mode, the 4.0 ms matching delay is removed and the SILK layer is
disabled, permitting the minimal algorithmic delay of 5.0 ms.

Support

10/29
The format and algorithms are openly documented and the reference implementation is
published as free software. Xiph's reference implementation is called libopus and a
package called opus-tools provides command-line encoder and decoder utilities. It is
published under the terms of a BSD-like license. It is written in C and can be compiled for
hardware architectures with or without a floating-point unit. The accompanying
diagnostic tool opusinfo reports detailed technical information about Opus files, including
information on the standard compliance of the bitstream format. It is based on ogginfo
from the vorbis-tools and therefore — unlike the encoder and decoder — is available
under the terms of version 2 of the GPL.

GNU General Public License – Richard Stallman at the launch of the first
draft of the GNU GPLv3 at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.
To his right is Columbia Law Professor Eben Moglen, chairman of the
Software Freedom Law Center. ● Printed GPL statements for consumer
entertainment devices which incorporate GPL components

Implementations
RFC 6716 contains a complete source code for the reference implementation written in C.
RFC 8251 contains errata.

The FFmpeg project has encoder and decoder implementations not derived from the
reference library.

FFmpeg – FFmpeg running on Arch Linux

The libopus reference library has been ported to
both C# and Java as part of a project called
Concentus. These ports sacrifice performance for
the sake of being easily integrated into cross-
platform applications.

Software
Digital Radio Mondiale – a digital radio format for AM frequencies – can broadcast and
receive Opus audio (albeit not recognised in official standard) using Dream software-
defined radio.

The Wikimedia Foundation sponsored a free and open source online JavaScript Opus
encoder for browsers supporting the required HTML5 features.

11/29
Wikimedia Foundation – Executive director Katherine Maher,
2016 ● Wikimedia Foundation servers
Since 2016, WhatsApp has been using Opus as its audio file
format.

Signal switched from Speex to Opus audio codec for better

audio quality in the beginning of 2017.

Operating system support

Most end-user software relies on multimedia frameworks provided by the operating

system. Native Opus codec support is implemented in most major multimedia
frameworks for Unix-like operating systems, including GStreamer, FFmpeg, and Libav
libraries.

Libav – Screenshot of the movie Sintel being played using

the avplay program from the Libav project.
Google added native support for Opus audio playback in
Android 5.0 "Lollipop".

Google – Google's headquarters, the Googleplex ● Larry

Page and Sergey Brin in 2003
Android Lollipop – Android Lollipop home screen with some
stock Google apps
However, it was limited to Opus audio encapsulated in Matroska
containers, such as .mkv and .webm files. Android 7.0
"Nougat" introduced support for Opus audio encapsulated in
.ogg containers. Android 10

Android Nougat – Android 7.1 Nougat home screen ● The updated

notification shade on Nougat
Android 10 – Android 10 home screen with Pixel Launcher
finally added native support for .opus extensions.

Due to the addition of WebRTC support in Apple's WebKit

rendering engine, macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 come with native playback
support for Opus audio encapsulated in Core Audio Format containers.

WebKit – GNOME Web is a major web browser on Linux that uses

WebKitGTK
On Windows 10, version 1607, Microsoft provided native support for Opus
audio encapsulated in Matroska and WebM files. On version 1709, support
for Opus audio encapsulated in .ogg containers was made available through a pre-

12/29
installed add-on called Web Media Extensions. On Windows 10 version 1903,
native support for the .opus container was added. On Windows 8.1

Windows 10 – Screenshot of Windows 10 version 20H2, ... ● The "Task View"

display is a new ...
Windows 8.1 – Default Windows 8.1 start screen. ● Windows 8.1 was
revealed at Build 2013, held ...

and older, third-party decoders, such as LAV Filters, are available to provide
support for the format.

13/29
 Windows macOS Linux Android iOS

Codec Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

support Partial: Win 10 v1607, (Limited Partial: (Limited
1709, 1809 container Android 5, container
Full: Win 10 v1903 support) 6, 7 support)
Full:
Android 10

Container On Windows 10 On Ogg On On iOS

support Anniversary Update macOS (.opus) Android 5: 11:
(1607): High WebM WebM Core
WebM (.webm is not Sierra: (.webm) (.webm) Audio
recognised; requires Core Matroska Matroska Format
pseudo extension) Audio (.mka, (.mka, (.caf)
Matroska (.mka, .mkv) Format .mkv) .mkv)
On Windows 10 Fall (.caf) MPEG- On
Creators Update TS (.ts) Android 7:
(1709) with Web Ogg (.opus
Media Extensions is not
add-on: recognised;
Ogg (.opus is not requires
recognised; requires pseudo
pseudo extension) extension)

On Windows 10 On
October 2018 Update Android
(1809): 10:
WebM (.webm is
recognised officially) Ogg (.opus
is
On Windows 10 May recognised
2019 Update (1903): officially)

Ogg (.opus is
recognised officially)

14/29
 Notes On Windows 10: Only Opus – - Up till Only Opus
- On Anniversary audio in a Android 9, audio in a
Update (1607), limited CAF the CAF
support is available in container filename container
Microsoft Edge (via is extension is
MSE only) and supported. .opus was supported.
Universal Windows not
Platform apps. recognised
Windows Media Player (substitute
does not support Ogg; with a
only WebM and pseudo file
Matroska. extension
- On April 2018 such as
Update (1803) with .ogg or
Web Media .m4a)
Extensions
preinstalled, Microsoft
Edge (EdgeHTML 17)
supports Opus audio
embedded in <audio>
tags.
- Up till October 2018
update (1809), the
filename extension
.opus was not
recognised. (substitute
with a pseudo file
extension such as
.m4a)
On Windows 8.1 and
older:
- Requires installation
of a third-party
multimedia framework,
LAV Filters.

Opus support by different operating systems

Media player support

While support in multimedia frameworks automatically enables Opus support in software

which is built on top of such frameworks, several applications developers made additional
efforts for supporting the Opus audio format in their software. Such support was added to
AIMP, Amarok,

AIMP – AIMP4 interface, using the Bliss Dark skin

Amarok (software) – Clementine: A fork of Amarok 1.4.
cmus, Music Player Daemon, foobar2000, Mpxplay,

MusicBee, SMplayer,

MusicBee – MusicBee 3.4.7628 running on Windows 10

15/29
SMPlayer – SMPlayer Version 19.5 with dark skin Playing
a Video of ... ● SMPlayer 0.6.7 on Windows Vista
VLC media player, Winamp

and Xmplay audio players; Icecast, Airtime (software)

audio streaming software; and Asunder

Airtime (software) – Airtime (software)

Asunder (software) – Asunder 2.9.5 (2019-10) (running on
GNOME with default GTK theme)

audio CD ripper, CDBurnerXP CD burner, FFmpeg, Libav and

MediaCoder media encoding tools. Streaming Icecast radio
trials are live since September 2012 and January 2013.
SteamOS

CDBurnerXP – CDBurnerXP 4
SteamOS – SteamOS
uses Opus or Vorbis for streaming audio.

16/29
Browser support

Opus support is mandatory for WebRTC implementations. Opus is supported in Mozilla

Firefox, Chromium

and Google Chrome, Blink-based Opera,

Google Chrome – Google Chrome running on Windows 10 ● An

early version of Chromium for Linux, ...
Opera (web browser) – Opera 60 displaying the Wikipedia main
page on Windows 10
as well as all browsers for Unix-like systems relying on
GStreamer for multimedia formats support. Although Internet
Explorer will not provide Opus playback natively, support for the
format is built into the Edge browser,

along with VP9, for full WebM support. Safari supports Opus as of
iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra.

VoIP support

Due to its abilities, Opus gained early interest from voice-over-IP (VoIP) software
vendors. Several SIP clients, including Acrobits Softphone, CSipSimple

(via additional plug-in), Empathy (via GStreamer), Jitsi,

Empathy (software) – Empathy (software)

Jitsi – Jitsi ● Video conferencing in Jitsi
Tuenti, Line2 (currently only on iOS), Linphone, Phoner and PhonerLite,
SFLphone, Telephone, Mumble, Discord and TeamSpeak 3 voice chat
software also support Opus. TrueConf supports Opus in its VoIP products.
Asterisk lacked builtin Opus support for legal reasons, but a third-party patch
was available for download and official support via a binary blob was added

17/29
in September 2016. Tox P2P videoconferencing software uses
Opus exclusively. Classified-ads distributed messaging app sends
raw opus frames inside TLS socket in its VoIP implementation.

Tuenti – Founder Zaryn Dentzel in 2008

Opus is widely used as the voice codec in WhatsApp, which has
over 1.5 billion users worldwide. WhatsApp uses Opus at 8–16 kHz
sampling rates, with the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP). The
PlayStation 4 video game console also uses the CELT/Opus codec
for its PlayStation Network system party chat. It is also used in the
Zoom videoconferencing app.

Hardware
Since version 3.13, Rockbox enables Opus playback on supported portable media players,
including some products from the iPod series by Apple, devices made by iriver, Archos
and Sandisk, and on Android devices using "Rockbox as an Application". All recent
Grandstream IP phones support Opus audio both for encoding and decoding. OBihai
OBi1062, OBi1032 and OBi1022 IP phones all support Opus. Recent BlueSound wireless
speakers support Opus playback. Devices running Hiby OS, like the Hiby R3, are capable
of decoding Opus files natively.

Many broadcast IP codecs include Opus such as those manufactured by Comrex, GatesAir
and Tieline.

See also

This article contains quotations from the Opus Codec website, which is
available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) license.

External links

Revision History
SUMMARY / RELATED TOPICS

Opus (audio format)

Opus is a lossy audio coding format developed by the Xiph. Org Foundation and
standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force, several blind listening tests have
ranked it higher-quality than any other standard audio format at any given bitrate until

18/29
transparency is reached, including MP3. Opus combines the speech-oriented LPC-based
SILK algorithm and the lower-latency MDCT-based CELT algorithm, bitrate, audio
bandwidth and algorithm can all be adjusted seamlessly in each frame. Opus has the low
algorithmic delay necessary for use as part of a real-time communication link, its delay is
exceptionally low compared to competing codecs. As an open format standardized
through RFC 6716, the reference has both fixed-point and floating-point optimizations for
low- and high-end devices. All known software patents that cover Opus are licensed under
royalty-free terms. Opus is used as the voice-over-IP codec in applications such as
WhatsApp and the PlayStation 4. Opus supports constant and variable bitrate encoding
from 6 kbit s to 510 kbit s, an Opus stream can support up to 255 audio channels.

Opus has short latency, in any Opus stream, the bitrate. Opus does not require large
codebooks for each individual file, the algorithms are documented, and a reference
implementation is published. Broadcom and the Xiph, each offers a royalty-free perpetual
for use with Opus, reserving only the right to make use of their patents to defend against
infringement suits of third parties. Ericsson have claimed that their patents may apply,
the Opus license automatically and retroactively terminates for any entity that attempts to
file a patent suit. The Opus format is based on a combination of the full-bandwidth CELT
format and the speech-oriented SILK format, such as using CELT's range encoder for both
types. SILK has support for packing multiple 20 ms frames together, CELT includes both
spectral replication and noise generation. Better tone detection is an ongoing project to
improve quality. The format has three different modes speech, SILK is used for audio
frequencies up to 8 kHz. If wider bandwidth is desired, a hybrid mode uses CELT to
encode the frequency range above 8 kHz.

The third mode is pure-CELT, designed for general audio. SILK is inherently VBR and
cannot hit a bitrate target, SILK supports frame sizes of 10. CELT supports frame sizes of
2 5, thus, hybrid mode only supports frame sizes of 10 and 20 ms; frames shorter than 10
ms will always use CELT mode. A typical Opus packet contains a single frame, Opus can
transparently switch between modes. The reference implementation is written in C and
compiles on hardware architectures with or without a floating-point unit, Opus packets
are not self-delimiting, but are designed to be used inside a container of some sort which
supplies the decoder with each packet's length. Opus was specified for encapsulation in
Ogg containers, Opus filename extension is recommended. Opus streams are supported in
Matroska, each Opus packet may be wrapped in a network packet which supplies the
packet length. Opus packets may be sent over an ordered datagram protocol such as RTP.
An optional self-delimited packet format is defined in an appendix to the specification.

This uses one or two additional bytes per packet to encode the packet length, Opus allows
the following bandwidths during encoding. Opus compression does not depend on the
input sample rate, the output sample rate may be chosen. For example, audio can be input
at 16 kHz yet be set to encode only narrowband audio. Opus was proposed for the
standardization of a new audio format at the IETF, it is based on two separate standard
proposals from the Xiph. Org Foundation and Skype Technologies S A. Its main
developers are Jean-Marc Valin, Koen Vos, Christopher Montgomery were involved. The
development of the CELT part of the format goes back to thoughts on a successor for

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Vorbis under the working name Ghost. As a newer speech codec from the Xiph, Opus
replaces Xiph's older speech codec Speex. CELT has been worked on since November
2007. The SILK part has been under development at Skype since January 2007 as the
successor of their SVOPC, Skype suggested the development and standardization of a
wideband audio format within the IETF.

Nearly a year passed with much debate on the formation of an appropriate working group.
Representatives of several companies which were taking part in the standardization of
patent-encumbered competing format, the working group formed. A prototype of a hybrid
format was presented that combined the two proposed format candidates SILK and CELT,
Opus was submitted to the IETF as proposal for standardization. For a short time the
format went under the name of Harmony before it got its present name, the bitstream
format was tentatively frozen, subject to last changes. Jean-Marc Valin was hired by the
Mozilla Corporation to continue working on Opus, the working group issued the last call
for changes on the bitstream format. The bitstream has been frozen since January 8, Opus
was approved by the IETF for standardization. The reference software entered release
candidate state, the final specification was released as RFC 6716. And versions 1 0 and 1 0
1 of the reference implementation libopus were released the day after, libopus 1 0 3
brought bug fixes and a new Surround sound API that improves channel allocation and
quality.

Mid-side stereo reduces the bitrate needs of many songs, two new VBR modes were added
unconstrained for more consistent quality. Libopus 1 1 1 was released and 1 1 2 both
adding speed optimizations and bug fixes, 2016 saw the release of version 1 1 3 and
includes bug fixes. Libopus 1 2 Beta was released, libopus 1 2 was released. Improvements
brought in 1 2 allow it to create fullband music at bit rates as low as 32 kbit s, libopus 1 2
includes optional support for the decoder specification changes made in drafts of RFC
8251. Libopus 1 3 was released, the Opus 1 3 major release again brings quality
improvements. Changes since 1 2 x include. Notable bug fixes include. Libopus 1 3 1 was
released, this Opus 1 3 1 minor release fixes an issue with the analysis on files with digital
silence. It includes two new features. Opus has been shown to have excellent quality, Opus
shows superior quality compared to HE-AAC codecs. Opus shows superior quality
compared to AAC and better quality compared to Vorbis and MP3.

Opus has low algorithmic delay, total algorithmic delay for an audio format is the sum of
delays that must be incurred in the encoder and the decoder of a live audio stream
regardless of processing speed and transmission speed. Total one-way latency below 150
ms is the preferred target of most VoIP systems, musicians feel in-time with up to around
30 ms audio latency. It is suggested for lip sync that around 45 100 ms audio latency may
be acceptable. Opus permits trading-off reduced quality or increased bitrate to achieve an
smaller algorithmic delay. While the reference implementation's default Opus frame is 20
0 ms long, when the CELT layer is active, it requires 2 5 ms lookahead for window overlap
to which a matching delay of 4 0 ms is added by default to synchronize with the SILK
layer. If the encoder is instantiated in the special restricted low delay mode, the format

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and algorithms are documented and the reference implementation is published as free
software. Xiph's reference implementation is called libopus and a package called opus-
tools provides command-line encoder and decoder utilities.

It is published under the terms of a BSD-like license. It is written in C and can be

compiled for hardware architectures with or without a floating-point unit. The
accompanying diagnostic tool opusinfo reports detailed technical information about Opus
files, it is based on ogginfo from the vorbis-tools and therefore. RFC 6716 contains a
complete source code for the reference implementation written in C RFC 8251 contains
errata. The FFmpeg project has encoder and decoder implementations not derived from
the reference library. The libopus reference library has been ported to both C and Java as
part of a project called Concentus. These ports sacrifice performance for the sake of being
integrated into cross-platform applications. Digital Radio Mondiale a digital radio format
for AM frequencies can broadcast and receive Opus audio using Dream software-defined
radio. The Wikimedia Foundation sponsored a free and open source online JavaScript
Opus encoder for browsers supporting the required HTML5 features, WhatsApp has been
using Opus as its audio file format.

Signal switched from Speex to Opus audio codec for better audio quality in the beginning
of 2017. Most end-user software relies on multimedia frameworks provided by the
operating system. Native Opus codec support is implemented in most major multimedia
frameworks for Unix-like operating systems, Google added native support for Opus audio
playback in Android 5 0 Lollipop. It was limited to Opus audio encapsulated in Matroska
containers, mkv and. Webm files. Android 7 0 Nougat introduced support for Opus audio
encapsulated in. Ogg containers. Android 10 added native support for. Opus extensions,
macOS High Sierra and iOS 11 come with native playback support for Opus audio
encapsulated in Core Audio Format containers. Microsoft provided native support for
Opus audio encapsulated in Matroska and WebM files, support for Opus audio
encapsulated in. Ogg containers was made available through a pre-installed add-on called
Web Media Extensions. On Windows 10 version 1903, native support for the. Opus
container was added.

On Windows 8 1 and older, third-party decoders, such as LAV Filters, are available to
provide support for the format. While support in multimedia frameworks automatically
enables Opus support in software which is built on top of such frameworks, such support
was added to AIMP. Streaming Icecast radio trials are live since September 2012 and
January 2013. SteamOS uses Opus or Vorbis for streaming audio. Opus support is
mandatory for WebRTC implementations. Opus is supported in Mozilla Firefox, support
for the format is built into the Edge browser. Safari supports Opus as of iOS 11 and macOS
High Sierra, Opus gained early interest from voice-over-IP software vendors. And
TeamSpeak 3 voice chat software support Opus. TrueConf supports Opus in its VoIP
products. Asterisk lacked builtin Opus support for legal reasons, tox P2P
videoconferencing software uses Opus. Classified-ads distributed messaging app sends
raw opus frames inside TLS socket in its VoIP implementation. Opus is used as the voice
codec in WhatsApp, WhatsApp uses Opus at 8 16 kHz sampling rates.

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The PlayStation 4 video game console uses the CELT Opus codec for its PlayStation
Network system party chat. It is used in the Zoom videoconferencing app, Rockbox
enables Opus playback on supported portable media players. All recent Grandstream IP
phones support Opus audio both for encoding and decoding, and OBi1022 IP phones all
support Opus. Recent BlueSound wireless speakers support Opus playback, are capable of
decoding Opus files natively. Many broadcast IP codecs include Opus such as those
manufactured by Comrex.

Stop the Bans

Stop the Bans was a series of rallies held in the United States, supporting organizations
include the American Civil Liberties Union. Several states enacted laws that caused
abortion bans that pro-choice supporters considered extreme, these states were Alabama
and Ohio. Missouri and Louisiana were considering similar laws at the time. Laws
regarding abortion in Michigan were considered extreme. Protesters at the Stop the Bans
rallies were concerned about women's rights to choose being eroded. Demonstrators at
the rallies felt that politicians should not be making medical decisions about women's
bodies. Demonstrations were organized in all fifty U S states. New York saw protests in
Manhattan and Mineola. Florida saw demonstrations in Fort Myers and St Petersburg,
there were protests in Annapolis and Towson. There was a rally held in El Paso at the
County Courthouse. Participating cities in Iowa included Cedar Rapids and Des Moines,
there were protests in Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. Michigan saw demonstrations in Ann
Arbor, there were demonstrations in Jefferson City and St Louis.

Wisconsin saw protests in Appleton and Eau Claire. California saw demonstrations in Los
Angeles, there were protests in Boulder and Fort Collins. An event was planned in Coeur
d'Alene, oregon saw demonstrations in Eugene and Portland. There were demonstrations
in Seattle, a protest took place in Laramie.

Lord Alfred Hayes

Best known for his appearances in the United States with the World Wrestling Federation
between 1982 and 1995 where he was known as Lord Alfred Hayes. Hayes was
distinguished by his Masterpiece Theatre diction and Oxford accent, Hayes attended the
North-Western Polytechnic. He attained a black belt in judo before training as a wrestler
under Sir Atholl Oakeley, he appeared on the British circuit from the late 1950s to the late
1960s. He was a blue-eye who battled all of the heavyweight heels of his time, he traded
on his judo background. His most famous period was when he fought for Paul Lincoln
Promotions as The White Angel, death won, and unmasked Hayes. Hayes would make a
homecoming tour of the United Kingdom, he remained a heel and fought his way through
most of his former tag partners. It was explained that Hayes had inherited the dreaded
American style in his adopted country. Hayes went to wrestle in America, he defeated
Dory Funk Jr for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship but the decision was
changed when Funk's father Dory Funk Sr attacked the referee after the match.

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The official disqualified Funk Jr, thus inadvertently returning the title to the champion.
Hayes wrestled in brief stints for his future employer the WWWF, Hayes turned heel and
adopted the gimmick of the aristocratic Lord Alfred Hayes. Hayes adopted the role as a
manager after he had decided wrestling was taking a toll on his knees, Hayes became a
manager in the AWA. He became notorious for delivering TV interviews in a sneering
aristocratic English accent, Hayes reverted to babyface and began a feud with fellow
manager Bobby Heenan after an incident where Super Destroyer II fired Hayes and
replaced him with Heenan. Hayes remained a heel, Hayes began managing Bobby Jaggers
while his regular manager Oliver Humperdink was busy acting as Dusty Rhodes' servant
for thirty days When Rooster Humperdink. Hayes worked again as a heel manager for
Robinson in Lutte Internationale in the early 1980s during Robinson's reign with the
Canadian International Heavyweight Championship. Hayes managed Masked Superstar,
around this time.

Hayes joined the World Wrestling Federation, Hayes started as a road agent but started
doing television for McMahon as well. He was a sidekick to Vince McMahon on Tuesday
Night Titans, Hayes became familiar to WWF viewers as a light-spoken Englishman with
an uproarious laugh. Hayes was the victim of several slapsticks, he would become the
introductory announcer on Prime Time Wrestling. He was once taken hostage from the
show by Sgt Slaughter and his Iraqi allies. Hayes appeared at WrestleMania where he was
the backstage commentator introducing matches and pre-recorded comments by the
wrestlers. As Hayes was announcing the upcoming WWF Women's Championship match
to the TV audience, Moolah would kiss Hayes full on the lips during an episode of
Tuesday Night Titans. He served as commentator alongside Jesse The Body Ventura and
the Mistress of the Dark Elvira for the Los Angeles portion of the event. This was the only
WWF pay-per-view on which Hayes commentated on the main event, Hayes appeared
alongside Gorilla Monsoon hyping the event.

Hayes served as ring announcer for early tapings of WWF Wrestling Challenge. As the
WWF's video library began to expand, Hayes became a mainstay in many of the releases,
another great segment on the tape collections took place on the Supertape series when
Lord Alfred Hayes would voice The Call of the Action in which a match or two would be
slowed down and each manoeuvre named and explained. It was an example of how as late
as 1990 or so, he appeared on the video releases of WrestleMania VII where he had a
corny Love Story-like part regarding the reunion of Macho Man Randy Savage and his
former manager Miss Elizabeth following Savage's career-ending loss to The Ultimate
Warrior. He appeared on some early episodes of Monday Night RAW. Wrestlemania VII
saw the last Wrestlemania match called by Hayes when he joined Monsoon in calling the
Intercontinental Championship match between champion Mr Perfect and challenger the
Big Boss Man. This was due to Monsoon's co-commentator for the event Bobby Heenan
being Perfect's manager at the time and he was required to be at ringside.

Hayes was the color commentator for Bret Hart's win over Ric Flair at a house show in
Saskatoon, Lord Alfred appeared on many episodes of Saturday Night's Main Event. One
skit involved Hayes and Okerlund taking a safari through Africa, Hayes is known for
having spoken the phrase Promotional consideration paid for by the following. At

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WrestleMania fan access, fans would ask him to repeat his line, Hayes maintained his
reserved mannerisms. He was jokingly referred to by Hulk Hogan as Awful Alfred during
interviews. It was during this time that his hearty uproarious laugh would become his
trademark, he would absorb criticism and insults from heel commentators such as
Heenan and The Honky Tonk Man. Toward the end of his WWF run he shifted to a more
heelish style, his final famous WWF promo took place. Hayes' various roles for the WWF
included co-hosting All American Wrestling with Gene Okerlund and doing commentary
for shows at Madison Square Garden with Gorilla Monsoon sporadically from 1984 1990.

Hayes' most common broadcast partner was Sean Mooney, Hayes and Mooney
participated in comedic skits together. Hayes was the announcer for Bobby Heenan's The
Bobby Heenan Show, he assisted Edouard Carpentier, Raymond Rougeau and Guy
Hauray as a commentator on the French-language broadcasts of the WWF on RDS in the
province of Quebec and throughout Canada. Hayes would appear as a full-on heel
commentator alongside Mick Karch, Hayes retired from the WWF after enduring a series
of pay cuts. McMahon and the rest of the office were upset at the news as Hayes was
someone that they didn't want to lose. Around this time he was involved in a serious car
accident. As a result of the accident he suffered gangrene and part of a leg had to be
amputated. Hayes was a wheelchair user for the remainder of his life. He spent the last
few years of his life in a retirement home, he suffered a series of strokes and died at his
home in Texas. He was 76 years old, WWE paid tribute to Hayes with a ten-bell salute and
a video memorial.

His voice-over was a part of the broadcast. Hayes was named to the WWE Hall of Fame as
part of the Legacy Wing.

Car suspension

Suspension is the system of tires, suspension systems must support both road holding
handling and ride quality. The tuning of suspensions involves finding the right
compromise. It is important for the suspension to keep the road wheel in contact with the
road surface as much as possible, the suspension protects the vehicle itself and any cargo
or luggage from damage and wear. The design of front and rear suspension of a car may
be different. An early form of suspension on ox-drawn carts had the platform swing on
iron chains attached to the wheeled frame of the carriage. This system remained the basis
for most suspension systems until the turn of the 19th century, no modern automobiles
have used the thoroughbrace suspension system. By 1750, leaf springs began appearing
on certain types of carriage, such as the Landau. By the middle of the 19th century,
elliptical springs would begin to be used on carriages. Automobiles were developed as
self-propelled versions of horse-drawn vehicles, their suspension was not well suited to
the higher speeds permitted by the internal combustion engine.

The first workable spring-suspension required advanced metallurgical knowledge and

skill, obadiah Elliott registered the first patent for a spring-suspension vehicle. Most
British horse carriages were equipped with springs, these were made of low-carbon steel
and took the form of multiple layer leaf springs. Leaf springs have been around since the
early Egyptians. Ancient military engineers used leaf springs in the form of bows to power

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their siege engines, the use of leaf springs in catapults was refined and made to work
years. Springs were not only made of metal, horse-drawn carriages and Ford Model T
used this system, and it is still used today in larger vehicles. Leaf springs were the first
modern suspension system, the British steel springs were not well-suited for use on
America's rough roads of the time. Mors of Paris first fitted an automobile with shock
absorbers, Henri Fournier won the prestigious Paris-to-Berlin race. Fournier's superior
time was 11 hrs 46 min 10 sec, coil springs first appeared on a production vehicle in the
Brush Runabout made by the Brush Motor Company Today.

Leyland Motors used torsion bars in a suspension system, independent front suspension
was pioneered on Lancia Lambda, and became more common in mass market cars from
1932. Today, most cars have independent suspension on all four wheels, a new passive
suspension component, the inerter, was invented by Malcolm C Smith. This has the ability
to increase the effective inertia of wheel suspension using a geared flywheel, but without
adding significant mass. It was employed in Formula One in secrecy, any four-wheel-drive
vehicle needs suspension for both the front wheels and rear wheels. A variety of beam
axles and independent suspensions are used. For rear-wheel drive cars, rear suspension
has many constraints, four-wheel drive has suspensions that are similar for both the front
and rear wheels. Henry Ford's Model T used a torque tube to restrain this force, the
torque tube surrounded the true driveshaft and exerted the force to its ball joint at the
extreme rear of the transmission. A similar method was used in the late 1930s by Buick
and by Hudson's bathtub car, was the most popular rear suspension system used in
American cars from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The system uses longitudinal leaf springs attached both forward and behind the
differential of the live axle. These springs transmit torque to the frame. Although scorned
by many European car makers of the time, the dynamic defects of this design were
suppressed by the enormous weight of U S passenger vehicles before the implementation
of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard. Another Frenchman invented the De
Dion tube, like true independent rear suspension, this employs two universal joints. They
are tied by a yoke that goes around the differential, this method has had little use in the
United States. Its use around 1900 was due to the poor quality of tires, it made them last
longer. Rear-wheel drive vehicles today use a complex fully-independent, the spring rate
is a component in setting the vehicle's ride height or its location in the suspension stroke.
When a spring is compressed or stretched, the spring rate or spring constant of a spring is
the change in the force it exerts. Will have heavier springs to compensate for the
additional weight that would otherwise collapse a vehicle to the bottom of its travel.

Heavier springs are used in performance applications, springs that are too hard or too
soft. Vehicles that experience suspension loads heavier than normal, this allows the
vehicle to perform properly under a heavy load. Riding in an empty truck meant for
carrying loads can be uncomfortable for passengers, a racecar would be described as
having heavy springs. Although we say they both have heavy springs, a luxury car or
passenger bus would be described as having soft springs. Vehicles with worn-out or
damaged springs ride lower to the ground, performance vehicles can sometimes have
spring rate requirements other than vehicle weight and load. Wheel rate is the effective

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spring rate when measured at the wheel, wheel rate is equal to or less than the spring rate.
Springs are mounted on control arms, swing arms or some other pivoting suspension
member, where the spring rate was calculated to be 500 lbs inch. If the spring moved 0 75
in, the wheel rate is calculated by taking the square of the ratio times the spring rate.

Squaring the ratio is, because the ratio has two effects on the wheel rate the ratio applies
to both the force and the distance traveled. Wheel rate on independent suspension is
straightforward. However, special consideration must be taken with some non-
independent suspension designs. Take the case of the straight axle. When viewed from the
front or rear, because the wheels are not independent, when viewed from the side under
acceleration or braking. The result is that the effective wheel rate under cornering is
different from what it is under acceleration and braking. This variation in wheel rate may
be minimised by locating the spring as close to the wheel as possible. Wheel rates are
summed and compared with the sprung mass of a vehicle to create a ride rate and the
corresponding suspension natural frequency in ride. This can be useful in creating a
metric for suspension stiffness and travel requirements for a vehicle. Roll rate is
analogous to a vehicle's ride rate, it is expressed as torque per degree of roll of the vehicle
sprung mass.

It is influenced by factors including but not limited to vehicle sprung mass, the roll rate of
a vehicle can. The roll rate of a vehicle does not change the total amount of weight transfer
on the vehicle, the higher the roll rate on an axle of a vehicle. Roll couple percentage is a
simplified method of describing lateral load transfer distribution front to rear, it is the
effective wheel rate. It is adjusted through the use of anti-roll bars, weight transfer during
cornering. The total amount of weight transfer is only affected by four factors the distance
between wheel centers, the speed at which weight transfer occurs, as well as through
which components it transfers. The weight transfer is said to be elastic, unsprung weight
transfer is calculated based on weight of the vehicle's components that are not supported
by the springs. This includes tires, these components are assumed to be connected to a
vehicle with zero sprung weight. They are put through the same dynamic loads. The
weight transfer for cornering in the front would be equal to the total unsprung front
weight times the G-force times the front unsprung center of gravity height divided by the
front track width.

The same is true for the rear. Sprung weight transfer is the weight transferred by only the
weight of the vehicle resting on its springs, calculating this requires knowing the vehicle's
sprung weight. Calculating the front and rear sprung weight transfer will require knowing
the roll couple percentage. The roll axis is the line through the front and rear roll centers
that the vehicle rolls around during cornering. The distance from this axis to the sprung
center of gravity height is the roll moment arm length. The total sprung weight transfer is
equal to the G-force times the sprung weight times the roll moment arm length divided by
the effective track width. The front sprung weight transfer is calculated by multiplying the
roll couple percentage times the total sprung weight transfer. The rear is the total minus
the front transfer. Jacking forces are the sum of the vertical force components
experienced by suspension links, if the roll center is above ground, or compress it. The
more jacking force is experienced.

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Travel is the measure of distance from the bottom of the suspension stroke to the top of
the suspension stroke. Bottoming or lifting a wheel can cause serious control problems,
bottoming can be caused by the suspension. Control problems caused by lifting a wheel
are less severe, use straps called limiting straps to limit the suspensions' downward travel
to a point within safe limits for the linkages and shock absorbers. Since these trucks are
intended to travel over rough terrain at high speeds, the suspension bushings would take
all the force. A limiting strap is a simple strap, the opposite of this is the bump-stop,
which protects the suspension and the vehicle from the violent bottoming of the
suspension. Will experience a hard shock when the suspension contacts the bottom of the
frame or body, factory vehicles come with plain rubber nubs to absorb the worst of the
forces. A desert race vehicle, which must absorb far higher impact forces, these are
miniature shock absorbers that are fixed to the vehicle in a location.

Because a rubber bump-stop is considered a last-ditch emergency insulator for the

occasional accidental bottoming of the suspension, damping is the control of motion or
oscillation. This may vary, intentionally or unintentionally. Like spring rate, the optimal
damping for comfort may be less, damping controls the travel speed and resistance of the
vehicle's suspension. An undamped car will oscillate up and down. With proper damping
levels, the car will settle back to a normal state in a minimal amount of time. Most
damping in modern vehicles can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the resistance
to fluid flow in the shock absorber. See dependent and independent below. Camber
changes due to wheel travel, a tire wears and brakes best at -1 to -2 of camber from
vertical. Depending on the tire and the road surface, small changes in camber and rear.
Some racecars are tuned with -2 to -7 camber, too much camber will result in the decrease
of braking performance due to a reduced contact patch size through excessive camber
variation in suspension geometry.

The amount of camber change in bump is determined by the instantaneous front view
swing arm length of suspension geometry, roll center height is a product of suspension
instant center heights and is a useful metric in analyzing weight transfer effects. But the
height of the roll center is significant when considering the amount of jacking forces
experienced. Due to the fact that the wheel and tire's motion is constrained by the
vehicle's suspension links, the instant center for any wheel package can be found by
following imaginary lines drawn through suspension links to their intersection point. A
component of the tire's force vector points from the contact patch of the tire through
instant center. The larger this component is, the less suspension motion will occur, if the
resultant of the vertical load on the tire and the lateral force generated by it points directly
into the instant center. All weight transfer at that end of the vehicle will be geometric in
nature. This is key information used in finding the force-based roll center as well, the
instant centers are more important to the handling of the vehicle.

Anti-dive and anti-squat are percentages that indicate the degree to which the front dives
under braking, they can be thought of as the counterparts for braking and acceleration.
The main reason for the difference is due to the different design goals between front and
rear suspension, the method of determining anti-dive or anti-squat depends on whether
suspension linkages react to the torque of braking and accelerating. The suspension

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linkages do not react, but with outboard brakes and a swing-axle driveline, it is first
necessary to determine the tangent of the angle between a line drawn. The percentage of
braking effort at the front wheels must be known, multiply the tangent by the front wheel
braking effort percentage and divide by the ratio of the center of gravity height to the
wheelbase. A value of 50 would mean, that half of the weight transfer to the front wheels,
the same procedure is followed, but using the wheel center instead of contact patch
center. Forward acceleration anti-squat is calculated in a similar manner and with the
same relationship between percentage and weight transfer.

Anti-squat values of 100 and more are used in drag racing, higher values of anti-squat
cause wheel hop during braking. It is important to note, this does not mean that the
suspension is incapable of carrying additional loads during an episode of braking. No
binding of the suspension is to be implied. In some modern cars, flexibility is in rubber
bushings, which are subject to decay over time. For high-stress suspensions, such as off-
road vehicles, polyurethane bushings are available, which offer more longevity under
greater stresses. However, due to weight and cost considerations, structures are not made
more rigid than necessary. Some vehicles exhibit detrimental vibrations involving the
flexing of structural parts, flexibility of structures, such as frames and suspension links.
The flexibility of wire wheels contributed to their popularity in times when cars had less
advanced suspensions. Automobiles can be laden with luggage, this loading will cause a
vehicle's tail to sink downwards. Maintaining a steady chassis level is essential to
achieving the proper handling that the vehicle was designed for.

Oncoming drivers can be blinded by the headlight beam. Self-levelling suspension

counteracts this by inflating cylinders in the suspension to lift the chassis higher, the
weight of suspension components is unimportant. But at high frequencies caused by road
surface roughness, except that the suspension is related to whether the brakes and
differential are sprung. This is the main functional advantage of aluminum wheels over
steel wheels. Aluminum suspension parts have been used in production cars, designs
differ as to how much space they take up, and where it is located. It is accepted, that
MacPherson struts are the most compact arrangement for front-engined vehicles, inboard
brakes are avoided more due to space considerations than to cost. The suspension
attachment must match the frame design in geometry, certain modern vehicles have
height adjustable suspension in order to improve aerodynamics and fuel efficiency.
Modern formula cars that have exposed wheels and suspension use streamlined tubing
rather than simple round tubing for their suspension arms to reduce aerodynamic drag,
place the spring damper unit inboard and out of the air stream to further reduce air
resistance.

Production methods improve, but cost is always a factor. The continued use of the solid
rear axle, most conventional suspensions use passive springs to absorb impacts and
dampers to control spring motions. Some notable exceptions are hydropneumatic
systems, which can be treated as an integrated unit of gas spring and damping
components, a number of different types of each have been used. Traditional springs and
dampers are referred to as passive suspensions, the majority of land vehicles are
suspended by steel springs of these types. Automakers are aware of the inherent

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limitations of steel springs, shock absorbers damp out the motions of a vehicle up and
down on its springs. They must damp out much of the wheel bounce when the unsprung
weight of a wheel, if suspension is externally controlled, it is a semi-active or active
suspension. A hydropneumatic Citroën will know how far off the ground the car is
supposed to be, this type of suspension will not compensate for body roll due to cornering.

Citroën's system adds about 1 to the cost of the car versus passive steel springs. Semi-
active suspensions include devices, such as air springs and switchable shock absorbers,
toyota introduced switchable shock absorbers in the 1983 Soarer. Delphi sells shock
absorbers filled with a magneto-rheological fluid, coupled with the means to change the
behavior of vehicle suspension in real time to directly control the motion of the car. Lotus
Cars developed several prototypes from 1982 onwards, nissan introduced low-bandwidth
active suspension circa 1990 as an option that added an extra 20 to the price of luxury
models. Citroën has developed several active suspension models, uses linear electric
motors in place of hydraulic or pneumatic actuators that have been used up until.
Mercedes introduced an active suspension system called Active Body Control in its top-of-
the-line Mercedes-Benz CL-Class, several electromagnetic suspensions have been
developed for vehicles. The electromagnetic suspension developed by prof.

Laurentiu Encica, the new Michelin wheel with embedded suspension functioning on an
electric motor is similar. With the help of a control system, the applications of these
advanced suspensions are constrained by cost.

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