OpusEncoderConfig `signal` and `application` parameters

Category: Multimedia
Type: Chromium catches up
Status: Enabled by default (Chrome 126)
Intent stage: None

Breaking change: No
Enterprise impact: None
Spec maturity: Unknown status
Web Platform Tests: Yes

WPT details: Existing WPTs will be modified to cover this feature: https://wpt.fyi/results/webcodecs/audio-encoder-config.https.any.html

Summary

`OpusEncoderConfig.signal` and `OpusEncoderConfig.application` were recently added to the WebCodecs spec [1]. Both parameters are mapped directly to implementation specific encoder knobs. These allow web authors to provide hints as to what type of data is being encoded, and in which context the data is being used. `signal` can be one of {"auto", "music", "voice"}. It configures the encoder for the best performance in encoding the specified type of data. `application` can be one of {"voip", "audio", "lowdelay"}. It configures the encoder to favor speech intelligibility, faithful reproduction of the original input, or minimal latency. [1] : https://github.com/w3c/webcodecs/pull/777

Standards & signals

Specification: https://w3c.github.io/webcodecs/opus_codec_registration.html#dom-opusencoderconfig-signal
Firefox: Positive — Spec change approved by Mozilla representative. For an almost identical feature, Mozilla said the "request for standards position" was not warranted, as they were active spec participants: https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/837#issuecomment-1614666364
Safari: No signal — Review from Safari was requested on the spec change.
Web developers: No signals

Ecosystem

Web Platform Tests: https://wpt.fyi/results/?q=webcodecs%2Faudio-encoder-config
Chrome Platform Showcase: https://chrome-platform-showcase.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
GenDN reference: https://gendn.paulkinlan-ea.deno.net/features
chrome.dev demos search: https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Achrome.dev+OpusEncoderConfig%20%60signal%60%20and%20%60application%60%20parameters
MDN Web Docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/search?q=OpusEncoderConfig%20%60signal%60%20and%20%60application%60%20parameters
Baseline status: https://webstatus.dev/?q=OpusEncoderConfig%20%60signal%60%20and%20%60application%60%20parameters

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