Global IP Sound (GIPS), issued a press release today announcing that Skype, the peer-to-peer Internet calling service, is leveraging GIPS VoiceEngine to offer its customers improved voice processing and quality.

“Skype is proving that Voice over IP quality can be better than the public switched telephone network. With over 19 million downloads since the launch of the beta version, this application has clearly launched the market for Voice over IP and set the quality bar,” said Gary Hermansen, President and CEO of GIPS. “We are very pleased with the market response in respect to the voice quality that Skype delivers.”

GIPS VoiceEngine handles voice-related tasks for VoIP soft clients in both personal computer (PC) and personal digital assistant (PDA) environments.

“We chose GIPS for its best of breed quality when we created Skype software,” said Niklas Zennström, CEO and co-founder of Skype. “The ability to give users voice quality that meets and exceeds their expectations is a key component of our success, and our alliance with GIPS is an important element in our growth.”

GIPS VoiceEngine, which is fully customizable, simplifies the integration of speech codecs, communication with sound cards, real-time performance, RTP protocol handling and other voice-related tasks to deliver superior quality and minimal latency for real-time communications over the Internet. The solution is compatible with all IP telephony standards (G.711, SIP, H.323, etc.) to allow manufacturers integrate both standard and customer-specific codecs quickly and easily.