In KDE1 there was no support from KDE libraries to develop audio/video applications. With the introduction of aRts in KDE2 a soundserver and a media API were added. The API did get a few KDE wrappers over time, but mostly remained a foreign API for KDE developers. Before KDE3 there were talks about adding video support to aRts and fixing the problems people had with it, but in the end not much changed.

Phonon wants to fill in the gap and provide a multimedia API for KDE developers while at the same time giving the users more choices. With Phonon applications don't need to develop sound engines as Phonon provides them for free. Applications are written saying what they want and not how they want to do it. This leaves some room for the user/administrator to customize things.

If you need multimedia functionality in your program, Phonon is for you. Use it from simple audio playback to full blown video playback with audio and video effects. Use it to record an audio signal or capture from a webcam. Use it to concentrate on your program and not on getting the mediaframework to work for you.

The name

If you're wondering where the name Phonon comes from: The project started with the name KDEMM, but that name was neither pronouncable nor did it convey the project's purpose any better than the current name does (have you ever looked up "mm" on wikipedia?).

Phonon is a name for quasiparticles in quantum mechanics that describe a quantized mode of vibration in a solid. Oversimplified, phonons are sound-particles. As there also exist optical phonons the name is also distantly related to the video part of multimedia.

Phonon will be all about creating real phonons :-). But it will not get as complex as quantum mechanics!