Press Center

 

Wouldn't it be nice if you could enjoy a full surround-sound experience from digital radio and TV broadcasts or even from your mobile phone or MP3 player. Thanks to the new MPEG Surround format, that's now perfectly possible. The new standard even allows surround-sound on stereo headphones.

 

Despite the fact that multi-channel audio systems such as 5.1-channel theater sound have become standard on home cinema equipment, virtually all digital TV and radio stations around the world still broadcast either a mono or stereo sound signal. The reason is that most broadcast systems simply do not have the available bandwidth (bit-rate) to transmit conventional multi-channel surround sound. The new MPEG Surround format has been developed by scientists at Philips in conjunction with leading industry and research partners. It overcomes the problem by encoding multi-channel audio into a format that requires no more bandwidth than a conventional digital stereo broadcast. As a result, broadcasters will be able to enrich their audience's viewing and listening experience.

 

MPEG Surround is fully backward-compatible with current digital broadcast formats, which means that existing digital TV sets, set-top boxes and radios will continue to work as normal. MPEG Surround is also suitable for use in other low-bandwidth applications such as Internet streaming and TV-on-Mobile (DVB-H), and features a special binaural mode that generates a surround-sound experience on conventional stereo headphones. It can therefore be used to enhance the listening experience on other portable devices such as MP3 players and media players.

 

Squeezing the bandwidth

MPEG Surround encoding works by down-mixing 5-channel audio into a mono or stereo signal that is then encoded into standard MPEG format, such that it can be received by legacy devices. It then inserts additional information into the MPEG stream that allows a receiver equipped with MPEG Surround decoding to re-create all five channels from the mono or stereo signal. This additional information does not significantly increase the bandwidth required to transmit the encoded signal, which means that it can be transmitted via standard digital broadcast systems. Apart from installing the necessary MPEG Surround encoders, broadcasters therefore do not need to upgrade other parts of their system. For legacy content that is only recorded in stereo, it will even allow them to apply quasi-surround-sound techniques to enhance the material prior to broadcasting.

 

At the receiving end, the algorithms needed to decode MPEG Surround and reconstruct all five channels are not overly complex. This means that they will run well within the boundaries of the computing power already available in typical consumer products, even relatively low-cost devices such as MP3 players. As a result, the greatly enhanced user experience enabled by MPEG Surround will quickly become available to a very wide audience.

 

A collaborative effort

MPEG Surround is an excellent example of Philips' policy of open-innovation in the development of technologies that improve people's lives. Contributed to by Philips Research, Philips Applied Technologies (www.apptech.philips.com), Coding Technologies (www.codingtechnologies.com), Fraunhofer IIS (www.iis.fraunhofer.de) and LSI Systems (www.lsi.com), the MPEG Surround specification was formally approved by ISO in January 2007. Philips made decisive contributions to the development of the underlying 'Spatial Audio Coding' technology that forms the fundamental basis of MPEG Surround.

 

For more information, visit  www.mpegsurround.com

• MPEG Surround official logo

 

Click the images to download HR photography

 

 

Inquiries please contact:

Joost Maltha, Communications Manager Philips Applied Technologies High Tech Campus 5 5656 AE Eindhoven The Netherlands Phone: +31 40 27 48882 E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com

 

About Royal Philips Electronics
Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) is a global leader in healthcare, lifestyle and technology, delivering products, services and solutions through the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs approximately 126,000 employees in more than 60 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 30.4 billion in 2005, the company is a market leader in medical diagnostic imaging and patient monitoring systems, energy efficient lighting solutions, personal care and home appliances, as well as consumer electronics. News from Philips is located at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.