The MPEG Surround Audio Coding Standard [Standards in a Nutshell]

This article provides a compact overview of the history, technology, and performance of MPEG Surround. The technology of MPEG Surround is based on the spatial audio coding (SAC) principle: In the encoder, a mono- or stereophonic down- mix is generated from the multichannel input signal, and additional parametric side information is extracted to guide the subsequent up-mix procedure in the decoder.With Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) Surround, a data-rate efficient coding scheme for high-quality multichannel sound using novel parametric coding techniques has been standardized.