The ISO/IEC 13818-7 MPEG-2 AAC (Advanced Audio Coding) algorithm is an efficient coding method for surround signals like 5-channel signals (left, right, center, left surround, right surround).
MPEG-2 AAC supports up to 48 main audio channels with the sampling frequency between 8kHz and 96kHz. MPEG formal tests have shown that for 5-channel audio signals, AAC satisfies the ITU-R quality requirements and provides slightly better audio quality at 320 kilobits per second (kbps) than MPEG-2 BC (Backwards Compatibility) provides at 640 kbps.
Due to its high coding efficiency, AAC is a prime candidate for any digital broadcasting system and has been selected by the DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale) system. AAC also plays a major role for the delivery of high quality music via the Internet. Moreover, with some modifications, AAC is the only high quality audio coding scheme adopted within the MPEG-4 standard, the future “global multimedia language”.
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