MPEG Surround is a brand new, feature-rich open standard compression technique for multi-channel audio signals. Operating on top of any core audio codec such as AAC, HE-AAC and MPEG-1 Layer II, the system provides an unrivaled set of features including:
- full backward compatibility to stereo equipment
- subjective audio quality substantially better than matrixed surround formats
- a wide scalability in terms of bit rate used for describing the surround image
- compatibility with matrixed surround stereo signals (optional)
- virtualized binaural multi-channel sound reproduction capability for stereo headphones
In combination with HE-AAC, MPEG Surround can carry a five or seven channel surround program at a total bit rate of 64 kb/s or less.
This website was initialized by four of the main contributors to the MPEG Surround standard.