HD Radio now has 5.1 surround sound “This is the most important advancement in FM broadcasting since the introduction of stereo in 1961.”
Ibiquity, the digital broadcasting system widely known in the U.S. as HD Radio, which works by transmitting digital audio and data alongside existing AM and FM analogue signals, can now transmit in 5.1 surround sound.
The “Coded Discrete” 5.1-Channel Surround Sound system for HD Radio set the radio engineering community buzzing at this year’s NAB Convention.
Earlier this year, Telos / Omnia and Fraunhofer Institute (FhG), the developers of MP3 and other MPEG audio codecs, announced a surprising development: a spatial audio coding system that takes advantage of the most recent research in aural perception and enables transmission of 5.1 channel surround audio over HD Radio.“At NAB, we blew people away,” says Omnia President Frank Foti. “We let them compare audio from multi-channel music discs directly against Fraunhofer’s ‘coded discrete’ system, which can be broadcast completely within the HD Radio data channel. They were amazed how good it sounded. Often, they literally couldn’t tell the difference.
“This is the most important advancement in FM broadcasting since the introduction of stereo in 1961,” says Foti.
“This system gives listeners a clear and compelling reason to buy HD radio receivers, especially for automobiles, which are a natural environment for the surround-sound experience,” says Denny Sanders, Telos Systems Managing Director.
The new system works with the existing HD Radio codec and transmission equipment and is fully compatible with stereo broadcasts.
Telos is the originator of Zephyr, the world’s most popular audio codec. Omnia is the processor of choice among the majority of America’s Top 100 rated FM stations. Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS is the world’s leading research laboratory in the area of perceptual audio coding.
