MPEG audio layer II. A generic coding standard for two and multichannel sound for DVB, DAB and computer multimedia

The first phase of the development of high quality audio coding for widespread use in broadcasting, telecommunication, computer and consumer applications has been finished with ISO/IEC 11172-3, but the finalisation of MPEG-1 is not the end of standardisation of high quality audio coding systems. MPEG-2 Audio multichannel coding system ensuring forward and backward compatibility with ISO/IEC 11172-3 encoded audio signals is designed for universal applications with and without accompanying picture. Envisaged applications beside DAB are digital television systems, digital video tape recorders and interactive storage media. Configurability with respect to the sound channel allocation and to the bit-rate offers useful combinations of various levels of multi-channel stereo performance and various numbers of channels in the composite and independent coding mode