Agere Systems, Coding Technologies, Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Ciruits IIS and Philips, the inventors behind the MPEG Surround technique, jointly demonstrate the full potential of the new Surround Sound system at AES (Audio Engineering Society) Pro Audio Expo in Paris. Combined with audio codecs such as MPEG-1 Layer-2, MPEG-4 AAC or MPEG-4 HE-AAC (aka aacPlus), MPEG Surround reduces bit rate requirements for high quality multi-channel audio compression and maintains backwards compatibility to existing stereo equipment at the same time.

MPEG Surround comprises a full set of tools enabling the representation, reproduction and rendering of multi-channel audio for a broad spectrum of applications, from digital broadcasting, to mobile entertainment, to Internet music distribution. In the past month, already a number of real-world demonstrations have been showcased by the developing parties, such as 5.1 surround audio for digital radio and TV via DVB-T, DAB, or HD Radio. The MPEG Surround demonstration at the AES Pro Audio Expo will be the first joint presentation by all four parties, showing the full potential of MPEG Surround across various application fields. The new MPEG Surround standard will be frozen in July this year.

MPEG Surround will be demonstrated in the MPEG Surround demo room 'Asie' at AES Pro Audio Expo in Paris, May 20-23, 2006.