Fraunhofer IIS to push MPEG Surround as next big downloadable audio format

Watch out, MP3 -- you've got a formidable opponent creeping up on you. All kidding aside (yes, we were kidding), Fraunhofer IIS is hoping that at least four people will turn from their MP3 / AAC addictions and embrace yet another one of its audio formats at CES, which is simply christened MPEG Surround. Harald Popp, head of the Multimedia Realtime Systems department at the company, has asserted that the firm believes that "MPEG Surround will become a major online distribution format when downloading music, movie and TV content," noting that it offers "the music industry a way to sell iPod-compatible surround content through the existing stereo download infrastructure." We suppose the multi-channel aspect is at least somewhat noteworthy, but we still see a hard road ahead for it to gain "global acceptance" in 2009.

[FILA @ Jan 5th 2009 6:02PM]

This would mean artist would have to change the ways they record.

[Lowest Ranked @ Jan 5th 2009 6:32PM]

They did it in the 50's.

[youngstunna @ Jan 5th 2009 6:33PM]

no it wouldnt. it would change the format that the audio was mastered to. artists will still record to 24bit lpcm probably.

[mike c @ Jan 5th 2009 7:41PM]

False, it would mean that music studios would have to release separate surround mixes, not re-record or change the way the music is recorded. A good example of how this is already being done is with DVD audio discs that you can already buy in best buy. They usually encode the music in dolby digital or DTS (the two common home theater surround sound formats) and play on any dvd player. Creating surround sound compatible files is potentially a good move ONLY if they will interface with home theater receivers or other surround sound hardware. But then again being able to play surround off my computer would be pretty fancy, especially considering that many computers now come with optical outputs to directly link to receivers.

[Shinigami @ Jan 6th 2009 1:47AM]

@mike c
Playing surround sound on the PC? What year is it, really?
X-Fi plays mp3 files over 7.1 speaker system. Did that since day one. Just make sure you install drivers and choose "stereo surround" in the X-Fi CMSS-3D settings, entertainment mode.

But then again it simply puts left channel sound into all left channels, right channel sound into all right channels and some kind of mix in the middle. But I'm pretty happy with just that, sounds much better than plain old and boring left&right.

New Titanium series also have single-cable out, too bad I don't have the money for it + new speakers (sound cards - $100+, speakers - $400).

[eggothewaffle @ Jan 5th 2009 6:05PM]

MPS?

Make People Sexy?

[KarlW @ Jan 5th 2009 7:51PM]

At least it's not PMS. Next time there's a leap year, your Zune will storm the house out in a rage or just yell at you for no good reason.

[cmdwedge @ Jan 5th 2009 6:06PM]

I can absolutely see this taking off. The world is ready for a mass-market appeal multi-channel sound format.

[j_g_puff @ Jan 5th 2009 6:09PM]

With Mr Glasses and his hot lab equipment behind it, you know this standard's got to be a winner.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jan 5th 2009 6:30PM]

Meh, I'd surmise about 99% of downloaded music gets listened to through a stereo setup. SACDs and DVD-As have been such a huge hit, of course a downloadable surround format would be an enormous success.

[chispito @ Jan 5th 2009 9:36PM]

I don't really care if the sound is mixed into more than two channels. I usually listen with headphones, in which case binaural recordings are going to always sound better than something that is processed to sound like it's a binaural recording.

What I really want is new, HD file format. Whatever you would rip a DVD Audio or SACD into.

[botrax @ Jan 6th 2009 1:44AM]

Been producing an MP3 Surround podcast for 2 years with old MOD tunes rendered in surround. www.BotCast.net

[Shinigami @ Jan 6th 2009 1:52AM]

@chispito
Are you one of those who see the benefit of using $10,000 HDMI cable?

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2009 3:37AM]

There has been downloadable surround for years already, nobody is interested though because people only need surround for movies not as standalone.

[arcticpenguins @ Jan 5th 2009 6:07PM]

the average consumer does not need another format. They probably don't even notice the sound quality change, or for that matter even care. Also unless this gets adopted by everyone, I really can't see a big new "it" format. The formats that are out there right now have dominated the market so largely that it just seems impossible

[eggothewaffle @ Jan 5th 2009 6:10PM]

I don't know where your average consumer comes from, but just about anyone here in America (outside of the profoundly deaf), can detect a back to front (or vice versa) panning of a sound source.

[bandigolo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:15PM]

not whilst wearing stereo headphones, though. Could be tricky implementation if they are aiming at the PMP market.

[leo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:30PM]

To further your point Eggo, the vast majority of humans can detect a movement of a sound source to an accuracy of 1 degree azimuth, so surround sound does kind of apply to everybody. Whether or not this format takes off is, of course, another matter entirely.

[mabhatter @ Jan 5th 2009 6:36PM]

in other news MP3 patent fees go up and new companies are sued all over again. Along with your MP3 patent license ($hakdown) comes a "free!" one for the new format! Expect everybody that pays to use it!

[Electromodo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:39PM]

"the average consumer does not need another format"

Only Sith deal in absolutes. But besides, the surround format is future. Like there was mono sound first, then came stereo sound. Now we are getting one step higher with surround sound. This is inevitable.

[jon @ Jan 5th 2009 7:03PM]

from what i can tell, the only way the consumer would notice that this format even exists is:
(a) mp3/aac downloads are a little bigger,
(b) there will be a few more licensing fees rolled into pricing, and
(c) when a multichannel file is played on a multichannel device, it'll have multichannel sound.

the success of this idea will depend on coolness-of-c divided by annoyance-of(a+b).

[bandigolo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:11PM]

I don't see the benefit for music - as FILA intimated this would require complete remastering of all existing recordings. But this is absolutely a big deal for other digital media downloads (games, video, web content). Kinda exciting news!

[bandigolo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:36PM]

If I had a dollar for every time a someone used iPod and PMP (or DAP) interchangeably, I'd be rich.

[bandigolo @ Jan 5th 2009 6:37PM]

oops, that was for loocas.

[loocas @ Jan 5th 2009 6:24PM]

I couldn't care less for "...iPod compatible..."

[JRM @ Jan 5th 2009 6:24PM]

Makes sense for streaming videos. Especially if they stream/download faster.

[JWolf @ Jan 5th 2009 6:30PM]

Holophonic sound is the future:

http://weblog.404creative.com/2007/06/03/auditory-illusions-holophonic-recordings/

[DeoWulf @ Jan 5th 2009 6:49PM]

Yes, it's awesome, but slightly creepy. Also, it would get confused with ambient noise easily. You'd need some good noise-canceling headphones...

[ajoan0077 @ Jan 5th 2009 7:25PM]

I love using this technique when i record music. Absolutely astonishing.

[Stompntom @ Jan 5th 2009 7:39PM]

Holographic porn is the future

[Ian @ Jan 6th 2009 1:17PM]

You mean binaural?

[ADRiiAN` @ Jan 5th 2009 6:47PM]

Bring on 5.1 audio !

[adrian @ Jan 5th 2009 6:53PM]

Can't most movie's including downloads be Dolby decoded with suitable equipment anyway.

[jon @ Jan 5th 2009 6:58PM]

marketing crap aside, this looks like a really good idea. it looks like something relatively low bitrate that you can cram inside a normal mp3 or aac file that adds multichannel support. this even works on pmps when they're connected to something with a usb cable instead of a stereo audio cable. if it really is 100% backwards compatible and just makes files a little bigger, i could see this taking off.

from the article:
MPEG Surround is the ISO standard for high-quality multi-channel sound that allows for surround distribution at stereo bit rates while offering near-transparent sound quality. It is a generic multi-channel extension operating on top of perceptual audio codecs. In combination with an HE-AAC stereo core, a 5.1 audio signal can be transmitted at a total bit rate as low as 48 - 64 kbit/s. Because the 5.1 signal is compatible to existing stereo or mono devices, there is no need for simulcast. MPEG Surround enables an easy and cost-efficient transition from mono/stereo to multi-channel. For more information on MPEG Surround, visit www.iis.fraunhofer.de/amm

[mp3geek @ Jan 5th 2009 7:18PM]

will fail like "mp3pro" format they came up with, extended old technology like this wont work.

[noyp @ Jan 5th 2009 8:11PM]

I wonder how this would affect sound quality? Otherwise, this looks very interesting. I've heard plenty of binaural recordings, and I've never been short of amazed.

[ferrell @ Jan 5th 2009 8:25PM]

Old news.

They first rolled out this turkey in 2004.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3_Surround

Four years later, they are still trying to acheive "global acceptance"

meh.

[Jason @ Jan 5th 2009 9:24PM]

Hey, if this works, and it gets widely accepted, lets make it utilize the different channels in car stereos, of current varieties, not make it something you have to have a special deck or add-on for. I'd love a 4-channel surround sound, that'd be awesome for Dark Side of the Moon

[bradwjensen @ Jan 5th 2009 10:06PM]

Doesn't FLAC already do this? And with better sound quality..

[JM @ Jan 5th 2009 10:33PM]

I still don't understand why audio hasn't shifted to surround from stereo.

We now have the ability to do 6 channels at 24bits @ 192Khz
Why aren't studios taking advantage of this?!

Just pick a new format to adopt or chose Flac

[EEaudio08 @ Jan 5th 2009 11:58PM]

Grammatical errors are even better when written in italics.

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2009 12:48PM]

What errors?

[Wwhat @ Jan 6th 2009 4:18AM]

What they should invent is a lossless format that compresses as much as mp3, or approaches it more closely than has been done so far, and yes that IS possible and as technology gets faster and smaller and mathematicians have time to ponder it's a matter of finding the right algorithm, one that you can bake in a chip for a portable device too please, and make it low-license cost (I'd say make it open source but stuff that's great and open source still doesn't end up in devices because the makers of devices hate open source and rather have customers suffer than receive free licenses and be nice and reasonable)

[kingu @ Jan 7th 2009 2:06PM]

Maybe what you are thinking of is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_Lossless_Packing

Being propietary its flawed.

On the other hand what you are looking for is the open source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbis and its lossless counterpart (sidekick if you will) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLAC

Market reception (read:usage) is very good (in certain areas...), and the "makers of devices" are following.

[Wwhat @ Jan 7th 2009 3:28PM]

I'm guessing you never used FLAC if you think it's comparable in compression to mp3, and OGG is lossy so that's not to the point I was making
Thanks for your tidy post including links though, always nice to see people do an effort.

Meanwhile I still stand with that it is mathematically possible to compress losslessly but much better than FLAC (or monkey audio's APE)

[elmimmo @ Jan 6th 2009 3:10PM]

Dolby Pro Logic II has been out forever and nobody cares about it. Welcome to year 2000.