Swedish Radio Launches First DVD-Quality Surround Sound Transmission With DTS

7-Feb-03

Swedish Radio (SR) has announced that it will commence Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) multichannel test transmissions from the Sirius 2 satellite, utilizing DTS' Coherent Acoustics compression/ decompression algorithm.The announcement of SR's trial follows the recent inclusion by the DVB group of DTSÆ Digital Surroundô as part of its Digital Television specification. The 24-hour, free-to-air broadcast service will be transmitted across Europe using both the Nordic and European beams of the Nordic Satellite AB (NSAB) Sirius 2 satellite (5 degrees East), on 12.245.34 MHz Vertical and 12.379.60 MHz Horizontal, respectively. The test period will also include terrestrial transmissions over DVB-T supplied by Teracom.The 5.1-channel transmission will represent the highest sound quality ever publicly broadcast anywhere in the world, with a 1.5 Mbps DTS Digital Surround signal. ""We want to use this opportunity to test what we call High Definition Radio,"" says Bosse Ternstrom, SR Senior Sound Engineer/Producer. ""The acceptance of 5.1 from the consumer market, along with great sound quality possibilities, now and in the near future, has encouraged us even more."" Commencing on February 7 with a live broadcast covering the PopStad festival in Vaxjo, the service will run until the end of April 2003. It will include a wide variety of SR's programming, including contemporary, classical, and jazz music, along with comedy and drama. It will also feature remixes in multichannel from the extensive tape and record archives of SR. Commercially available titles will also be part of the transmissions. In order to receive the multichannel signal, listeners will require a satellite dish that is capable of receiving the Sirius 2 transmission, and a DTS-enabled set-top box (STB) decoder, such as those already being manufactured by KATHREIN-Werke KG. The STB is connected via the digital output to an A/V receiver with a DTS decoder, in the same manner as a DVD player. In conjunction with the project, Tandberg Television is supplying the first MPEG-2 encoders to support the DTS algorithm.The decision by SR to commence surround sound broadcast trials follows an extensive ""bench testing"" program by the company of the various optional surround sound formats, during which material was offered for download on the company's Web site, www.sr.se/multikanal, in alternative formats. Over 525,000 downloads were recorded from the site from June 2001 until December 2002, with almost 40 percent of these downloaded outside Sweden. Despite the DTS-formatted files being nearly twice as large as the other formats, twice as many people opted for the DTS file. ""DTS technology is very easily implemented into our existing infrastructure and subsequently, therefore, cost-effective. In addition to that, the added value of multichannel audio for our listeners is obvious to everyone,"" concludes Lars Mossberg, Senior Research and Production Engineer.DTS is working in partnership with Leitch Technology Corporation in developing DTS Digital Surround-compatible contribution and distribution technologies throughout the digital broadcast production chain.For more information about DTS, visit www.dtsonline.com. For more information about Swedish Ratio, visit www.sr.se.

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