Swedish Radio Launches First DVD Quality Surround Sound Transmission With DTS

15-Jul-04

Swedish Radio (SR) has announced that it will commence Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) multichannel test transmissions from the Sirius 2 satellite, utilizing DTS Co-herent Acoustics compression/decompression algorithm. The announcement of SR?s trial follows the recent inclusion by the DVB of DTS Digital Surround (reported in Issue 64, September 2002) 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 (DVD high bitrate) DTS Digital Surround signal. ìWe want to use this opportunity to test what we call High Definition Radio,î says Bosse Ternstrom, SR Senior Sound Engineer/Producer. ìThe 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.î Commencing on February 7, 2004 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 SRí;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.In order to receive the multichannel signal, listeners will require a satellite dish able to receive the Sirius 2 transmission and a DTS-enabled set-top box decoder, such as those already being manufactured by KATHREIN-Werke KG. The STB is connected via the digital output to an AV receiver with DTS decoder, in the same manner as a DVD player. In conjunction with the project, Tandberg Television is supplying the firstMPEG2 encoders to support the DTS algorithm. The decision by SR to commence surround sound broadcast trials follows an extensive ëbench-testingí program by the company of the various optional surround sound formats, during which material was offered for download on the companyís website, 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. ìDTS 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,î 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. Now, if only broadcasters in the United States would embrace a ìbest that it can beî approach to multichannel broadcast audio using DTS Digital Surround as Sweden has done.For more information, please visit www.dtsonline.com.

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