MPEG surround is getting closer to market reality, and this week will see the Fraunhoffer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS (parent and patent holder of Mp3)  working with Agere Systems, Coding Technologies and Philips, to demonstrate the potential of the new Surround Sound system at AES (Audio Engineering Society) Pro Audio Expo.

MPEG Surround fundamentally reduces bit rate requirements for high quality multi-channel audio compression and maintains backwards compatibility to existing stereo equipment at the same time. It is backwards compatible to stereo MP3; a legacy MP3 device plays back MP3 Surround as high quality stereo.

"We are excited to be jointly demonstrating the MPEG Surround technique. After mono and stereo, MPEG Surround is the next step for sound quality in today's media entertainment", commented Dr. Peter Kroon, Chief Multimedia Architect of Agere Systems Mobility Division. "It brings true surround sound to any media system at next to no overhead in transportation and storage, and preserves consumers' investment as existing home stereo equipment can stay in use. This level of flexibility will be the key for MPEG Surround to be deployed on a global scale."

MPEG surround could have all sorts of super cool possibilities if widely adopted. With embedded surround expected to be used in DivX video files, HD Radio, video games and more.