scope:

General

This Recommendation gives the characteristics of equipment for the coding of 15 kHz monophonic analogue sound-programme signals into a digital signal of 320 kbit/s. For stereophonic operation, two monophonic digital codecs can be utilized. Two monophonic digital signals that form a stereophonic signal should be routed together over the same transmission systems (path) to avoid difference in transmission delay.

Equipment for coding of analogue sound-programme signals can be:

a) A stand-alone encoder/decoder with a digital interface at 320 kbit/s. The encoder operation and the decoder operation may be performed in two separate equipments or in the same equipment.

b) A combined encoder-multiplex/decoder-demultiplex with a digital interface at 1544 or 2048 kbit/s. The encoder-multiplex operation and the decoder-demultiplex operation may be performed in two separate equipments or in the same equipment.

In case b), it is not mandatory to provide an external access at 320 kbit/s.