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 384 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 any difference in transmission delay.

Equipment for coding of analogue sound-programme signals, as specified in this Recommendation, can be:

a) A stand-alone encoder/decoder with a digital interface at 384 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 digital sound programme access port at 384 kbit/s.

Two methods of encoding have been specified by the CMTT [1] and these form the basis for this Recommendation.