Encoding Multichannel Audio for Ultra HDTV Based on Spatial Audio Coding with Optimization

Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) has been a promising system for future TV broadcasting where 22.2 multi-channel audio is adopted for creating three-dimensional (3D) audio in the home-user listening area. In the development stage, Moving Picture Expert Group (MPEG) Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) standard has been chosen for audio encoding. However, this choice is questionable as its performance deteriorates as the bit-rate decreases. In this paper, Spatial Audio Coding (SAC) with optimization technique is proposed due to its strength on working at lower bit-rates and its backward compatibility to fewer multi-channel configurations. The results of experiments show that the proposed method achieves Objective Difference Grade (ODG) score more than -1, which is rated as excellent score, at bit-rates starting from 1200 kb/s.