Application Notes

Circle Surround does not dictate the characteristics of the transmission or storage medium for 5.1 or 6.1 channel surround sound, therefore it opens a wide range of applications for surround sound that were previously unavailable or impractical. In addition, backward compatibility with other surround decoders and stereo or mono playback further expands the versatility of Circle Surround encoding.

Finally, for applications that require synchronization with picture, Circle Surround provides very low encode/decode latency. As an example, latency of the SRS CSE-07 Circle Surround encoder is 8.2ms, while latency of the SRS CSD-07 Circle Surround decoder is 10.2ms.

Current applications for Circle Surround include:

• Broadcast - Circle Surround provides the capability to transmit 5.1 or 6.1-channel surround audio over the current stereo broadcast distribution and delivery infrastructure.
  
  Backward compatibility ensures that all listeners will receive usable audio, while those listeners using a Circle Surround decoder will receive a maximized surround experience. Production of sports and other live events benefit from the fully immersive surround experience, even when relatively straightforward mixing techniques are used.
  
  
• Music Production and Distribution - With the increased production of 5.1 music material, Circle Surround provides a means for distribution of this surround content on standard CDs. Backward compatibility eliminates the requirement for dual inventory.
  
  
• DVD Recordable and PVR - The Circle Surround encoder, which requires minimal processing resources, can be incorporated into these devices to preserve 5.1 audio material on two-channel PCM or compressed tracks.
  
  
• Streaming Audio - Circle Surround encoding and decoding delivers an excellent surround experience when transmitted over compressed audio bit streams as low as 48Kbps.
  
  
• Video-On-Demand (VOD) - Circle Surround-encoded material can be transmitted very efficiently, allowing VOD systems to preserve 5.1 channels through the transmission process while requiring a minimum amount of system bandwidth for audio.
  
  
• Consumer Audio - The Circle Surround II decoder is capable of creating surround sound from virtually any source and allows consumers to experience surround sound from a wider range of material than would otherwise be possible. It also provides an added value and benefit to A/V receivers, set-top boxes and Home Theater-in-a-box systems.