Two new "candidate standards" were recently announced by the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the organization responsible for DTV broadcasting standards in the U.S. ATSC work groups will evaluate these candidate standards to better understand the technology required to apply the standards in a real-world broadcasting environment.
Both candidate standards involve improvements to the DTV AC-3 audio system and are called "E-AC-3." One candidate provides revisions to the ATSC A/52 audio compression standard that permit interoperability with a variety of media, while remaining compatible with existing consumer equipment. The other candidate describes how E-AC-3 can be used with Enhanced VSB "robust-mode" technology now under investigation by the ATSC.
With this announcement, the ATSC is calling for implementation, study and technical feedback on these candidate standards.
