Implementation of an MPEG 2 layer III multichannel audio encoder running in real time

The RACE COUGAR project has furthered the development of the MPEG 2 Layer III audio encoding process. Software simulations have been rigorously tested. The development of a multichannel encoder that can operate in real time was the next step. A brief overview of the perceptual coding techniques employed is included, followed by a comparison of the way these might be implemented in software simulation and in real time hardware. The influences on choice of hardware, of computational speed required, quantity of data to be handled, ease of interfacing and suitability of support systems are discussed. The process of porting, partitioning and optimising the simulation software so that it will run on a distributed processor system is described. The encoder is currently working with two channels. The extension of the system to encode 5 channels is reported.