Inter BEE 2011:Germany's largest applied research institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS, exhibits MPEG Surround

Fraunhofer IIS from Erlangen, Germany, has developed audio compression and multimedia technology for more than 20 years. Fraunhofer IIS is one of Fraunhofer's 60 research institutes located in Germany. Known as the birthplace of mp3 and AAC, it has provided latest audio/video coding and next-generation technology such as MPEG surround, SX Pro and audio communication engines.
Its new "MPEG Surround" technology exhibited at Inter BEE 2011 has already been adopted as a multimedia broadcasting speech coding technology system for mobile terminals and vehicles, and is based on ISO standards. It enables high quality multichannel speech at a low bit rate stereo quality. Also, because it is fully compatible with existing stereo broadcasts, surround broadcasts can be enjoyed even with a standard stereophone receiver. 2ch and surround parallel broadcasts are not necessary.
Surround mode can be enjoyed with normal headphones even with mobile terminals. Also, by using a flexible tool called "SXPro", it is said to be possible to convert stereo contents to high quality surround sound.