A system for multichannel PCM sound broadcasting via satellite and some experimental results

A system of high-quality, multichannel sound broadcasting by PCM (pulse code modulation) is described. In this system, 12-16 PCM-coded high-quality stereo audio signals are multiplexed by time division. This multiplexed signal digitally modulates a carrier which is sent to a broadcast satellite. Then, using one satellite broadcast channel in the 12 GHz band, the signal is broadcast throughput the country. For the preservation of sound quality, a BCH-DEC-TED (63, 50) error-correction code and an error-correction system which uses range transmission have been adopted. The improvement due to the use of range transmission was uniform over a wide range of received C/N (carrier/noise) ratios. The characteristics of the system have been tested by experiments using the broadcast satellite BS-2. It has been confirmed that no degradation of sound quality can be ensured when the receiving C/N ratio is above 8 dB