The MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS) Standard - Technology and Applications

MPEG-4 Audio Lossless Coding (ALS) is a new extension of the MPEG-4 audio coding family. The ALS core codec is based on forward-adaptive linear prediction, which offers remarkable compression together with low complexity. Additional features include long-term prediction, multichannel coding, and compression of floating-point audio material. In this paper authors who have actively contributed to the standard describe the basic elements of the ALS codec with a focus on prediction, entropy coding, and related tools. We also present latest developments in the standardization process and point out the most important applications of this new lossless audio format.