Reducing audio data rate is the precondition for distributing audio over limited channels

Evidence

Many of the advances in the distribution of audio material via film, DVD, television and the Internet, and even on DVD-Audio or Super Audio CD (SA-CD) have been made possible because of developments in audio coding systems. Audio coding systems are methods that reduce the overall data rate of the audio signal so that it may be transmitted via a limited data rate channel, such as the Internet, or stored in a data limited storage medium, like a DVD. In all cases the ability to reduce the data rate is essential for the system. — David Howard, Jamie Angus, coustics and Psychoacoustics, 2572

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clean definition of ‘audio coding system’ as a data-rate reducer — the foundational term for the whole section.