NICAM stands for Near Instantaneous Companded Audio Multiplex. It is an early form of lossy compression for digital audio. It was originally developed in the early 1970s for point-to-point links within broadcasting networks. In the 1980s, broadcasters began to use NICAM compression for transmissions of stereo TV sound to the public.

History

Near-instantaneous companding

The idea was first described in 1964. In this, the 'ranging' was to be applied to the analogue signal before the ADC and after the Digital to Analog Converter (DAC). The application of this to broadcasting, in which the companding was to be done completely digitally after the ADC and before the DAC, was described in a 1972 BBC Research Report.

Point-to-point links

NICAM was originally intended to provided broadcasters with six high-quality audio channels within a total bandwidth of 2048 kbit/s. This figure was chosen to match the E1 primary multiplex rate, and systems using this rate could make use of the planned PDH national and international telecommunications networks.

Several similar systems had been developed in various countries, and in about 1977/78 the BBC Research Department conducted listening tests to evaluate them. The candidates were:

An RAI system which used A-law companding to compress 14 bit linear PCM samples in to 10 bits (14:10)

A Nicam-type system proposed by Télédiffusion de France (14:9)

NICAM-1 (13:10)

NICAM-2 (14:11)

NICAM-3 (14:10)

It was found that NICAM-2 provided the best sound quality, but reduced programme-modulated noise to an unnecessarily low level at the expense of bit rate. NICAM-3, which had been proposed during the test to address this, was selected as the winner.

Audio is encoded using 14 bit pulse-code modulation at a sampling rate of 32 kHz.

Broadcasts to the public

NICAM's second role – transmission to the public – was developed in the 80s by the BBC. This variant was known as NICAM-728, after the 728 kbit/s bitstream it is sent over. It uses the same audio coding parameters as NICAM-3.

The first NICAM digital stereo programme was broadcast on the BBC in 1986, though programmes were not advertised as being broadcast in stereo on the BBC until some five years later, when the majority of the country's transmitters had been upgraded to broadcast NICAM, and a large number of BBC programmes were being made in stereo.

The BBC publicly launched their NICAM stereo service in the United Kingdom during 1991 (see 1991 in television) though other UK broadcasters ITV and Channel Four advertised this capability some months earlier.

It has been standardized as ETS EN 300 163.

Nations using NICAM public broadcasts

Several European countries (as well as one Middle East country) have implemented NICAM with the PAL and SECAM TV systems

Some Asia-Pacific nations have implemented NICAM

Hong Kong (frequently used for dual language for programming containing both Cantonese and English/Mandarin/Japanese soundtracks)

South Africa (SABC1, SABC2, etv)

Malaysia

Used by TV1, TV2, ntv7, 8TV, and TV9 around Klang Valley. TV3 also uses NICAM on their VHF transmission frequency (Channel 12) in the Klang Valley.

New Zealand

Used by TVNZ, TV3, C4 and Prime, yet abandoned by Sky-TV's UHF service.

Some other countries use Zweikanalton analog stereo instead.

How NICAM works

In order to give mono "compatibility", the NICAM signal is transmitted on a subcarrier alongside the sound carrier. This means that the FM or AM regular mono sound carrier is left alone for reception by monaural receivers.

A NICAM-based stereo-TV infrastructure can transmit a stereo TV programme as well as the mono "compatibility" sound at the same time, or can transmit two or three completely different sound streams. This latter mode could be used to transmit audio in different languages, in a similar manner to that used for in-flight movies on international flights. In this mode, the user can select which soundtrack to listen to when watching the content by operating a "sound-select" control on the receiver.

This is the spectrum of NICAM on PAL system. On the SECAM L system, the NICAM sound carrier is at 5.85MHz, before the AM Sound Carrier, and the Video bandwidth is reduced from 6.5MHz to 5.5MHz.

NICAM currently offers the following possibilities. The mode is auto-selected by the inclusion of a 3-bit type field in the data-stream

One digital stereo sound channel.

Two completely different digital mono sound channels.

One digital mono sound channel and a 352 kbit/s data channel.

One 704 kbit/s data channel.

The four other options could be implemented at a later date. Only the first two of the ones listed are known to be in general use however.

NICAM packet transmission

The NICAM packet (except for the header) is scrambled with a nine-bit pseudo-random bit-generator before transmission.

The topology of this pseudo-random generator yields a bitstream with a repetition period of 511 bits.

The pseudo-random generator's polynomial is: x
9 + x
4 + 1.

The pseudo-random generator is initialized with: 111111111.

Making the NICAM bitstream look more like white noise is important because this reduces signal patterning on an adjacent TV channels.

The NICAM header is not subject to scrambling. This is necessary so as to aid in locking on to the NICAM data stream and resynchronisation of the data stream at the receiver.

At the start of each NICAM packet the pseudo-random bit generator's shift-register is reset to all-ones.

NICAM transmission issues

There are some latent issues involved with the processing of NICAM audio in the transmission chain.

NICAM (unlike the compact disc standard) samples 14 bit audio at 32 kHz.

The upper frequency limit of a NICAM sound channel is 15 kHz due to anti-aliasing filters at the encoder.

The original 14 bit PCM audio samples are companded digitally to 10 bits for transmission.

NICAM audio samples are divided into blocks of 32. If all the samples in a block are quiet, such that the most significant bits are all zeros, these bits can be discarded at no loss.

On louder samples some of the least significant bits are truncated, with the hope that they will be inaudible.

A 3-bit control signal for each block records which bits were discarded.

Digital companding (using a CCITT J.17 pre-emphasis curve) ensures that the encoding and decoding algorithms can track perfectly.

NICAM carrier power

ITU (and CCITT) standards specify that the power level of the NICAM signal should be at -20 dB with respect to the power of the vision carrier.

The level of the FM mono sound carrier must be at least -13 dB.

Measuring the modulation level of the NICAM signal is difficult because the QPSK NICAM carrier waveform (unlike AM or FM modulated carrier waveforms) is not emitted at a discrete frequency.

When measured with spectrum analyzer the actual level of the carrier (L) can be calculated using the following formula:

L(NICAM) = L(Measured) + 10 log (R/BWAnalyzer) + K

L(NICAM) = actual level of the NICAM carrier [dBμV]

L(Measured) = measured level of the NICAM carrier [dBμV]

R = -3 dB bandwidth of the signal [kHz]

BWAnalyzer = bandwidth of the spectrum analyzer [kHz]

K = logarithmic form factor of the spectrum analyzer ~2 dB

NICAM's unusual features

NICAM sampling is not standard PCM sampling, as frequently employed with the Compact Disc or at the codec level in MP3, AAC or Ogg audio devices. NICAM sampling more closely resembles Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation.

Two's complement signing

The two's complement method of signing the samples is used, so that:

01111111111111 represents positive full-scale

10000000000000 represents negative full-scale

±0v has three binary representations

00000000000001 represents 0 V, with no +/- distinction. This may have originated as a method to reduce the emergence of DC patterns from transmission of silent material.

00000000000000 represents 0 V, with no +/- distinction

11111111111111 represents 0 V, with no +/- distinction

Hidden services

NICAM's STL link capability

Parity checking limited to only 6 of 10 bits

In order to strengthen parity protection for the sound samples, the parity bit is calculated on only the top six bits of each NICAM sample. Early BBC NICAM research showed that uncorrected errors in the least significant four bits were preferable to the reduced overall protection offered by parity-protecting all ten bits.

VHS recording of NICAM audio

As far as NICAM-capable video cassette recorders are concerned, the common practice is to record the NICAM-derived stereo stream on the VHS Hi-Fi tracks while the mono compatibility signal is recorded on the linear track.