Possible to send analog audio over fiber?

[try2break]

I had a notion today. Why are fiber optics restricted soley to digital transmission? Wouldn't it be possible to send analog audio over a glass fiber optic cable? Is anyone working on this? Or are the transmiters/recievers not clean enuff compared to electrical analog audio?

 

[anonymous]

I believe it was tried in the early days of fiber optics but they found the frequency response inadequate for high fidelity recording.

 

[Dedric]

I didn't know it was tried but would be surprised if there was any success at all consider that I believe analog would require light level/power changes with amplitudes instead of just on/off pulses, which would run into all kinds of issues with distance, refraction, bends, etc (perhaps the reason for frequency response problems? - i.e. low signal levels at high frequency would dissipate too quickly? - just a guess). In general fiber optics have always been best at pulse/digital transmissions, and can run much higher data rates digitally than most analog media can, which translate into a higher frequency response in the end.