Fraunhofer IIS’ new dialogue enhancement technology was used in a BBC experiment during Wimbledon 2011
Audiomakes waves atNAB
In the audio world, the buzz was all about loudness, partnerships and collaborations at NAB. Melanie Dayasena-Lowe looks back at the highlights from this year’s convention in Las Vegas
ALC NETWORX and the Telos Alliance, developer of Livewire, announced a new partnership to extend the reach of ALC’s two- year-old RAVENNA IP-based media networking technology. “If we invented Livewire today, it
would look a lot like RAVENNA,” said Telos President Mike Dosch at the press call.”We both pretty much have the same philosophy [Livewire and RAVENNA]; low latency, routability and reliability – and a desire to use a standards- based approach.” Axia (part of the Telos Alliance alongside Omnia, Linear
Acoustic and Telos) introduced its Livewire broadcast IP-audio networking in 2004, and currently there are reported to be more than 25,000 Livewire devices in over 3,000 installations. “This really is a protocol that we think will be a de facto standard for the industry. We see this as a very significant change,” said Dosch. “After nearly a year of Axia and RAVENNA developers working together, the broadcast world is now one giant step closer to [our] vision when every piece of broadcast equipment is connected to the network.”
Philipp Lawo, CEO of ALC
NetworX, added: “This is not a claim of something that’s to come: this is happening now.” Calrec Audio demonstrated its
Hydra2 audio routing system, and the system’s ability to interact with third-party control and production automation equipment. Demonstrating the Calrec Serial Protocol was a Ross switcher emulator in conjunction with Ross Overdrive technology, which allows for visibility into and third-party control over a number of Calrec audio console settings such as fader position, PFL and cut control for
Telos President Mike Dosch pictured, right, with ALC NetworX CEO Philipp Lawo, left, and Telos CEO Frank Fotimore
paths on faders, routing to auxes from faders, output level control for auxes, routing to mains from faders, main output level/fader control, and LB/RB input switching for paths on faders.
Transporting loudness Among its NAB announcements, Cobalt Digital presented what it claims to be a first in comprehensive transport-based loudness processing. Using Linear Acoustic’s Aeromax technology, Cobalt’s LMNTS (Loudness Management for n-Transport Streams) performs automatic loudness processing across many transport streams. It operates at the MPEG IP transport layer to provide a practical loudness management solution without the need or complexity of external codecs transferring between baseband and MPEG external interfaces. UK digital console
manufacturer DiGiCo presented the newly launched UB MADI interface, the Purple Box optical converter, three digital broadcast consoles (SD7B, SD10-24B and SD11B), the newly supercharged SD9, and
a pair of remote racks (SD-Nano and SD-Mini). Its digital consoles are used by
teleproduction outsourcing companies like NEP on various events including X-Games, PGA Tour golf and NASCAR. “We have a heritage within the broadcast industry from our Soundtracs days,” said DiGiCo’s Managing Director, James Gordon. “It’s exciting to be back with a set of consoles that address the scope of the broadcast market’s needs.” The DiGiCo SD7B has the
routing capacity, processing ability and a generous user interface to form the heart of the most complex broadcast audio productions. Multiple operator engineering is made easy by the provision of three giant 15-inch TFT LCD touchscreens, each of which sits above a bank of 12 faders. Adding EX-007 Expander Units takes the active physical fader count to 100 without any need to access input channel banks.
Sounding out Wimbledon Demonstrating its new dialogue enhancement technology at NAB, Fraunhofer IIS showed how TV and radio audiences can