42 TVBEurope Wrap-Up NAB:loud and clear
Partnerships and loudness control were high on the agenda for audio manufacturers at NAB. Melanie Dayasena-Lowe reports on new audio highlights (not covered in our earlier NAB Previews) from the showfloor at the Las Vegas Convention Center
ONE OF the highlight announcements by Avid at the show was its unveiling of Pro Tools 11, a major upgrade of its digital audio workstation. This latest version enables audio professionals to take on the most demanding productions with new audio and video engines, 64-bit architecture, expanded metering and direct HD video workflows. Talking to TVBEurope at
NAB, Tony Cariddi, marketing director Audio for Avid, explained the major features of the new release. “Pro Tools 11 is the new generation. It is completely redesigned from the ground up. The big news is that the core engine is completely new. The Avid Audio Engine increases performance exponentially for the user in terms of the number of plug-ins, number of virtual instruments, the speed at which customers can search files, the speed and agility of the programme in general especially when using, for example, HD video in the software. It’s a much quicker, more robust engine.” The built-in Avid Video Engine enables audio post professionals to play and edit a wide range of HD video formats including Avid DNxHD, directly in the Pro Tools timeline without transcoding, using the same core engine as in Media Composer. Video interface support enables monitoring of DNxHD and
QuickTime media through Avid Nitris DX, Avid Mojo DX, and other video interfaces
Joining forces on loudness
Axon Digital Design is incorporating Jünger Audio’s LEVEL MAGIC loudness control technology into its Synapse audio and video signal processing and control modules. Under the terms of the new partnership, four new audio processing modules will be incorporated into Axon Synapse, thus creating a new standard in a range of modular products covering applications such as audio up-mixing and loudness control. With Jünger Audio processing on board, Axon customers can now eliminate loudness variations between programme segments and between programmes and commercial breaks. Axon’s Synapse is a modular system comprising multiple 19-inch frames, active hot swappable cards and (mostly) passive connector panels. It is designed to support demanding mission critical broadcast applications, especially the conversion of composite analogue video signals into HD. Jünger Audio has developed a custom digital signal processing (DSP) board that integrates within a standard Axon Synapse module. Building on this interoperability, the two companies have jointly developed four new Synapse modules, which provide a combination of sophisticated
up-mixing and loudness control capabilities within both stereo and 5.1
multi-channel
audio environments. “Jünger Audio is well
known as a pioneer in audio technology and we are delighted
For the HD Voice quality, the RECCE HD will need to connect back to a compatible Glensound HD Voice studio unit
to have developed a close partnership with the team there,” commented Peter Schut, CTO at Axon. “Together, we have created a range of audio processing solutions which offer significantly new feature-sets and functionality. These innovative products will open new markets to Axon.” Peter Pörs,
managing director of Junger Audio, said: “Loudness control is a hot topic and there is increasing demand from broadcasters for an effective solution that can eliminate jumps in audio levels. More and more customers are demanding our LEVEL MAGIC process in individual hardware and software solutions because it delivers high quality audio and supports all known loudness standards including ITU, EBU and ATSC. With AXON, we have found the perfect partner to enable us to address this demand.”
Repeat conversion
On the BroaMan stand, the German manufacturer showcased its Repeat48 and Repeat48CWDM plug-and-play video conversion solutions. Repeat platform devices convert 3G/HD/SD-SDI (or MADI) signals from coaxial cables to fibre and back. The Repeat family includes the Repeat48 and Repeat48CWDM. These powerful, easy-to-use and cost- effective devices include built-in multiplexers for combining multiple signals onto a single fibre, which in turn can be interfaced to audio and data network systems, including Optocore, SANE, MADI and Ethernet. Both devices are capable of converting two to 24 channels in a single rack space with built-in power supplies, while the Repeat 48CWDM
“We were
taking caption data, extracting it out of
outsourced material, restructuring and putting it into new
material. We could do that in a transcode environment” Hank Frecon, RadiantGrid
allows for optical channels to be multiplexed and demultiplexed. File-based signal processing specialist Emotion Systems launched version 3.0 of eFF, its automated loudness analysis and compliance software. The new version provides fast processing of all common file formats including Panasonic P2, and runs on OS X, Windows and Linux. The same processing platform also supports new video pre- processing tool eVe, shown for the first time at NAB 2013. Loudness is a critical issue for
broadcasters worldwide. With the CALM Act in the US and a growing regulatory requirement in the rest of the world based on the requirements of ITU recommendations 1770 and 1771, eFF is a simple software application that takes a radical approach to loudness processing. First, it handles the content in the file domain with no time or quality loss in decoding to baseband and the ability to handle any type of file including Dolby E audio, and MXF Op Atom, which can include multiple video segment files in
a single wrapper. Second, it measures in one pass all the parameters: momentary loudness, short- term loudness, long-term loudness and true peak levels. Third, it can either deliver a detailed
report on conformation, or it can automatically
adjust — still in the file domain — levels to achieve compliance.
“File-based loudness
processing has now become an urgent issue for broadcasters,” said MC Patel, founder and CEO of Emotion Systems. “It has to sit inside an automated workflow, be completely predictable and reliable in performance, serve all file types transparently, and above all be fast and have no impact on the file except for correcting audio levels where needed. “The new release also includes support for Dolby E, and we have extended our dynamic normalisation algorithm (DNA) to cover true peak correction,” Patel added. NAB 2013 also saw the launch of eVe, the Emotion Video Engine, a file-based media toolbox, which includes a media analyser, a player and an XML export tool. It provides pre- processing and preparation of file-based media for multi- platform authoring, among other applications.
A portable Voice
The Glensound HD Voice system has now been extended into a portable commentary unit
www.tvbeurope.com May 2013
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60