May 2013 www.tvbeurope.com


Only Italy (2010) and France (2012) have passed loudness legislation


TVBEurope 45 Audio for Broadcast Loudness status inEurope


Thomas Valter, HD business manager at TC Electronic, offers a Guest Opinion on loudness monitoring and true-peak technology


LOUDNESS HAS been a much- debated topic for years. No doubt, it is a major focal point for broadcasters throughout the world, but what is the current status? Some countries have already passed legislation to regulate loudness in television, while others are currently considering it and finally some have no plans regarding loudness legislation. At this point, only Italy (2010)


and France (2012) have passed loudness legislation in Europe, and in both cases the standard to comply with is EBU’s R128. In Spain, initial steps towards loudness legislation have been taken, but since the latest change of government, the project has been on standby without any concrete plans to proceed. However, the local government in Catalonia recommends public TV stations to follow R128. In Holland, Germany, Austria,


Switzerland and the UK, broadcasters are recommended to comply with R128, but there are no laws or future plans regarding this in these countries. In some cases, such as Holland, this only applies to commercials, while other countries recommend it on a general level. In Denmark, the situation is


similar, but the parliament has initiated research to determine whether legislation should be considered. In Norway, all digital radio distribution is loudness normalised and plans are to


Thomas Valter: It seems as if many European countries have decided to mainly rely on recommendations towards R128


implement this across public television as well over the next year, but on a voluntary basis. If we take a brief look outside Europe, the US and Brazil have


recommendations towards R128, but should this be an indication that loudness is not a big issue in broadcast after all? Probably not. Surely, there are challenges for lawmakers in this field. For instance, how should broadcasters be monitored? How should they document compliance? What are the sanctions? Is stereo more important than 5.1 or vice versa (the same programme material reads out differently)? But more importantly, even in the countries that have no loudness legislation in place, loudness metering and control is still a major concern to broadcasters. They actually want to deliver loudness- normalised content, care about audio quality and at the same time wish to lower the number of viewer complaints due to systematic loudness jumps


Loudness radar: how should broadcasters be monitored? How should they document compliance?


dedicated to deliver a better listening experience, which is a positive sign.


Also important is the fact


that virtually all European countries have decided to either recommend or legislate based on EBU’s R128 standard. Without going into all of the details, R128 builds on the ITU BS.1770


In Holland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK broadcasters are recommended to comply with R128 — but there are no laws


legislated on loudness and Japan and Australia recommend following local broadcast standards building on ITU BS.1770 (as does R128). Overall, it seems as if many


European countries have decided to mainly rely on


Video systems go


Jake Young reports on Roland Systems Group’s latest developments in the video mixing and switching arena — in conversation with Peter Heath and Simon Kenning


FOUNDED IN 1972 as a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, Roland is now additionally involved in the development of professional audio and video products, primarily aimed at the live performance and production market. Roland’s first introduction to


video was in the late 1990s. Since then the company has focused new


product development on both professional audio and professional video to become a total solutions provider, and so Roland Systems Group (RSG) was formed in 2007. “We’re the only company who brings both those solutions to the table,” claims sales and marketing director Peter Heath, who joined the company in 1996. “The music market remains pretty much the


across various types of programme material. The fact that this desire is motivated by the broadcasters themselves and not by the risk of being fined or forced temporarily off-air (which is actually a sanction in Brazil!) indicates that they are


same — there are no huge spikes in terms of sales growth. For Roland to remain a market leader our technology and our ethos needs to be transferable to our professional audio and video products.” A flurry of RSG video products


has arrived in the marketplace recently, starting with the V-800HD Multi-format Video Switcher. Since the V-8000HD, RSG launched the V-40HD Multi-format Video Switcher and the VC-1 Series of portable video converters, the latter of which the company introduced at the NAB Show. “The VC-1 Series enables users to convert from an HDMI source to SDI, as well as from SDI to HDMI,” says sales manager Simon Kenning. “The VC-1 gives us that flexibility to be able to take any HD source or SD source in


Simon Kenning and Peter Heath at Metropolis Studios


SDI and be able to interconnect between our products, whether it’s the V-40HD or the V-800HD.” To showcase the ‘total solutions’ and how the latest video products integrate with audio, RSG representatives got together in February at Metropolis Studios, the company’s London base, for a live production day. The event, attended by engineers, end users


and dealers, covered different aspects of working in the live sound and production arena with a focus on using RSG products for broadcast engineering and live video production. The whole event was streamed live onto RSGUK.tv. RSG has plans to organise many more focused and general events throughout the year.


standard just like the ATSC A/85 standard that applies to US broadcasters. However, EBU’s philosophy


is that loudness should be considered right from the start — from production over mastering to ingest rather than


as a quick fix at the point of transmission. If loudness normalisation is measured during production and mastering, there is no need to loudness correct the content during ingest or transmission. Using this approach, the end-listener should be able to perceive the audio the way the producer of the content meant it to. However, broadcasters will still need transmission processors as a last line of defence, and for live productions, automatic loudness processing is a necessity. At the end of the day, the


current loudness status in Europe is that even with limited legislation in place, loudness remains a hot topic and broadcasters seem interested in taking advantage of this technology and approach even if they are not forced to by law.


Photo: Jake Young


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