TECHNOLOGY Loudness Tools
Loudness in broadcasting is subject to increasing government legislation, recommendations from standards organisations, and a growing array of software and hardware solutions. If you need some guidance on how to make loudness less of an issue, you need this Tech Focus.
TC Electronic’s DB8 MKII and DB4 MKII (pictured) units are state-of-the-art transmission processors. They allow users to measure loudness, correct accordingly to various broadcast standards, and to convert seamlessly between formats. The only difference between DB4 MKII and DB8 MKII is the number of processors. Both units have dual power inlets, dual Pabst fans, and dual fuses. Both units also feature a wide variety of I/O formats and physical connectors, including SDI, AES/EBU, Coax, BNC, and Sub-D. The TC Electronic Radar Loudness Meter is included with both units, and TC Icon hardware can be connected for hands-on control. The units offer standard compatibility with ITU BS.1770-3, EBU R128, and ATSC A/85. The DB2 puts ‘all tools necessary for trouble-
free broadcasting into one rack-mountable unit’. It features automatic loudness correction, is compliant with the latest metering specifications,
and can be easily upgraded.
www.tcelectronic.com
Junger Audio’s T*AP Television Audio Processor is compliant with all current broadcast audio loudness recommendations. It features loudness normalisation and dynamic range processing for up to eight channels of audio. Optional Dolby decoding and encoding including metadata management are also provided, along with 5.1 downmix and upmix features. The M*AP Monitoring Processor combines an audio monitor controller with network- enabled loudness measurement features. It supports up to eight speakers to allow for A/B checking of stereo compatibility of a surround downmix through alternative speakers, as well as via L/R front speakers. A Dolby production toolset emulates a coding and decoding process.
inter-sample levels, ISL protects against distortion that can be introduced by downstream codecs such as MP3 and AAC. It is mono
through 5.1 surround compatible.
www.nugenaudio.com
RTW’s compact TouchMonitor TM3 consists of a display unit and a remote interface box. It handles analogue or digital stereo signals (TM3) and digital six-channel signals (TM3-6CH). The TM3’s user interface allows the selection of up to 10 presets with a finger swipe. Local presets can be configured using the Devicer DC1 software application, allowing existing presets to be personalised and adapted. Devicer DC1 allows the creation of several configuration sets with different presets. The TM3 features comprehensive loudness measuring features, conforming to all relevant international standards. Loudness instruments include single- channel and summing bargraphs, loudness range and numerical displays. The TouchMonitor
The D*AP series of digital audio processors consists of two products with 1 x stereo or 2 x stereo programmes. The LM2/LM4_2ch offers two channels of processing with AES and optional analogue I/O, while the LM4 can handle four channels with on-board AES I/O and optional 3G SDI or analogue I/O. Cards available for the C8000 modular
The LM2 from TC Electronic offers a full- featured stereo loudness and true-peak level meter. The front panel gives instant access to figures for broadcast standard compliance and for more detail, the user can connect LM2 to a PC or Mac via USB and get a full, real time Radar screen picture. LM2 facilitates precision normalisation and optimum use of dialnorm metadata in AC3 transmission. It comes pre- loaded with factory presets compliant with ITU- R BS.1770, ATSC A/85, EBU R128, NABJ, OP-59, and BCAP guidelines. A variety of 24- bit resolution audio inputs and outputs are offered, including AES/EBU, TOS, SPDIF/AES3 id, ADAT, and analogue. Also available is the LM2 Radar Loudness
Meter, a native plug-in that measures loudness and true-peak on stereo tracks in all major DAWs. It features a Radar Display that gives loudness history, momentary loudness, true-peak level, programme loudness, and loudness range
(LRA) in a single view.
www.tcelectronic.com
www.audiomedia.com
system include a 16-channel HD/SDI de- embedder and embedder; MADI in and out cards; AES in and out cards; analogue mic in,
and XLR and Sub-D in and out cards.
www.junger-audio.com
TM3-3G offers loudness, true-peak and PPM metering for 3G SDI audio, with optional 16- channel de-embedder outputs and monitor controller. The TM3-3G has an integrated 3G-SDI de-embedder interface, and displays level and loudness of any eight 3G-SDI audio channels. Independently from this, up to 16 SDI
audio signals can be sent to eight AES3 outputs.
www.rtw.de
ISL from Nugen Audio is a transparent look- ahead limiter that uses the standardised true- peak algorithms of ITU-R B.S 1770 and related standards, and is suitable for the control of audio for post production and broadcast applications. ISL differs from traditional approaches to limiting by measuring inter-sample peaks and allowing the user to set the true-peak limit, rather than the traditional threshold at which limiting begins. By measuring and correcting for
Nugen Audio’s VisLM features detailed, objective loudness measurement, history and logging facilities, offering an ITU, ATSC, and EBU standard compliant way to measure, compare, and contrast loudness. It offers true-peak level metering (inter- sample accurate level monitoring), loudness range (to help decide if and how much dynamic compression to apply), momentary ‘instantaneous loudness’ for mixing by ear, short- term loudness (three-second time window), and program loudness (long-term integrated loudness measurement); and is a comprehensive tool to help users deal with the complexity of loudness compliance. It is available in two versions: VisLM-C (compact) and VisLM-H,
with history view and data logging options.
www.nugenaudio.com
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