38 executive summary theibcdaily The technology advancers
Let’s hear it for the noise
By George Jarrett
Camerer, chair of the EBU loudness group PLOUD. “Many major broad- casters and countries are already doing it, or have a detailed transition scenario.” A big moment came on September 1, when all German and Austrian public and commercial broadcasters switched to full EBU R128 compliance. This recommends that Europe’s broadcasters normalise audio levels to a measure of -23 LUFS. Switzerland and The Netherlands beat the Germans to it,
“2012
is a big year for loudness leveling,” says Florian
France and Belgium are following on, as are Italy, Poland, Spain, and Finland. The UK is just gearing up.
“Finally we can say that Europe is on the move, the critical mass has been reached,” Camerer claims. “This is the biggest audio revolution for many decades.” Camerer joined Austria’s national
broadcaster ORF in 1990 as a sound assistant, becoming a staff-sound-engi- neer (‘tonmeister’) in production sound and post-production, and then a world expert in surround sound mixing. It was under his chairmanship that the EBU group PLOUD achieved R 128, a breakthrough in audio leveling. “I would like to see the widespread adoption of loudness levelling wherever
Loudness normalisation is the biggest audio revolution for many decades
Florian
Camerer Chair EBU/PLOUD Region: Europe
there is audio involved, as a totally natural and reasonable ingredient. It should be as normal as peak metering,” he says. Camerer intends to devote his attention to surround sound and 3D audio once -23 LUFS is all conquering. “5.1 surround sound requires
revitalisation,” he declares. “Budgets are one reason behind the choice of up- mixing a stereo programme rather than going for a genuine 5.0 or 5.1 mix There’s still a lot to be done with planar surround sound, before we can even think of 3D audio in broadcasting. I feel that we are getting away from true and convincing surround sound, and resorting to 'enhanced' stereo.”