10
NEWS & VIEWS
Adapting
loudness in the
multicasting
scenario
The broadcast industry has assisted in
the rapid transition from peak limiting processing to audio mixing and
mastering “best practices” that entirely
rely on the so-called “Loudness Paradigm”. This revolution has affected all
technical operations from production
to transmission. It deeply changed
the way digital audio is approached,
processed and ultimately perceived.
Has this change improved the listening
experience for the viewer?
Definitely yes, and for many reasons. Viewers are being provided
with consistent loudness levels and
the overall listening experience has
generally improved. Music producers
and sound mixers have been freed
from the restrictions and the artifacts
generated by over-compression and
peak limiting. They could finally regain
control of dynamics processors in a
way to use them as sound designing
tools, with the benefit of greater digital
headroom that allows the creative use
of the entire sonic palette.
However, the scenario evolved
again and new tools became necessary
to deal with the challenges that are
facing the horizon of media entertainment. While file-based processing has
the benefit of tailoring the loudness
adaptation with no time constraints,
it cannot fulfill the requirements of
live productions and of multicast
distribution.
In fact, broadcasting is not just preproduced content from one digital feed
to the TV, but can occur via multiple
streams including cable, digital terrestrial television (DTT), over-the-top
(OTT) and through multiple devices
such as flat-screen displays, smartphones, gaming consoles or home
cinema.
The unique audio characteristics,
in terms of channel configuration,
dynamics, frequency range and SPL,
presented by those devices require
customised loudness adaptation that
needs to be based on more sophisticated technologies than the ones we have
been using in the past decade. Critical
aspects include dialogue intelligibility, sound degradation, alterations of
the mixing balance and foreground
sounds modulations.
Although loudness compliance can
still be achieved, the aim of providing listening comfort would fail if the
Alessandro
Travaglini,
Product Manager,
Research &
Development Group,
Minnetonka Audio
& Linear Acoustic
TV Solutions Group
The next wave of loudness
control requirements will
focus more on adaptability
to provide an excellent
listening experience across
the multitude of delivery
specifications and devices.
adaptation could not address those
specific issues, especially for the unpredictable multicasting environment.
The complexities that characterise the
current broadcast universe, which
include linear and non-linear television, are definitely greater than they
were when loudness normalisation was
first adopted.
The next wave of loudness control requirements will focus more on
adaptability to provide an excellent
listening experience across the multitude of delivery specifications and devices, such as live streaming and multiscreen broadcasts. File-based and
real-time operations need to coexist in
order to provide a consistent listening
experience to viewers while complying
with regulatory requirements. Sound
quality must be preserved, or even
enhanced when possible.
The Linear Acoustic APTO ecosystem is a loudness adaptation technology consisting of APTO.file for filebased and APTO.stream for real-time
workflows that uses psychoacoustic
findings and adaptive algorithms to
provide uncompromised loudness
consistency with full regulatory compliance for many different platforms,
devices and standards.
Linear Acoustic APTO provides
fully coherent channels and mix balance, dialogue intelligibility, controllable target values and very efficient
processing time. This achieves uncompromised loudness consistency
throughout the broadcast chain, and
ultimately benefits the viewer. q
October 2016
The stage is set
for DVB Asia 2016
BANGKOK – Following the success of the
DVB World conferences over the past 16
years, DVB will now hold its first-ever DVB
conference in Asia.
To be held at the InterContinental Hotel
in Bangkok from November 29-December
1, the three-day conference programme
will concentrate specifically on the region's
digital TV needs. The inaugural event will
also provide attendees with an “unrivalled
opportunity” to meet leading DVB and
industry experts, who will deliver a range of
opinions and guidance on the transition to
HD and 4K/Ultra HD (UHD) with emerging
High Dynamic Range (HDR), High Frame Rate
(HFR) and much more.
The event will open with a DVBT2 Masterclass led by Professor
Ulrich Reimers of the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany. Professor
Reimers is the former chairman of the DVB
Technical Module from 1992-2012. He is
regarded as a pioneer of digital television
and was elected to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Hall of Fame as one of its most
important personalities.
Immediately following
the conference, a workshop entitled UHD — What you must
know about HDR (High Dynamic Range),
HFR (High Frame Rate) and NGA (Next
Generation Audio) will be conducted by
Professor Ulrich
Reimers (left) of the
Technical University
Braunschweig in
Germany, and former
chairman of the DVB
Technical Module from
1992-2012, will kick
off the inaugural DVB
Asia 2016 Conference
& Exhibition with a
DVB-T2 Masterclass.
Attendees can look
forward to a workshop
entitled UHD — What
you must know about
HDR (High Dynamic
Range), HFR (High
Frame Rate), and NGA
(Next Generation
Audio), which will
be conducted by
David Wood (right),
chairman of the DVB
Commercial Module
for UHDTV, and
consultant to the European Broadcasting Union
(EBU) in technology and innovation.
David Wood, chairman of the DVB Commercial Module for UHDTV, and consultant
to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in
technology and innovation. Having written
extensively on 4K/UHDTV, Wood has also
chaired a number of groups in the ITU-R and
DVB in 4K/UHDTV, and is currently chairing
the DVB Study Mission on virtual reality (VR).
As well as DVB experts, DVB Asia will
include speakers from Akamai, Dolby, EBU,
Harmonic, HHI, Multichoice,
NBTC, Rohde & Schwarz, SATIP Alliance, Samsung, Sony
and TU Braunschweig, who
will share their strategies for
dealing with today’s changing media landscape.
The DVB Asia 2016 Conference & Exhibition will also feature a curated exhibition
space adjacent to the main conference room.
A number of leading companies have already
booked spaces, and if you are interested in
exhibiting or availing of a sponsorship opportunity, please contact Eva Markvoort at
[email protected].
For more information including the
full programme, visit the event website
www.dvbasia.org, where you can also sign
up for DVB Asia 2016 eNews to bring you
regular updates on the event.
Mediacorp enhances Customer360
SINGAPORE – Nielsen and Pointlogic are
working with Singapore terrestrial broadcaster Mediacorp to enhance Customer360,
the latter’s cross-platform targeting solution.
By integrating disparate audience currencies across TV, print, radio, out-of-home
and digital on a single planning platform, the
extended Customer360 now delivers deeper
cross-media insights, including unduplicated
audience reach, frequencies and overlaps for
the first time in Singapore, said Mediacorp.
Roger Moy, head, consumer insights
and analytics, Mediacorp, added: “The augmented Customer360 not only allows us to
measure increasingly fragmented audience
behaviours holistically, but it also advances
our performance optimisation agenda in
meaningful ways.”
As part of the Customer360 product roadmap, Mediacorp will be rolling
out 360, a custom campaign tracking
programme tailored for its top advertisers
through its insights consultancy arm, MRC.
Under 360, computer-assisted telephone
interviews will be conducted monthly on
a range of client-specific metrics for crosschannel attribution, mix modelling and
benchmarking applications.
Jack Lim, chief commercial officer,
Mediacorp, added: “Customer360 will combine the extensive reach of Mediacorp with
sharper audience targeting capabilities. The
ability for brands to tell their transmedia
brand stories, to the right audiences across
the right multi-channel mix, is compelling
for CMOs looking to maximise impact and
campaign performance.”
As the first media owner in the world to
adopt a unified cross-media solution across
its TV, print, radio, outdoor and digital media assets, Mediacorp is taking a “huge step
forward” in delivering invaluable insights to
its clients, said Elizabeth Ausman, Nielsen’s
senior VP of product leadership.
And in the search for greater engagement with consumers, Customer360 is a
“crucial product”, suggested Sjoerd Mostert,
CEO of Pointlogic, a Nielsen company providing marketing decision support systems.
He concluded: “It provides Mediacorp
with a single integrated system that brings
together data that were previously siloed,
and delivers the necessary insights to drive
cross-media campaign performance.”