At AES, TC Electronic introduced its LM2 stereo loudness and true-peak level meter to the United States. The LM2 meter enables high levels of loudness precision and quality in audio applications, eliminating level jumps and other aural inconsistencies for polished sound.
The new LM2 enables full compliance with both the European R128 loudness standard as well as U.S. standards. The meter analyzes any audio, be it speech, music or other sources, assigning it an ATSC A/85- or EBU R128-compliant loudness number. These numbers may be used to normalize programs, commercials and music tracks as well as to set metadata in AC3 transmission. This eliminates level jumps and other inconsistencies sometimes caused by human error.
For a person mixing for many hours, ear fatigue makes it increasingly difficult to accurately determine loudness levels. With the TC Electronic LM2 meter, the user can rely on an exact number as a reference for the mix instead of his ears. Similarly, using the LM2 as part of a monitoring signal path ensures a consistent loudness level in the mixing environment.
Users can view the loudness numbers generated by the LM2 on the meter’s front panel or stats display. Connecting the LM2 to a PC or Mac via USB allows access to TC Electronic’s radar-meter technology, which displays loudness over a given period of time. The radar can show loudness data from up to 24 hours back in time, even if there was no connection to a computer during that period.
The LM2 meter is ideal for a variety of broadcast audio applications as well. During ingest, it can be employed to measure loudness and the true-peak level of incoming audio signals, revealing any signal overloads. Built-in gain normalization enables it to correct gain to a preset loudness level, while a 48-bit precision limiter ensures that if the gain has been positively invoked, there will be no overloads.
Pretransmission, the LM2 can log the outgoing loudness level of the broadcast station for a full week, even without a computer connection. Similarly, post-transmission, the LM2 can be used to monitor and log what is sent out. File access is available with any computer on a plug-and-play basis, allowing detailed log files to be imported into Excel.
The LM2 meter is compliant with ITU-R BS.1770, ATSC A/85, EBU R128, NABJ, OP-59, BCAP and many other standards. It offers a wide variety of 24-bit resolution audio inputs and outputs, including AES/EBU, TOS, SPDIF/AES3 id, ADAT and analog. Digital I/Os are fully synchronous, while analog I/Os are scaled in the analog domain for maximum use of converter dynamic range. Analog inputs can be trimmed at .01dB precision.
