Broadcast loudness experts Linear Acoustic recently kicked off its 2010 Hear Factor Tour with a presentation at the Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) Chapter 36 meeting in San Diego. This tour expands on loudness control issues discussed in the company’s previous Myth Busters tour series. Presented at local SBE and SMPTE meetings across the United States, the tour includes presentations and discussions led by audio experts from Linear Acoustic.
Hear Factor focuses on understanding the need for loudness metering and control in TV audio, from original content creation to ingest and final transmission. It also demonstrates some of the “gotchas” of metadata including dialnorm, and how stations can use upmixing of stereo to surround so their sound doesn’t collapse when transitioning from network to local programming.
The presentation will examine the reasoning behind the recently published ATSC Recommended Practice A/85, “Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television,” and reveals simple and effective means for broadcast facilities to implement the practices. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM) legislation H.R.1084 and S.2847, passed by the House and pending in the Senate, directly references A/85, mandating the FCC to enforce the recommended practices.
“In the current economic climate, many station chiefs have to work with very tight capital equipment budgets,” says Ed Simeone, vice president of U.S. sales for Linear Acoustic and one of the presenters on the Hear Factor Tour. “This combined with the pending CALM Act is leaving many stations unsure as to how to comply with the ATSC A/85 recommendations, or if their current audio processing equipment will do the job. The Hear Factor tour looks to take the fear factor out of a station’s audio processing and monitoring decisions.”
The Hear Factor tab on the Linear Acoustic Web site will be updated regularly with coming tour dates.
