Minnetonka Audio Software has released a new loudness measurement and control plug–in for Harmonic’s Carbon Server platform that adds a wide range of audio level control features to Harmonic’s file–based ProMedia Carbon transcoding software. The new AudioTools plug–in provides loudness measurement and optional loudness adjustment in a single package, and is comprised of two separately licensed components, a base loudness measurement module and optional loudness adjustment extension.
The AudioTools Loudness Control for Harmonic’s ProMedia Carbon supports multiple instances, whereby one license covers multiple “instantiations” simultaneously within several different workflows.
The key component of the new product is the AudioTools Loudness Measurement module. It supports the fundamental new ITU and EBU loudness standards, ITU-R BS.1770-2 and EBU R 128 (2011), and is in accordance with the CALM Act (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation) as well as the ATSC’s most recent Recommended Practice A/85:2011.
The module measures Momentary, Short Term and Program Loudness, along with Loudness Range, Maximum True Peak level and Program Loudness (ITU). The measurement results are formatted as XML and are available to ProMedia Carbon for logging and reporting. Mono, stereo and multichannel PCM configurations can be measured. In addition to the overall loudness measurement results, minimum and maximum overall values are reported, as well as measured loudness parameters throughout the file at one-second intervals.
AudioTools Loudness Adjustment is an option for the AudioTools Loudness Control for Harmonic ProMedia™ Carbon plug–in that applies loudness adjustment to the incoming essence to reach the desired target Program Loudness or target Loudness Range values.
Loudness adjustment can be performed in accordance with EBU R 128. Mono, stereo and multichannel PCM configurations can be processed, while target values can be set for Program Loudness, ITU Program Loudness and Loudness Range. If the loudness level is different from the Target Loudness Value, adjustment is applied, and Maximum True Peak Level and Maximum Momentary Loudness Levels are limited to previously specified target levels.
