Linear Acoustic AERO.air
The Univision Television Group, the largest Spanish-language television network in the United States, has selected Linear Acoustic’s AERO.air 5.1 10-channel Loudness Manager to control audio levels for all of its 64 stations nationwide and Puerto Rico.
The AERO.air 5.1 provides a one-box solution for audio control, along with a robust design with the ability to handle embedded HD/SDI audio and a built-in Dolby AC-3 encoder and is future proofed to handle mobile/handheld, Dolby AC-3 and E decoding/encoding, as well as Nielsen encoding to address code recovery issues.
“We like the USB upgradeability of the AERO.air,” said Ira Goldstone, vice president of engineering for UTG. “Future features are easily integrated, and Univision can adapt on the fly to coming technologies as required. We needed a processor that would be the right choice today and in two years.”
AERO.air includes multiple loudness controllers, dual upmixing, and metadata management, as well as full-time, two-channel downmixing to support legacy stereo or analog paths. UTG also selected the additional HD/SD-SDI input option for its AERO.air models. This option allows UTG to de-embed any of the possible 16 audio channels and vertical ancillary (VANC) metadata. This option allows Univision to forgo have to purchase additional standalone equipment to de-embed 5.1 surround sound in the AC-3 stream.
Broadcasters in the U.S. are under pressure from Congress to resolve loudness issues, particularly audio levels between programming and commercials. In December, the House approved the CALM Act that requires broadcasters to implement solutions to reduce audio discrepancies within a year that the Act has been passed. The Senate has yet to vote on the legislation.
