Complete Coverage:NAB Show 2013
With broadcasters looking for better CALM Act technologies
to control new regulations designed to control loud commercials, Linear
Acoustic is launching two new products, the AERO.2000 Audio/Loudness Manager
and LQ-1 Loudness Meter, at this year's NAB Show.
In an interview, the company's founder and president Tim
Carroll noted that while the company has expanded its range of products for
addressing CALM Act compliance, their real focus is on improving audio quality.
"For the last few years, we have been working on systems
that allow content producer to maintain quality all way to viewer," he noted.
"Improved audio was part of the promise of digital TV. Unfortunately, audio is
a lot more complex than anyone imagined....and the CALM Act didn't help."
To change that, he stressed that the new products are not
"just about being CALM Act compliant. They are designed to preserve what the
original creator intended in post-production so viewers see and hear that
quality on the broadcast channel."
He noted that the AERO.2000 is the successor to the
company's highly successful AERO.air. It includes such features as AEROMAX
loudness control with Linear Acoustic Intelligent Dynamics hybrid metadata processing.
Dolby Digital encoding, Dolby Digital/Dolby E decoding, and
Nielsen Watermarking are optional.
The new Linear Acoustic LQ-1 Loudness Meter supports ITU-R
BS.1770-1/2/3 loudness metering standards and includes selectable Dolby
Dialogue Intelligence automatic speech gating.
Carroll noted that the resulting metered value agrees with
standards and such recommended practices as ATSC A/85 and EBU R128.
"I'm very excited about the new products but
most happy to be getting back to the basic issue of audio quality," he noted.
"We want to be to work with industry so it can be complaint and at the same
time made programming sound good."
