Meeting Topic: Broadcast Loudness
Moderator Name: Rob DiVito; Sylvia Fantin
Speaker Name: Scott Norcross - Senior Research Engineer, Communications Research Centre, Ottawa; Kenneth Hunold - Broadcast Applications Engineer, Dolby Laboratories, Inc., New York; Ron Lynch — Engineering Manager at Technicolor; Jackson Wiegman - Evertz Product Manager, Multiviewer Systems and Intelli Technology.
Other business or activities at the meeting: Paul Roser of SMPTE introduced himself. He discussed SMPTE business and future meetings; and also welcomed four new members into SMPTE. Rob DiVito announced the survey emailed out to the AES membership to help plan and structure meetings more efficiently. Next meetings were announced including: Air Acoustics in February 28; Marshall Chasin March 28; and Revolution Recorders Studio May 22. Rob thanked SMPTE for taking on the joint meeting. He also thanked Ron Lynch who came up with topic of Broadcast Loudness. Rob thanked Evertz for sponsoring this evening's meeting.
Meeting Location: Ryerson University - Eaton Theatre, Rogers Communications Building - Toronto, ON
This was a joint meeting with the Toronto SMPTE group. It purpose was to give attendees an understanding of the international standards,recommended practices, the difference and interaction between audio loudness and dynamic range, the various applicable terms/acronyms, how to assess compliance, the effect on the consumer and the technologies available for monitoring, processing and controlling loudness to ensure compliance.
Rob DiVito introduced the Scott Norcross and provided his background. Scott Norcross' presentation give an overview of the creation of ITU-R BS.1770 and the various activities that led to the adoption of it.
The differences between the ATSC and EBU recommendations were discussed, one being ATSC was strictly for digital television while EBU attempts to solve the loudness problem for everything — radio, television, etc. Also discussed were potential regulations from the CRTC in Canada as well as the CALM act in the US.
He acknowledged the contributions of Michel Lavoie at the end of his talk.
Sylvia Fantin introduced Kenneth Hunold and gave his background. Ken's presentation showed loudness variation data on several programming networks. He described strategies for programmers and distribution partners to manage the loudness of the content before delivery. These can be employed cooperatively by producers, distributor, and stations to maintain consistent program loudness.
Many of the methods of traditional loudness processing end up reducing the dynamic
range of the content, so some examples of the interaction between traditional loudness and dynamic range were demonstrated. Before-and-after charts were shown. Kenneth also presented some audio examples.
Rob DiVito introduced Ron Lynch and provided Ron's background. Ron's presentation covered the new terms/acronyms, audio measurements from local over the air and re-distributed broadcasts to assess overall achievements in meeting compliance requirements.
There's little standardization in the design of the consumer products that receive broadcast signals. The home viewer's ability to understand and manage the audio metadata arriving at their entertainment systems is not always consistent nor user
friendly. Options for end user interfaces were examined.
Jackson Weigman was introduced by Sylvia Fantin. She provided his background. She thanked Evertz' again for their Sponsorship.
Jackson's presentation gave an overview of loudness monitoring and processing
technologies available to broadcasters and MVPD's. These ensure that they are
compliant with existing regulations. He discussed how they can utilize loudness monitoring and processing to provide a better experience to their viewers.
There was a brief question and answer period after each presentation.
Rob thanked all the presenters, and SMPTE for inviting the Toronto AES section to this meeting.
