Dolby Showcases Solutions for Digital Transition and Beyond
Dolby Laboratories has unveiled the latest additions to its broadcast audio portfolio at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show.
The new Dolby Media Meter, as well as new features to the Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter and Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer, are part of the company’s overall showcase of loudness, transcoding, and licensing solutions that help address current broadcaster concerns, and help lay the foundation for next-generation broadcast services.
Today’s broadcaster is faced with an evolving landscape that now includes IPTV, mobile, Internet, and digital radio, along with terrestrial, cable, and satellite services. As such, Dolby demonstrated its new aacPlus by Dolby prototype codec, for situations where high quality and high efficiency coding are priorities. It is an essential addition to Dolby’s suite of audio solutions (including Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus) all of which aim to deliver the best possible audio quality.
Dolby’s broadcast loudness technologies have reduced viewer complaints related to abrupt changes in volume that occur between programs or when switching channels. Dolby Media Meter, new to the Dolby Media Producer family of products, is a unique software loudness meter for Mac and PC applications that utilizes measurement techniques such as Dialogue Intelligence technology. Adapted from the Emmy Award–winning Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter, the Dolby Media Meter allows postproduction and broadcast facilities to more easily meet content delivery specifications. The product will be available later this year.
In addition, Dolby upgraded its LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter to incorporate the new ITU-R BS.1770 Loudness Algorithm, recognized as a worldwide de facto standard for broadcast program measurement. The LM100 includes true-peak measurement support per ITU-R BS.1770 Annex 2, and ITU method Dialogue Intelligence support via user control. The ITU-R BS.1770 method is included in addition to the legacy Leq(A) method that the LM100 has utilized for years.
Transcoding between audio formats is becoming increasingly necessary to meet the needs of the evolving broadcast industry. Dolby demonstrated the transcoding capabilities of the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer and the Cat. No. 561 Dolby Digital Plus Encoder OEM Module with Dolby E, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and aacPlus by Dolby audio formats.
The aacPlus by Dolby codec will use Dolby code base for an improved audio quality version of HE AAC, and be fully compliant with the HE AAC standard. Key features include:
- Support for all Dolby metadata;
- Delivery of a consistent experience across all decoders;
- Decoding capability by traditional and nontraditional multichannel and stereo broadcast devices, such as TVs, set-top boxes, A/V receivers, mobile phones, Internet appliances, and PCs.
The company plans to include support of the aacPlus by Dolby codec across a wide range of Dolby products in the future.
Dolby made available new licensing programs for Dolby E decoding, as well as for transcoding from Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital Plus. The Dolby E decoding licensing solution is available for both real-time, streaming applications (via object code for Texas InstrumentsTM TMS320C67xTM and C64xTM DSPs, as well as C-source code) and non-real-time, non-streaming, file-based applications (via software libraries for Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Apple Mac operating systems).
Products incorporating a Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital Plus professional transcoder license can be designed to transcode a Dolby Digital audio stream to a Dolby Digital Plus audio stream while preserving audio metadata and minimizing tandem coding losses often associated with this type of process.
The core transcoder is implemented using object code for the Texas Instruments C64x fixed-point DSP platform or C source code.
Rounding out the news, Dolby also highlighted a new upmixing feature (from two to 5.1 channels) on the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer. This feature uses a highly sophisticated algorithm developed by Dolby. Dolby also showcased the Neyrinck SoundCode for Broadcast software plug-in for Digidesign Pro Tools and other digital audio and video workstations, giving DAW users complete access to the DP600’s unique set of audio tools.
Source: BroadcastBuyer
