In Part 1 of our series, we examined the impact of the CALM Act, addressed some lingering loudness issues, and reinforced the continued relevance of real-time processing. This time, in Part 2, we’ll take a closer look at the challenges content creators and broadcasters face when managing loudness in a file-based workflow. Are there different requirements? Are all loudness control techniques created equal?

Terrestrial radio is facing a real challenge: Listeners are besieged with ever-increasing audio entertainment options. The bedside clock radio is fading fast. The kitchen radio has been replaced by a tablet or a TV. In fact, the percentage of households with no radio at all has zoomed from 4 percent to 29 percent in 10 years, according to Ryan Higbie, writing for xapp media. He continues, “The rise in homes with multiple televisions and the popularity of streaming services have materially impact radio listening in the home.”

It’s been nearly six years since the CALM Act – the bill passed to address the issue of loud television commercials – was put into effect in the U.S. We thought it a good time to re-examine the loudness issue in a series of blog posts. Here in Part 1 we’ll explore whether or not these legislative mandates have been effective and find out if content producers and broadcasters are still struggling with managing loudness in traditional OTA  and OTT distribution.

In the wild (and sometimes wacky) world of audio processing, there are many variables that contribute to the final result. Many discussions, and debates, have ensued over topics such as wideband or multiband: If multiband – how many bands, analog or digital, use phase rotation or not? EQ – what kind? And the list goes on. While all of these contribute to the final result, there’s one function that actually defines the audio signature more so than all of these, and that is the final section, known as the hard limiter, or clipper.

College Radio Day, known internationally as World College Radio day, took place on Friday, October 5th this year, when hundreds of college radio stations came together once again to celebrate the unique medium of college radio. Founded in 2010 by Dr. Rob Quicke, College Radio Day harnesses the combined audience of countless thousands of college radio listeners throughout the world to draw attention to the important contributions of college radio.

IBC 2018 is a wrap. As our feet start to regain feeling, we want to take this opportunity to thank all those who visited us at IBC 2018. It was truly an extraordinary show, which would not have been possible without our customers, prospects, partners, and friends. For those who did not attend IBC, check out select snaps from our IBC Facebook photo album.

Before starting Omnia, I was very lucky to have worked at a couple of extremely successful radio stations, WMMS-FM, Cleveland, and WHTZ-FM (Z-100), NYC, where we prided ourselves on being the best. Anything other than #1 in the ratings was not an option. The motivation for Omnia growing from ‘worst-to-first’ was highly influenced by Z-100’s historic (and never since duplicated) journey from ‘worst-to-first’ in only one ratings period, in 1983. For Omnia (now a part of The Telos Alliance) it took a little longer to dislodge the long-time leader.

This year's IBC show in Amsterdam is gonna be one for the books. The Telos Alliance is launching four new products in Stand 8.D47, September 14-18, including the powerful new Axia Pathfinder Core PRO VM and appliance, the Telos VX Enterprise & Prime+ Multi-Line VoIP Phone Systems, and the Linear Acoustic Automatic Realtime Control (ARC) Television Loudness Processor. Read on for the details... 

At this year's IBC show, Telos Alliance will demonstrate a cutting-edge virtual machine (VM) concept we are calling 'The HyperStudio Experience' in stand #8.D47 at the RAI Amsterdam, September 14-18. The demo will feature Telos Alliance products running virtually in a hypervisor environment. 

Updated September 13, 2018

At Telos Alliance, our round-the-clock support team is ready to help customers who experience technical problems during Hurricane Florence. Telos Alliance Support is available 24 hours a day every day of the year anywhere in the world, so support technicians are already standing by. Telos Alliance Support responds within minutes, not days, to help customers get back up and running, fast.