Making time is easy with ATS' Frame Rate Toolbox

They say that time is precious and this was particularly true for one of our radio customers, a multinational religious broadcaster which receives and processes hundreds of hours of content every day at their US headquarters, from independent providers across the globe. With so much content coming from so many different sources, ensuring consistency and quality was always going to be a challenge.

One of the biggest problems they faced was ensuring that the content they were provided fitted within the allocated scheduling slots. Too short, and there are risks of gaps in programming:, too long, and there is a possibility that the audio may be cut early. In the past this would have required manually checking each file they received and sending back any with a duration that didn’t fit inside the allowed range for re-editing, something that would have taken - you guessed it - time.

Looking for a more automated solution, they approached us to see if we had a tool that could assist them. The good thing for them was that AudioTools Server's powerful toolset could do just that!

The problem of handling inconsistent durations was addressed using our AudioTools Frame Rate Toolbox module. Working with the customer, we built a workflow that analyzes the length of incoming audio and compares it to the target duration. If the audio is too long our Time Stretch process adjusts the speed so that it runs faster; too short and it is slowed down, always maintaining the pitch of the original source. Tolerances are built in to ensure that durations within a certain range are left untouched, while files with too much time deviation can be rejected back to the content provider.

In addition to addressing the client’s duration challenges, the workflow we built also tackled other common problems they faced. Extended sections of silence at the start and end of the file are detected and removed using our AudioTools SilenceTrim Automation option. Extended silences (or low-level audio) during the main program, along with issues like phase anomalies, are picked up and flagged for further investigation using our AudioTools Quality Analysis module, while AudioTools’ loudness management utilities ensure that the output audio levels are always consistent.

All of this means that the customer can be confident that no matter what gets thrown at their AudioTools Server workflow, they will always get the best possible audio on output - and their programs will never run long again!

If you would like to find out how AudioTools Server can help you with your audio requirements, saving you both time and money, please reach out to your AudioTools Server representative. There's no time to lose!