Loudness 201: Advanced Loudness Webinar

Loudness 201

Review of Loudness 101 & Advanced Loudness Discussion

Andrew Sachs

VP. Product Management

Jennifer Knutel

Sr. Dir of Marketing

How to Participate Today

1. Open and close your Panel

2. Submit text questions

1.

2. Submit text questions

• Q&A addressed at the end of today’s session

• Everyone will receive an email within 48 hours with a link to view a recorded version of today’s session

2.

• Loudness 101 Review

– Why loudness?

– Specs/Regs including BS.1770-2,

– Gating – reflecting perception, avoid gaming

• Advanced Loudness

Agenda

• Advanced Loudness

– Changes in Regulations – ITU & Countries

– Network Certification – What is this?

– International Carriage Considerations

• Volicon Solution Overview

• Q&A

Why Loudness?

• Tragedy of the Commons

• Level according to peaks

• Users pay more attention to loud content

– Advertising recognition is higher

– Advertisers KNOW and use this

Difference

is much

larger

than

with analogPGM

Ad

PGM

Ad

PGM

– Advertisers KNOW and use this

• Users feel they need to adjust volume

– Detracting from their overall QoE

– Solution:

• Level according to “loudness perception”

• Content flexibility with good user experience

– Now, what is “loudness perception”?

Volume

Adjustments

No Volume

Adjustments

Loudness Specifications & Regulations

Specification

What is loudness?

Recommended

BS.1770-2 LKFS gated

Recommended

Practices

How to use loudness

Regulation

How it is enforced

R128Tech 3341/2/3 A/85 RP TR-B32

Loudness Specification

• BS.1770-2 (03/2011) -Loudness, True Peak & Gating

– Not all frequencies are equal

– Not all (surround) channels are equal– Not all (surround) channels are equal

• Rear Surrounds are overweighted +1.5 dB

• LFE is not counted

– One loudness meas for all channels combined

– Gating to not count quiet periods

• Don’t allow gaming of measurement

• Level gating is in BS-1770-2, Dialog gating is not

Gating Review - What’s the big deal?

• Gating is critical

– Ensure correlation with loudness perception

– Helps prevent gaming by advertisers

• Gating is specified 2/3 different ways:

– BS.1770-2, EBU, Most of the world – Cascaded level -10dB

x.y

LKFS

gate

– BS.1770-2, EBU, Most of the world – Cascaded level -10dB

– ATSC

• Short Form: No Gating, measure everything

• Long form (>2m) : Dialog Level – aka Dialog gating

• Measurements with different gating – need agreement with:

– Regulatory authority – What is being enforced

– Partners – Studio, Network, Broadcaster, Pay-TV operator

• Troubleshooting Apples v. oranges is not productive

Changes in Regulations

• Many countries moving forward with loudness regulation

– Brazil, France, …

– Almost all countries are using EBU /BS.1770-2 measurements

– Commercial v. Channel is regulated by all

– Other different items may be regulated– Other different items may be regulated

• Absolute channel tolerance or channel to channel difference (many)

• 5 day channel loudness drift – Italy

• Max S Measurement, - France

• Min Loudness Range – France

• Enforcement is starting….

– Italy- active, US - Dec 2012, many in 2013

– Time to get real

Considerations for International Carriage

• Content going to one country?

– Design and measure and alarm using local gating and regulations

• Content going to multiple countries?

– Same Gating – possibly different thresholds– Same Gating – possibly different thresholds

• Measure with one gating,

• Alarm on most restrictive thresholds

– Different Gating – e.g. Dialog and Cascaded level

• Measure content twice – once with each Gating

– Differences are unpredictable, no applicable rule of thumb

– -24 LKFS is NOT -23 LUFS!!!

• Apply tightest thresholds for each gating method (by country)

-24 LKFS ����

ATSC Network Certification – Why?

• Where does the blame fall in the chain?

– Programmer, Network, Broadcaster, MVPD?

RegulatesProtectsEnforces

Network

MVPDCable

Satellite

IPTV

Broadcaster

ProgrammerCable

Network

Blame

ATSC Network Certification – Why?

• To allow broadcasters and MVPDs to

– Guarantee what they deliver

– Respond to complaint inquiries

– Not redo work performed by others

• Two step process if you do insert ads

– Get certification on Network

– Or certify it yourself

– Guarantee your ad inserts are compliant

ATSC Network Certification – What?

• Accessible

– Made generally available by Network (web)

– Allows all Broadcaster and MVPDS to access

• Content

– Not regulated – but must convince FCC/MVPDs

– Several approaches

– Legal statement certifiying compliance

– Measurements showing compliance

– Either require backup - Volicon!

PGM1 -23.6 LKFS

COM12 -24.0 LKFS

PGM2 -24.1 LKFS

>..

ATSC Network Certification – Who

• Who is to provide certification?

– Anyone who wants to help their downstream partners

– Practically – (Cable) Networks

RegulatesProtects

Network

MVPDCable

Satellite

IPTV

Broadcaster

ProgrammerCable

Network

Observer Loudness Monitoring

• Loudness measurements -LKFS and LUFS -with gating

• Short (S), Medium (M) and Interval (I) measurements

• Up to 7 Short-form Interval (SI) - e.g 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s

• Up to 7 Long-form Interval (LI) - e.g. 6h, 1d, 5d

• Loudness Range (LRA) to measure audio companding• Loudness Range (LRA) to measure audio companding

• Detailed 10Hz measurements - with Audio & Video

Observer Loudness Monitoring

• Graphing of S, M and I measurements over time

� Multiple channel, multiple meas.

� Graph <=> video time navigation

• Export :

� Logged measurements as csv

� Affidavit - A/V with burned in measurements� Affidavit - A/V with burned in measurements

• Programs Certification Report

� With As-Run-Log Integration

� Loudness of Every Asset

• Alarming (SNMP, email, visual)

� Customizable alarming profiles based on SI and LI measurements

A/V affidavitWith meas Burn-in

export

CSV values report

Observer Loggers with Loudness

• Software module available on

– Observer, Observer TS, RPM

• Observer family of products are loggers at the core

– Records audio, video & loudness measurements continuouslycontinuously

– 3 to 365 days of storage

• Logger + measurement is very powerful

– Speeds troubleshooting, unambiguous affidavit

– Eliminates Network � Station � MVPD back and forth

Loudness logging is not a sea of numbers. It means

recording the audio, video,

and the loudness measurements.

• ATSC A/85 RP

• ITU BS. 1770-1 BS.1770-2

• EBU R128 Tech 3341 Tech 3342

• Tech 3343 Tech 3344

Loudness Detail - specs

BS.1770-1 BS.1770-2

a85 rp 2011

EBU R128 Tech 3341 Tech 3342

• Tech 3343 Tech 3344

• FCC Findings Dec 2011 –

• Cable Labs summary of CALM Act

– For Cable Operators only

17

Tech 3343

FCC Calm Act

11-182A1

Tech 3344

CALM act

summary

Q&A

Please contact us for

additional product information

Andrew Sachs

VP. Product Management

andrew@volicon.com

Jennifer Knutel

Sr. Dir of Marketing

jennifer@volicon.com

For more information please

contact us (info@volicon.com)

+1 781 221 7400

Andrew Sachs

VP. Product Management

andrew@volicon.com

Jennifer Knutel

Sr. Dir of Marketing

jennifer@volicon.com