Last week’s joint announcement from ARD, ZDF and VPRT (the association of commercial broadcasters in Germany) is a strong indication of the growing popularity of EBU Loudness Recommendation R128. The recommendation, which is being adopted in many European countries, addresses the problem of wide variations in the volume levels of broadcasts. It allows broadcasters to measure and adjust audio using loudness meters instead of peak meters only, which has been the common practice.
Broadcasters in Germany have agreed to start applying EBU R128 as of 31 August 2012. The joint approach, with both the public and private broadcasters agreeing to implement the EBU recommendation simultaneously, demonstrates the extent to which the industry recognises the need to address the loudness issue. ZDF’s director of production, Dr Andreas Bereczky, welcomed the news saying “this harmonisation is a very good result for all television viewers. Many of the unpleasant perceived loudness differences will soon be a thing of the past.”
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| The Loudness Summit 2012; Richard van Everdingen (DBLC) was one of the many participants from the EBU PLOUD group. | ||
December has been a busy month for the ‘Loudness community’ with two significant events taking place. The EBU hosted a Loudness Distribution Workshop on December 8th and 9th, focussing on the implications of loudness normalisation for distribution companies (e.g. cable and IPTV distributors) and CE manufacturers. One result of this workshop was the clear call to explore the use of EBU R128 for radio. The EBU event was followed a week later by The Loudness Summit in London, where the topic was addressed in a broader context. A key point raised during that event was the need to properly implement any end-stage loudness normalisation, preventing the renormalisation of already R128 compliant material.
For information on implementing EBU R128, see the presentations from the EBU Loudness Worskhop.