With the promise of reducing audience complaints on sound level differences, the EBU work on loudness has proven very popular amongst broadcasters, equipment manufacturers and other industry organisations. Last week, the EBU P/LOUD Group held its third meeting at the ORF in Vienna. Points discussed included the following.
LFE
One of the current considerations is how to treat the Low Frequencey Effects (LFE) channel with regard to loudness metering. Should it be included in the measurement or not? The Group decided to do some experiments to provide a practical basis to answer this question.
Gating
Another issue is how to gate out more or less 'silent periods' in an audio signal. This concerns the parts that are not of interest to the loudness 'number' you would like the meter to show. The Group is currently considering a dynamic threshold and is starting tests with it as well.
| Test material
Various broadcasters in P/LOUD have already contributed test material and more input is planned. The material will be used to test above and various other elements, such as the desired target level/range. A key requirement for most of the test material is that it should be dynamic, after all, the whole promise of loudness metering and levelling is that audio will become more dynamic again. | |
International representation
Currently about 70 professionals from 20 countries are participating in P/LOUD. If you are a broadcaster or loudness equipment menufacturer not yet in the Group, you are invited to join us. Go here for more detail.
If you would like to learn more about loudness first, follow one of the links to the right of this page. For EBU Members a very good starting point is the upcoming Loudness Webinar, held 13 March 2009.