The adoption of the EBU Loudness Recommendation R 128 was headline news last week in the German newspapers, underlining the importance of the shift from peak metering to loudness normalisation the broadcast industry is going through and its relevance to the broadcasters' audience. And not only in Germany... Many European countries are gearing up to get rid of the audio level differences that have plagued broadcasting for so many years.
What is needed now is hands-on work to get the professionals trained up and the right equipment in place. The leading broadcasters have already started loudness-specific training programmes, such as Swiss broadcaster SRG-SSR, which held a specific loudness seminar with mixing sessions provided by Uwe Krämer (Medien Akademie ARD/ZDF) and Florian Camerer (ORF).
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Free crash course
The EBU is also organising Loudness education opportunities. The next one will be the special Loudness Workshop on 8-9 December 2011 , which focusses on loudness distribution aspects. The simple fact is that audio-wise many things can go wrong in the chain from broadcaster to the home, even if the broadcasters get their levels right. Examples include faulty set-top box and IDTV implementations.
The free EBU Workshop will address this and explain how broadcasters and distributors can adjust their equipment, how distributors can automatically level the incoming signals, what practical issues need to be addressed and what areas may be improved in the future. If you are professional concerned with broadcast audio, cable, terrestrial or satellite distribution, you should not miss this unique event. The programme and registration information is available here .