Fraunhofer AAC codec assists CALM compliance
Published: PRODUCTS
Audio and multimedia technology developer Fraunhofer IIS is offering metadata support for its AAC family of audio codecs, which address the loudness control requirements of current and future broadcasting systems.
Fraunhofer’s AAC family of audio codecs, including AAC and HE-AAC, now offer the ability to carry the original broadcast metadata to meet the requirements of the CALM Act.
Fraunhofer Audio Metadata Technology solves loudness issues when existing ATSC broadcast signals are translated to AAC for transmission over cable or satellite networks to consumer’s homes. The technology also allows for loudness and dynamic range control for ATSC-M/H Mobile DTV transmissions using HE-AAC. Although the AAC family of codecs has included broadcast metadata support since their standardisation between 1999 – 2004, it has only been with the recent introduction of metadata translation software, such as Fraunhofer’s Metadata Transcoder, that it has been possible to convert ATSC A/52 metadata into the AAC format.
Fraunhofer’s solution permits all of the standard A/52 metadata, such as Dialogue Normalisation, Dynamic Range Control and Downmix Coefficients, to be translated in real time to their AAC equivalents. ATSC M/H encoders may also use Fraunhofer Audio Metadata Software to encode AAC metadata parameters directly or from Dolby E sources. All new AAC decoders for broadcast receivers and set-top boxes from Fraunhofer and other major suppliers will support AAC metadata decoding and are interoperable. The HE-AAC codec supports multi-channel broadcasting at only 160k bit/s.
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