Digital audio specialist Jünger Audio and Minnetonka Audio have announced a technology partnership resulting in Jünger Audio’s Level Magic loudness management algorithm being supported by Minnetonka Audio Software’s AudioTools Server. This marks the first deployment of Level Magic in a file-based domain.
Designed to solve and automate even the most sophisticated of audio tasks, Minnetonka Audio Software’s AudioTools Server is a flexible and customisable enterprise software system for file-based workflows. The server provides a complete solution for managing and processing linear PCM, Dolby E, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Digital Plus content, as well as the audio essence in MXF and QuickTime clips.
With Level Magic available as an optional module for AudioTools Server, broadcasters and programme makers will no longer be plagued by ‘surprise’ level changes when switching from one audio source to another, nor will they have to cope with wildly varying loudness levels and the havoc they can wreak on unattended operation.
‘The broadcast industry continues to be moving towards file-based processes and platforms. File based processes allow for more options, including purely scaling of program loudness levels. Broadcasters have recently experienced that this may not be enough. Level Magic on AudioTools Server allows broadcasters to use the same type of audio processing, already used in their real time playout, in the file-based domain. This basically allows to combine the best of both worlds (real time and file based) on the AudioTools Server enterprise platform,’ says Markus Hintz, VP of Global Sales & Business Development for Minnetonka Audio.
‘Integrating Level Magic with the AudioTools Server is a great way to deliver our dynamic loudness control solution to broadcasters who are using a batch folder, file-based system,’ says Jünger Audio CEO, Peter Poers. ‘This innovation ensures that files for distribution and broadcast achieve the same audio performance as the thousands of real-time live streams already being processed by Level Magic. The industry has often requested access to Level Magic for file based systems and we are delighted that our technology partnership with Minnetonka satisfies that demand.’
Poers adds that there are certain types of audio content, for example those that were not originally created for broadcast, where the nature of their dynamic structure means that applying a simple level based normalisation can produce unpleasant results. In these cases, the intelligent and adaptive nature of Level Magic allows content to be normalised to the appropriate loudness standard while preserving the original dynamic range and characteristics.
‘Already proven for real-time loudness management in thousands of broadcast installations, these benefits are now available to users working in the file domain thanks to this integration into AudioTools Server,’ he says.
