LM100s Leveraged at
Discovery’s Production Centers

Last year Discovery Communications’ Discovery Production Group purchased more than 90 Dolby^® LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meters. Having used the units for several months, Discovery’s Technical Standards group has deemed the LM100 to be a useful tool in its efforts to better manage program audio levels consistently across its portfolio of networks, which reach 1.3 billion cumulative subscribers globally with distinctive real-world programming.

The Discovery Production Group installed the units in its Production Centers’ quality control (QC) suites, audio mixing suites, edit suites, duplication area and origination facilities. To learn more about the variety of ways in which the LM100 is serving Discovery’s needs, we spoke with Mark Edmondson, Supervisor of Postproduction Audio at Discovery’s Production Center.

Ultimate Tool for Loudness Metering

The LM100’s ability to analyze the many variables associated with perceived loudness, such as dynamics and EQ, made it the proper tool for this task. Says Edmondson, “We found that using the LM100 to calibrate outgoing content provided a very good means of staying within a predefined ‘safe zone’ of dynamic range and matching show-to-show levels.” To optimize loudness consistency, the audio mixers focus on program dialogue. “Dialogue is the central means by which viewers calibrate the listening level of their televisions. Our logic was that, if we can get all of our dialogue to fall within the same dynamic range, we could greatly reduce the need for the viewer to reach for the volume knob.

“Traditional means of measuring audio, such as peak, RMS/VU, and so on, are still a critical part of the QC process,” remarks Edmondson. “We see the LM100’s measurement as a valuable data point that cannot be provided by other means, however, and hence it has become an important factor in QC.”

Overall, Edmondson finds that operators understand the LM100 once they learn to think of it not as an audio meter but as an interpretation of dialogue loudness. “When training users,” he says, “I use the analogy of the LM100’s reading being similar to a weather report’s wind chill factor; it takes in many variables, such as EQ and compression as well as good old peak and VU levels, and uses all of these data to create a single loudness rating for any given segment of material.”

Managing Mixes from Multiple Sources

Once Discovery’s Technical Standards group had revised its audio specification to include the LM100, the group requested that its vendors adhere to this spec. At Discovery, all incoming and outgoing audio (both stereo and surround) is measured using LM100s. With Dolby E as the standard in-house format for multichannel surround sound distribution to the origination centers, the LM100 is used for monitoring both for Dolby E and stereo AES signals.

Discovery Production Group has also found the LM100’s Universal Remote software to be useful. Every mix suite at the Production Center is set up with its own PC and monitoring system specifically for monitoring and controlling the LM100.

Becoming Indispensable

Regarding his own use of the LM100, Edmondson reports, “I find that my mixes definitely translate better to television when I use it. I hear less impact of downstream processing and more of what I intended the viewer to hear.”

Access additional Dolby LM100 Broadcast Loudness Meter resources here.

Creating the Sound of an Enchanted Desert Island

The ABC series Lost was a runaway hit when it first aired in September 2004. Now in the midst of its second season, this multiple Emmy^® Award winning show continues to wow fans with its labyrinthine and surreal plotlines. With its desert island setting and ominous overtones—half adventure, half creature feature—Lost is the perfect vehicle for an involving and even “cinematic” multichannel soundtrack.

Feature Sound on TV

Lost rerecording mixer Scott Weber

Scott Weber and Frank Morrone of Buena Vista Sound, both rerecording mixers for the series, are largely responsible for its sound. The two also share an Emmy nomination for their sound mixing work on the series. According to Weber, “The producers are very particular about the soundtrack. It’s almost as if we’re mixing a feature film every week. Also, the show features dream sequences and flashbacks, which are very heavily driven by sound.”

Weber feels strongly about the use of multichannel audio in his work, and its importance to Lost. “It’s a whole new dimension in sound that goes along with high-definition TV,” he says. “Now you not only have pristine picture but you have the soundtrack to go along with it. The option of using surrounds and a subwoofer in 5.1 opens up the space from what you’d get with a two-channel experience. It helps us to create a bigger environment.”

Consideration for Home Theater Audiences

Lost has always been mixed in 5.1, but the mix team has adjusted its mix philosophy since the first season. Originally, the primary objective was to ensure the two-channel mix translated well to television, with occasional references of the multichannel version. With the start of the second season, the emphasis is shifting. “Part of the evolution of the process came about because the first season went to DVD very quickly,” says Weber. “We had a few surprises when going back and listening to the 5.1 mixes on the DVD version, because we were so focused on the two-channel version. So at the start of this season, we began to mix with more regard for multichannel.”

The team also starting mixing on a set of M&K nearfield monitors, to better replicate the sound of a high-end home theater system. “We’re getting a little more detail with what we’re putting in the surrounds and the subwoofer, and we have more discrete elements in the left and right channels,” he says. “We still check all this against the two-channel, especially with regard to how impacts, explosions, hits, and things like that translate to two-track.”

5.1 Mix Techniques

Weber says that a common first step when mixing Lost is to run the stereo music and background stems through Digidesign’s Dolby^® Surround Tools plug-in to create a spread through the five-channel spectrum. “This gives us a nice full sound in all the speakers without having to making a lot of effort to pan something there. Then we have the opportunity to place discrete elements in various speakers. Effects and specific backgrounds can be panned, and reverbs can be mixed into the surrounds. Having a sub channel is useful for adding impact to hits and explosions. We’ll also occasionally add a little sub to wave crashes to give them a little more thunder.”

Surround is the clearly the icing on the cake for Weber and Morrone. “It would be easy to put everything in the center channel and call it a day, and it would play just fine on television,” says Weber. “But we like to fill up the space.”

Click here for additional information on Dolby Digital 5.1-channel implementations for HDTV and DTV services and postproduction facilities. For more information on ABC’s Lost, click here.

Robbie Williams (right) being interviewed by Taratata host Nagui during France4's first 5.1 transmission

Dolby^® Digital continues to have great success on terrestrial DTV services throughout France. Digital terrestrial channels France4 and TF1 launched Dolby Digital services on December 1 and 6, respectively. (France4 launched with a concert from pop singer Robbie Williams, broadcast in 5.1.) Following success with Dolby Digital on its satellite platform, Canal+ also launched its film channel on terrestrial in December. The channel, called Hi-Tech, broadcasts films in 5.1 via DVB-T, and has since been made available on the network’s new Pilotime PVR system.

These new channels join NRJ12 and M6, both of which started broadcasting in the summer, taking the total number of terrestrial Dolby Digital channels in France from zero to five in nine months.

See A Guide to HDTV in Europe for additional information about implementing Dolby Digital for European HDTV services.

News Bytes

The 48th Annual Grammy^® Awards was broadcast live by CBS using Dolby^® Digital 5.1 on its digital service. (This is the fourth year CBS has done so.) The awards were held on February 8 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Westwood One Inc., the largest radio network in the US, also broadcast the Grammys over the radio worldwide using Dolby Pro Logic^® II.

The Torino Winter Games, held in Torino, Italy, from February 10 through 26, were broadcast on NBC in HDTV and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. The games were also broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1 on the Universal HD cable network. The feed sent over NBC’s standard NTSC service, as well as cable networks MSNBC, CNBC, and USA, carried surround sound from a Dolby Pro Logic II encoded version of the same mix provided to the HD services. Find additional on NBC’s Torino Winter Games broadcasts here.

President Bush’s 2006 State of the Union Address, which took place on January 31, was the first to be broadcast with Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround on NBC’s HD service. (High-definition has been in use for the annual speech since 2004.) The high-def, multichannel feed was carried by participating NBC digital affiliates.

MTV Network Music Group launched its first HD channel, MHD, with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. MHD carries music-based native HD programming, including MTV Unplugged, VH1 Storytellers and CMT Crossroads, music events such as the MTV Video Music Awards, new shows from its Vail studio such as MHD UnCompressed, and the exclusive concert series Music with Altitude, featuring live performances from Dashboard Confessional, the Goo Goo Dolls, and country recording artist Gary Allan.

Click here for more details on MTV’s MHD channel and its use of Dolby Digital.

Other major annual events continue to be broadcast in Dolby Digital 5.1, including ABC’s airing of the Super Bowl on February 5—the event has been transmitted in 5.1 since 2002—and the upcoming 78th Annual Academy Awards^® presentation on Sunday, March 5, on ABC’s HD service.