NAB Show 2024 Exhibit Halls Will Show Array of Audio Tech, All Driven by IP

TIt will come as no shock that synthetic intelligence (AI), virtualization and the cloud would be the main developments dominating the agenda at this 12 months’s NAB Show. This applies as a lot to audio because it does to the visually oriented contingent that can be on the exhibition however the sound aspect is seeing some very totally different or particular purposes of those shared applied sciences.

When it involves audio mixing consoles, virtualization and cloud processing are “weekly conversations,” based on Henry Goodman, director of product administration at Calrec Audio. “The majority of individuals wish to discuss what’s going to occur sooner or later with these applied sciences and the way they may profit from these sorts of workflows,” he says.

Another scorching subject, Goodman provides, is, virtually inevitably, AI. “It’s an space we’re all  taking a look at with a substantial amount of curiosity,” he feedback, “and we’re taking a look at it to see the way it can present advantages for us.

“On the console aspect, the world that may curiosity us is offering services that supply some type of assistive mechanisms for the operators. It could possibly be for balancing exterior feeds coming in or offering standardized EQ for sure varieties of microphones. It’s not one thing that’s on the forefront of our improvement programme proper now however we’re undoubtedly maintaining an in depth eye on it.”

AI and cloud processing have been highlighted by different producers in TV Tech’s deal with audio mixing consoles within the January version of TV Tech ("Audio Mixing within the Age of Remote Production") As with many applied sciences, virtualized mixing and processing just isn’t a completely new expertise; it’s now getting used more and more in radio, with Telos Alliance firm Axia supplying consoles for one of many first implementations, the BBC ViLOR challenge, accomplished in 2019.

‘Headless Mixing’
Martin Dyster, vice chairman of enterprise improvement for TV at Telos Alliance, highlights one other development that, though it first appeared elsewhere on the planet a long time in the past, is now gaining traction within the U.S.

 “Audio observe Video [AFV] is changing into more and more prevalent, significantly in reside information at native stations,” he says. (The AFV idea  includes routinely adjusting the timing of audio alerts to match the timing of corresponding video alerts.)

“In some cases the consoles aren’t even a floor, they’re utterly underneath the automation management of the orchestration layer managing the present,” Dyster provides. “This type of ‘headless’ mixing just isn’t new however the U.S. has caught up with it and it’s changing into widespread there.”

Similarly, Dyster continues, Europe is forward of the U.S. in terms of immersive audio, though NBC has broadcast Olympics in some type of immersive audio for the previous a long time. 

Christian Struck, senior product supervisor for audio manufacturing at Lawo, feedback that broadcasters are at the moment demanding “intuitive and complete immersive audio options,” with the flexibility to combine over extensive space networks plus help for decentralized mixing involving a number of consoles.

“Just when immersive audio appeared all set to take the world by storm, it was placed on the again burner by the pandemic,” Struck says. “But it’s again in full drive, due to the prepared availability of playback units, together with smartphones and binaural headphones.”

The IP Network
The previous few NAB Shows have seen the expansion in merchandise that conform to SMPTE ST 2110 for the transport of media streams over IP networks. But, as Phil Owens, senior gross sales engineer at Wheatstone, outlines, the cloud is the subsequent problem for the usual.

“We have seen the entire problem of 2110 environments, the place a bodily set up has two distinct networks, with audio and video on every,” he says. “The audio goes to each concurrently, so if there’s a drop-out on one, it picks up from the opposite immediately inside a body of audio. But there’s now the difficulty of how a 2110 atmosphere will work within the cloud, which continues to be in its early phases.”

Wheatstone can also be devoting what Owens calls “a substantial amount of R&D” in its Layers cloud/server software program platform for mixing, streaming and processing both at cloud knowledge facilities or native servers. However, he additionally sees extra emphasis being placed on voice processing, significantly for information and sports activities protection.

“Broadcasters can get away with much less acoustic remedy or design within the studio and report from environments that they won’t have broadcast from previously as a result of the mic processor can cowl a large number of sins,” Owens mentioned.

Larry Schindel, product supervisor at Telos Alliance, agrees that processing is “shortly transferring” into the virtualized area. “Cloud processing is gaining in reputation as extra workflows migrate to the cloud,” he says. “But there’s nonetheless a big base of shoppers preferring to maintain every little thing ‘on prem’ or at the very least use a little bit of a hybrid strategy.

“Some of the extra widespread varieties of processing in use right this moment are loudness management and upmixing however processes like Object-based Audio with Serial ADM [a metadata format for use with Dolby Atmos] and computerized voice-over mixing are additionally beginning to emerge within the market,” Schindel provides.

Software-Driven Processing
Loudness will once more catch the attention of NUGEN Audio through the NAB Show, with previews of the newest model of its VisLM3 metering plug-in. New options embrace user-defined program segments, which can be utilized the place a number of built-in measurements are required, resembling between advert breaks; help for as much as 22.2 audio channels; stem monitoring; and loudness measuring for particular person deliverables.

Professional audio is unquestionably seeing a “shift in direction of software-driven processing,” based on Will Waters, principal product supervisor at Audinate. This, he says, “underlines the business’s dedication to leveraging superior expertise” to fulfill the evolving calls for of broadcast manufacturing.

Waters additionally sees software program processors having an rising function on the intercom aspect of broadcast manufacturing. “This affords broadcasters much more versatility and effectivity in managing their intercom options,” he explains. “The evolution of broadcast expertise, particularly with digital and IP-based programs, has considerably impacted intercom.

“We’re now seeing Dante as a part of intercom communications by being built-in into the networked audio infrastructure, enabling any variety of audio mixes or routes to exist from the manufacturing gear,” Waters added.

Staying Connected
IP-based intercoms at the moment are nicely established however, as Martin Dyster at Telos observes, the sector continues to evolve.

“We’ve discovered an rising variety of prospects transferring in direction of both full Live Cloud Production (LCP) or a hybrid of on prem and cloud,” Dyster mentioned. “From the finance angle, and maybe surprisingly, we’ve witnessed most of our prospects undertake the Infinity VIP system through a one-time buyout capital buy route. But now we have additionally seen rising curiosity in subscription fashions, particularly the place the intercom is related to a cloud-driven video manufacturing system like Grass Valley AMPP or Viz.”

Some intercom producers have been faster to supply IP programs than others however now all the key manufacturers have at the very least one system primarily based on the expertise.

“I believe IP is now firmly in place,” feedback Marco Lopez, vice chairman of engineering at Clear-Com. “There was a pure development of first standardizing the best way we have been distributing audio alerts throughout the varied infrastructures and now these are getting used for digital audio that could possibly be wired however can also be a method of attaining wi-fi audio connectivity the place, usually, you’d have needed to construct a community of antennas, particularly for very massive scale occasions with many customers connecting to that atmosphere.

“From a expertise viewpoint it’s all in regards to the requirements now, guaranteeing now we have good connectivity and integration utilizing ST 2110, together with NMOS help. in addition to AES67 and Dante,” Lopez added.

With such quite a lot of applied sciences and purposes to analyze and focus on, it could possibly be that audio is one thing of a trendsetter in Las Vegas this 12 months (once more). 

Register for the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas at https://nabshow.com/2024/