Linear Acoustic, Cobalt Digital Join Forces on 5.1 Surround

By Dan Daley

Linear Acoustic and Cobalt Digital Inc. announced at the NAB Show that they have teamed up to incorporate Linear Acoustic upMAX surround-sound upmixing technology into Cobalt’s 9305 embedded audio-delay processor. Together, these technologies allow broadcasters to receive any stereo-pair source material and upmix it to 5.1 for storage or transmission.

Upmixing for Cobalt’s 9305 processor is provided by the renowned Linear Acoustic upMAX algorithm, which enables 5.1-channel audio with complete downmix compatibility. The upMAX algorithm also includes the new Linear Acoustic AutoMAX-II auto-detection algorithm, which automatically bypasses upmixing when applied content is already 5.1 channels. The user can enable the upmix, or it can run in an automatic mode, monitoring the input audio for stereo audio, which is converted to upmixed 5.1 surround. User controls support audio-channel mapping, allowing the operator to adjust audio center width and the surround field depth, as well as to enable/disable the LFE channel.

Capable of applying independent delay for up to 16 channels, the Cobalt 9305 processor receives an HD/SD-SDI signal, de-embeds all audio data, applies a separate delay to each channel, and re-embeds the audio into the video stream — all without touching the active picture or any non-audio ancillary packets. The system offers adjustable delay to 30 seconds and allows the operator to lock pair delays.