Linear Acoustic Delivers Audio Quality and Loudness Control for Ecuador’s Ecuavisa
Story Highlights
While regulations regarding television loudness have been implemented in many parts of the world, including the U.S. with 2012’s CALM Act, the vast majority of television broadcasters in Latin American countries have not yet been affected by such legislation. Ecuador’s Ecuavisa network was no exception, until it occurred to Engineer Felipe Paucar that because Ecuavisa’s programming was also being delivered to U.S. viewers, it needed to be CALM-compliant. Gilbert Felix, Linear Acoustic Field Applications Engineer for Latin America, introduced Paucar to the company’s AERO.lite Loudness Controller, placing it in the transmission path feeding the satellite and cable providers.
“I noticed right away that the fidelity was much higher than it had been before, and we sounded much better than the rest of the stations,” said Paucar. “Then we started hearing back from the cable and satellite companies that our loudness levels were perfectly controlled and consistent. That was not the case before AERO.lite. We opted for the built-in loudness meter, and that really made matching the output levels easy.” Programming is also distributed to Peru through Telefonica with similar success.
Even though stations in Ecuador don’t need to worry about compliance on terrestrial signals at the moment, Paucar is working with Linear Acoustic on choosing the right loudness manager for over-the-air use. “The improvement in audio quality alone is reason enough to put one on the air now. If the day comes when we have to be compliant, we’ll be ready.”
Linear Acoustic Vice President and Executive Director Christina Carroll says that’s the reason audio quality remains the top priority for the company’s products. “We’ve always said that keeping viewers happy is really what compliance is all about. If the audio is pleasing, people don’t complain, and compliance is achieved.”
For now, Ecuavisa delivers its content with 2-channel stereo audio, but they are about to begin a major technical upgrade and enter the world of high-definition video and multi-channel audio will be part of that project. Says Paucar, “Linear Acoustic made such a difference to our stereo audio that I can’t wait to hear what they do with 5.1.”
