Broadcast Audio Processor

The softGear Broadcast Audio Processor (BAP) is a multi-channel audio processor for television distribution. It provides loudness levelling, Nielsen Watermarking and Dolby Encoding to meet today’s and tomorrow’s transmission needs. It is implemented with software microservices deployed through on-premise appliances with a migration path to Cloud processing.

The BAP provides audio processing for 2 independent SDI video channels with up to 8 independent audio processing paths. This allows audio to be tailored to different distribution channels or geographies.

By utilizing Dolby Realtime Loudness Levelling (RTLL), the BAP tames your audio for the best audience experience while maintaining compliance with loudness legislation such as the CALM Act and EBU R128.

Nielsen Watermarking enables accurate audience measurement for program ratings, which is crucial for protecting advertising revenue. The BAP offers up to 8 independent Station IDs (SID and CSID) to be encoded for different distribution paths or regions.

Dolby Digital and Digital Plus Encoding is a requirement for many distribution channels. With the BAP, you can selectively choose encoding for stereo or surround audio groups and assign Dolby-encoded or PCM audio to any output channel for complete audio flexibility.

The BAP is ready for your broadcast needs of today and has the scalability to meet your needs of tomorrow, including support for ATSC 3.0.

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Many broadcasters face the challenge of managing the transmission of multiple channels. This occurs at the level of the local broadcaster or through the consolidation of network and station group operations (where tens or hundreds of channels may be distributed from a single facility). To maximize audience and revenue, broadcasters must also distribute content over multiple transmission paths, such as over-the-air (OTA), streaming (over-the-top, OTT), cable, and mobile, as well as re-broadcasting content to multiple geographic regions. These transmission paths continue to evolve due to changing standards and requirements.

Amid this complexity, there are several key processes that broadcasters need to perform to prepare the channel for distribution. These include:

• Loudness Levelling – Ensures consistent listening level and compliance to loudness legislation (CALM Act, EBU R 128).
• Watermarking – Inaudible signature, which enables audience measurement and program ratings.
• Dolby Encoding – Many distribution channels require audio to be compressed and Dolby encoded.

Each distribution path imposes different criteria on how each of these processes is performed. Therefore, it is often a requirement to run multiple instances of these processes to satisfy the diverse distribution requirements. Furthermore, as business models evolve, broadcasters will be faced with new processing requirements which may leave traditional hardware-based solutions obsolete if they cannot be upgraded to new standards.

The BAP addresses this problem since it is a platform that can take in multiple program streams and perform the required loudness, watermarking and Dolby encoding for each of the distribution paths. Each path can be tailored to your channel’s exact processing requirements and reconfigured easily.

BAP is scalable, dense, and cost-effective. It is easily upgradable to support new signal flow requirements and processing algorithms in the future, such as ATSC 3.0.

All systems include a standard 1-year hardware warranty with software support.
Extended support and software maintenance options are available through RossCare+.