Orban Optimod PC1101 HD/ WEB Streaming Audio Processor GEBRUIKT

Orban Optimod PC1101 HD WEB Streaming Audio Processor GEBRUIKT

From the ground up, Optimod-PC 1101 was designed for professionals. It has broadcast-quality digital signal processing on-board that's suitable for both live streaming and on-demand programming. OPTIMOD-PC's three on-board Freescale DSP56367 DSP chips provide a loud, consistent sound to the consumer by performing stereo enhancement, automatic gain control (AGC), equalization, multiband gain control, peak-level control, and subjective loudness control. Moreover, Optimod-PC is equipped with balanced analog inputs and outputs that can operate at professional 4dBu reference levels while resisting pickup of hum and noise, as well as professional AES/EBU inputs and outputs. Optimod-PC is available in two versions-the 1101 is for PCI bus systems and the 1101e is for PCIe (PCI Express). Optimod-PC's audio driver allows it to appear as two standard sound devices to the computer's operating system. This allows netcasters who need to replace selected content (such as commercials in a program originally created for radio broadcast) to do so with only one sound card. This approach maintains the same audio processing path on both program and inserted audio to deliver a professional consistent sound to your audience.Optimod-PC audio processing is appropriate for all digital transmission media and channels. It tailors your audio signal to help you compete in audio netcasting, HD Radio� (both primary and multicast digital channels), DAB, DRM, and other dedicated digital radio services, FMExtra� and other digital subcarriers, mastering, audio production, and many others. Additionally, video-oriented presets use Optimod-PC's built-in CBS Loudness Controller� to make Optimod-PC an unsurpassed choice for mono or stereo sound-for-picture applications, including HDTV, DVB-x digital television, and audio/video netcasting.While primarily oriented toward "flat" media, Optimod-PC can also provide preemphasis limiting for the two standard preemphasis curves of 50� and 75�. This allows it to protect preemphasized analog satellite uplinks and similar channels where protection limiting or light processing is required, and makes it ideal for use as a studio AGC driving transmitter-located Optimods.Without Optimod-PC processing, audio can sound dull, thin, or inconsistent in any combination. Optimod-PC's multiband processing automatically levels and re-equalizes its input to the "major-market" standards expected by the mass audience. It also helps overcome background noise in mobile listening environments.Broadcasters have known for decades that this polished, produced sound attracts and holds listeners and Orban has long been the number one vendor of stand-alone transmission processing to professional broadcasters worldwide. Commercial broadcasters think nothing of spending upwards of $10,000 to sculpt their audio with an Optimod! Audio processing can help create an audio environment or mood. A broadcaster's revenue depends on audience share, and broadcasters know that compromising their processing is false economy.Professional radio broadcasters would never consider going on the air without audio signal processing. They consider it a vital aspect of their program content. This carefully crafted content is what holds listeners and keeps them coming back. Since 1975, Optimod algorithms have dominated the world market for professional radio and television audio processing and have been improved continuously since then. OPTIMOD-PC puts this technology inside your computer.There are many gain/peak control devices and software available to perform dynamics processing. Many of these tools are designed for recording studio applications as effects compressors/limiters for individual microphone or instrument tracks. These devices' controls need to be tuned carefully for the specific material being processed-they are not "set and forget" processors. Moreover, most do not process mixed program material without introducing objectionable audible artifacts, particularly when called upon to gain-ride input material having widely varying levels.A broadcast audio processor should ideally be "seen, but not heard." Optimod processing algorithms simultaneously control audio gain and peaks, artistically, musically, and naturally, to give the illusion that processing is not taking place. Moreover, Optimod algorithms intelligently adapt themselves to the input program material. Once OPTIMOD-PC is tuned for the sound texture required for the broadcast or netcast format (which is made easy by OPTIMOD-PC's many format-specific presets), it will provide excellent consistency regardless of the level or texture of the original program material. OPTIMOD-PC's automatic gain control and equalization achieve a consistent sound, while accurate peak control maximizes loudness. Booming bass is tightened weak, thin bass is brought up highs are always present and consistent in level.Thanks to Optimod-PC, a netcaster who wants to maximize audience share no longer has to make do with toy processing, ineffective CPU-hungry plug-ins, and inappropriate recording studio plug-ins. Optimod-PC offers full broadcast-quality Optimod processing on a card-an economical, space-saving alternative to conventional stand-alone boxes. But thanks to its tight integration into the PC, Optimod-PC offers more features than any stand-alone processor. Among others, these include two digital inputs with mixing of asynchronous sources, two digital outputs, and sound card emulation that allows Optimod-PC to talk through the operating system to applications running on the host.For optimum sound, loudness, and peak control, you should digitally preprocess an Internet audio signal to condition it prior to encoding. The appropriate preprocessing has much in common with the preprocessing required for DAB, HD Radio�, CD mastering, or digital satellite.Professional-grade netcasting requires audio processing similar to FM broadcast (although there are some important differences in the peak limiting because of the different characteristics of the pre-emphasized FM channel and the perceptually coded netcasting channel). Your listeners deserve to get the best quality and consistency you can provide. Good audio processing is one important thing that separates the amateur from the professional. Combining Orban Optimod-PC with Orban Opticodec-PC Streaming Encoder will deliver stunning sonic results for Internet streams that can be at least as good as or better than HD or satellite radio.Conventional AM, FM, or TV audio processors that employ pre-emphasis/de-emphasis and/or clipping peak limiters do not work well with perceptual audio coders such as Orban Opticodec-PC� MPEG-4 AAC/HE-AACv2 streaming encoder. The pre-emphasis/de-emphasis limiting in these processors unnecessarily limits high frequency headroom. Further, their clipping limiters create high frequency components-distortion-that the perceptual audio coders would otherwise not encode. None of these devices has the full set of audio and control features found in Optimod-PC.Peak clipping sounds bad even in uncompressed digital channels because these channels do not rely on pre-emphasis/de-emphasis to reduce audible distortion. Instead of peak clipping, OPTIMOD-PC uses look-ahead limiting to protect the following channel from peak overload.Orban's PreCode� technology manipulates several aspects of the audio to minimize artifacts caused by low bitrate codecs, ensuring consistent loudness and texture from one source to the next. PreCode includes special audio band detection algorithms that are energy and spectrum aware. This can improve codec performance on some codecs by reducing audio processing induced codec artifacts, even with program material that has been preprocessed by other processing than Optimod. There are several factory presets tuned specifically for low performance, low bitrate codecs.Unlike some other codec preprocessors that produce audible consequences, PreCode does not suck the punch and life out of music. Instead, PreCode strikes an artistic balance between liveliness and artifact reduction, ensuring that the cure is never worse than the disease.Optimod-PC is also an excellent mastering processor, offering soft knee multiband compression with knee and ratio controls available separately for each band. This is followed by a low-IM look-ahead limiter that can typically achieve 12 dB of gain reduction before it produces objectionable artifacts-this limiter is exceptionally loud and clean.Digital mixing is crucially important to a netcaster who needs to control commercial content and insertion. Unlike most sound cards, Optimod-PC allows you to mix an analog source, two digital sources, and two Wave sources. For example, you could run a playout system on your computer while using the three hardware inputs for a live microphone feed, commercial insert, and network insert. Or you could run the commercial insert playout software on the same computer as the main playout system, using Optimod-PC's second Wave input to separately route the outputs of the two playout systems to the card. In most cases, an external mixer isn't needed, making Optimod-PC a more economical system solution than a low-priced sound card combined with a bunch of external hardware. This is also perfect for podcast production.For applications like commercial insertion, an API provides complete remote administration and control over TCP/IP and/or Serial. The Optimod-PC Service application hosts a TCP/IP terminal server, and Serial interface to allow external control of the Optimod-PC cards from either a software Telnet/SSH terminal client, a custom third party application, or hardware device, such as a Broadcast Tools SRC-16. All Optimod-PC Mixer and System Controls are accessible and all commands are simple text strings. You can adjust and monitor levels, tweak the processor's sound, save and recall presets, and more. Password security is provided.Optimod-PC comes with over 20 great-sounding presets that make it easy to create a sonic texture that's just right for your target audience. If you want to customize a preset, you can start with an easy LESS-MORE control, and, if that's not enough, tweak over 50 parameters to hone your sound to perfection. Optimod-PC's deep interface will never hold you back as your processing expertise increases, yet its carefully crafted design insulates you from the details if you need great sound right now.You can expect a considerable increase in loudness from Optimod-PC processing by comparison to unprocessed audio (except for audio from recently mastered CDs, which are often overprocessed in mastering). Broadcasters generally believe that loudness relative to other stations attracts an audience that perceives the station as being more powerful than its competition. We expect that the same subliminal psychology will hold in netcasting too.It is important to understand that peak or average file normalization does not accomplish what OPTIMOD-PC processing can. Normalization applies a fixed loudness adjustment to the entire file. It's like setting a volume control once and only once. On the other hand, OPTIMOD-PC processing constantly adjusts spectral balance and loudness to achieve a consistency that brands your sound. This particularly important during transitions from one program element to the next and is one of the key techniques that major-market radio stations use to achieve their polished, "produced" audio texture.

Features

�Optimod-quality digital audio processing on a PCI sound card that pre-processes audio for consistency and loudness before it is transmitted or recorded.�Available in two versions: 1101 for PCI sockets and 1101e for PCIe (PCI Express) sockets.�Applications include netcasting, HD Radio� (both primary and secondary digital channels), DAB and other dedicated digital radio services, FMExtra� and other digital subcarriers, mastering, audio production, and many others.�Supplied WAVE drivers allow Optimod-PC's processed output to pass through the PCI bus to the CPU, driving standard PC applications like Orban's Opticodec-PC MPEG-4 HE-AAC, Microsoft, or Real streaming encoders. Optimod-PC's audio driver allows it to appear as two sound devices to the computer's operating system. The driver (with the aid of concurrently running third-party software) also allows Optimod-PC to receive audio over IP from the host computer's network connection. Drivers are available for 32 and 64-bit Windows XP, 32 and 64-bit Windows Vista, and 32 and 64-bit Windows 7.�Orban PreCode� technology manipulates several aspects of the audio to minimize artifacts caused by low bitrate codecs, ensuring consistent loudness and texture from one source to the next. PreCode includes special audio band detection algorithms that are energy and spectrum aware. This can improve codec performance on some codecs by reducing audio processing induced codec artifacts, even with program material that has been preprocessed by other processing than Optimod.�Two-Band automatic gain control with window gating and selectable L/R or sum/difference processing compensates for widely varying input levels.�Shelving bass equalizer and three-band parametric equalizer let you color the audio to your exact requirements.�Low-IM look-ahead limiter effectively limits peaks while ensuring that low-bit-rate codecs operate optimally without overload.�Precisely controls peak levels to prevent overmodulation or codec overload. The peak limiter can be set up to control "flat" transmission channels or channels preemphasized at 50�s or 75�s.�While primarily oriented toward "flat" media, Optimod-PC can also provide preemphasis limitingfor the two standard preemphasis curves of 50�s and 75�s. This allows it to protect preemphasized satellite uplinks and similar channels where protection limiting or light processing is required. Because its processing topology is most effective with "flat media," Optimod-PC cannot provide extreme loudness for preemphasized radio channels. Use one of Orban's Optimod-FM processors for this application. For analog television with FM aural carrier(s), use Optimod-TV 8382.�Optimod-PC's dual-mono architecture allows entirely separate mono programs to be processed in 5-band mode, facilitating dual-language operation. In this mode, both processing channels operate using the same processing parameters (like release time) you cannot adjust the two channels to provide different processing textures. �Balanced analog input with 24-bit A/D converter is always active, mixing with the two digital inputs.�Balanced analog monitor output with 24-bit D/A converter.�Two AES3 or SPDIF digital inputs with high-quality sample rate conversion allow two asynchronous digital sources to be mixed: Ideal for network operations using local commercial/announcement insertion.�The second digital input also accepts AES3 house sync, synchronizing the AES3 output sample rate to the sample rate of the sync input.�Digital inputs accept any sample rate from 32 to 96 kHz without manual configuration.�Two AES3 digital outputs at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96 kHz sample rate. In v1.0 software, these emit identical signals.�Two Wave inputs from any PC audio application (like a playout system) that can emit standard Wave audio. Audio from the Wave inputs can be mixed and switched with Optimod-PC's hardware inputs. Because there are two inputs, you can operate two PC applications simultaneously and mix and/or switch their Wave outputs inside Optimod-PC, such as content/commercial insertion systems.�Two Wave outputs to any PC audio application that can record or encode.�Optimod-PC controls the audio bandwidth as necessary to accommodate the transmitted sample frequency, obviating the need for extra, overshooting anti-aliasing filters in downstream equipment. Optimod-PC's high frequency bandwidth can be switched instantly (typically in 1 kHz increments) between 10.0 kHz and 20 kHz. 20 kHz is used for highest-quality systems. 15 kHz meets the requirements of the iBiquity� HD-AM system that use 44.1 kHz system input sample frequency. (15 kHz codec bandwidth may also help low bitrate lossy codecs sound better than they do when fed full 20 kHz bandwidth audio.) 10 kHz bandwidth meets the requirements of auxiliary DAB transmissions using a 24 kHz sample frequency.�Internal processing occurs at 48 kHz sample rate and 20 kHz audio bandwidth.�Full PCI bus-mastering with optimization.�I/O Mixer application permits versatile routing and switching of processed and unprocessed audio from and to Optimod-PC's inputs and outputs, and to and from the host computer's WAVE audio.�Terminal Control API for network or localhost control and automation of all I/O Mixer functions and Preset switching. Status is broadcast to all active clients.�Serial Control API allows Optimod-PC to be controlled either by ASCII serial commands or by a serial-to-contact-closure device such as a Broadcast Tools SRC-16.�MS Windows Mixer API support in parallel to the existing Orban Mixer allows standard Microsoft Windows audio applications to control Optimod PC's inputs and outputs.�MS Windows Metering API so Windows applications using this API will display audio levels. (Many broadcast playout systems use this.)�Freescale DSPs do all the audio processing�there is no extra DSP load on your computer's CPU, allowing more CPU for encoding of bit-reduced audio.�Full coprocessing (independent of the host computer's CPU) means that audio will ordinarily continue to pass through the card from its hardware inputs to its hardware outputs even if the host computer crashes. (Of course, Wave inputs and outputs will stop working because these are dependent on operating system services.)�Optimod-PC ships with over twenty standard presets, which correspond to different programming formats. These presets have already been tested and field-proven in major-market radio netcasting, digital radio, and direct satellite broadcasting applications (both radio and television) worldwide. There are also special-purpose presets for studio AGC, pure peak limiting, and low bitrate encoding applications. �An easy-to-use graphic control application runs on your PC and can act as a client to control any number of Optimod-PC cards, either locally or in other PCs on your network via TCP/IP. The Orban software offers a server function, allowing other computers on your network to address cards located in your PC. (This server software is installed automatically as part of the Optimod-PC installation process and runs as a Windows Service.)�The Control application allows you complete flexibility to create your own custom presets, to save as many as you want to your local hard drive, and to recall them at will.�Orban ClockLock� technology locks the 1101's output sample rate to an external 10 MHz, word clock, or AES3/AES11 reference. Both AES3 outputs and WAV output can be locked, which prevents buffer underflows and overflows in downstream software and hardware. ClockLock uses a phase-locked loop with crystal VFO to ensure low jitter and will lock to 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, and 96 kHz sample rates.Adaptability through Multiple Audio Processing Structures�A processing structure is a program that operates as a complete audio processing system. Only one processing structure can be active at a time. Just as there are many possible ways of configuring a processing system using analog components (such as equalizers, compressors, limiters, and clippers), there are many possible processing structures achievable by Optimod-PC. Optimod-PC realizes its processing structures as a series of high-speed mathematical computations made by Digital Signal Processing (DSP) chips.�Optimod-PC features two processing structures: Five-Band (or Multiband) for a consistent, "processed" sound, free from undesirable side effects and Two-Band for a tastefully controlled sound that preserves the frequency balance of the original program material.�The Two-Band structure can also be tuned to operate as a Protection Limiter, providing up to 25dB of safety limiting with minimal side effects.�Optimod-PC can increase the density and loudness of the program material by multiband compression and look-ahead limiting, improving the consistency of the station's sound and increasing loudness and definition remarkably, without producing unpleasant side effects.�Optimod-PC rides gain over an adjustable range of up to 25dB, compressing dynamic range and compensating for operator gain-riding errors and for gain inconsistencies in automated systems.�Optimod-PC's processing structures are all phase-linear to maximize audible transparency.�Optimod-PC can be changed from one processing structure to another with a smooth cross-fade.�The 1101 provides two different stereo enhancement algorithms. The first is based on Orban's patented analog 222 Stereo Enhancer, which increases the energy in the stereo difference signal (L-R) whenever a transient is detected in the stereo sum signal (L R). The second stereo enhancement algorithm passes the L-R signal through a delay line and adds this decorrelated signal to the unenhanced L-R signal. Gating circuitry prevents over-enhancement and undesired enhancement on slightly unbalanced mono material.�Two-Band automatic gain control with window gating and selectable L/R or sum/difference processing compensates for widely varying input levels.�Shelving bass equalizer and three-band parametric equalizer let you color the audio to your exact requirements.�Two-band and five-band compressors with parametric soft-knee compression curves allow you to fine-tune the audio to your exact requirements and make Optimod-PC an excellent mastering processor.�The output of the two-band or five-band compressor can be routed directly to the card's outputs, facilitating creation of a low-delay monitoring path for talent headphones.�Low-IM look-ahead limiter effectively limits peaks while ensuring that low-bit-rate codecs operate optimally without overload.�CBS Loudness Controller� limits subjective loudness to a preset threshold, making the 1101 an ideal processor in sound-for-picture applications by taming loud commercials before they annoy and alienate the audience. The Loudness Controller uses the 1981 Jones & Torick algorithm developed at CBS Technology Center and further refined by Orban.�CBS Loudness Meter� measures the subjective loudness of the 1101's output and is displayed in the 1101's control application meter window. In dual-mono mode, there are two independent loudness controllers and two loudness meters available.�Transparently supports dialnorm metadata in Dolby Digital� transmissions: If you tell the 1101 the dialnorm level you are sending to receivers and use a "TV" processing preset, your transmission will automatically have the same loudness as other properly aligned Dolby Digital sources. This makes the 1101 an excellent choice to process ATSC subchannels.�A pure peak limiting preset is available. It allows the 1101 to perform very high quality peak limiting in mastering applications.�Optimod-PC can be used as for automatic gain control, AGC (including peak limiting) to protect a studio-to-transmitter link (STL), optimally using the STL's native dynamic range.