In Broadcast - April 2021 - 66

66

www.inbroadcast.com | Vol: 11 - Issue 4 | April 2021

InAudio

Optimised for IP
Broadcasters are looking for convenience,
reliability, low latency and audio qualityusually all at the same time, reports
Contributing Editor Adrian Pennington...

S

ince most of us are working from
home these days, the goal is to be
able to deliver studio quality content
over IP from the kitchen table or home
studio or anywhere. The expansion of
IP infrastructure, interoperability with
existing networks and compatibility
to international standards are related
issues.
" Radio stations tend to desire
convenient setup and good quality
audio for their on-demand, remote
audio connections, " says Kirk Harnack,
Senior Solutions Consultant, Telos
Alliance. " Many radio broadcasters
are also using IP codecs as part of
their 'nailed-down' infrastructure.
They need ultra-reliability, including
redundant IP-path routing options, and
this technology is now mature in the
Telos iPort. TV and video production
firms are also using IP codecs that are
built-in to the Telos Infinity IP intercom
system; this allows multi-site and
wireless IP intercom anywhere. "
Telos has been involved in audio
compression technology since MP2
and MP3, and its customers were
some of the first to enjoy the AAC
family of audio codecs over 15 years
ago. While the last few years have
seen even better low bitrate codecs,
optimised for both voice and music, it
has also seen IP bandwidth increase
everywhere.
" It's easier to send and receive
truly high quality coded audio now
more than ever, " says Harnack. " The
most popular codecs these days
have built-in packet-loss mitigation
(error concealment) and more
implementations are offering dualpath connectivity and forward error
correction. "
One exciting development at Telos
is the µMPX codec for transporting
the FM Multiplex (composite) signal
over IP at modest bitrates. The

µMPX algorithm is described as nonpsychoacoustic, but makes clever
use of several bitrate reduction
techniques.
" The FM MPX signal delivered to
the far end is actually cleaner, with
a lower noise floor, that just about
any other technology. Moreover, the
IP distribution method, with dual IP
path capability and forward error

Capture: 2wcom's new 4audio solutions link well-known and new broadcast
technologies as well as stationary and remote studios

Telos Alliance Omnia MPX Node Decoder

correction, makes for extremely
reliable MPX transport, even over
Public Internet connections, all at
under 500 kbps for a full FM stereo
signal including the RDS subcarrier.
This µMPX technology is built into
several of the Telos Alliance Omnia FM
audio processors, as well as available
as the Omnia MPX Node Encoder and
Decoder. This hardware pair from
Omnia enables µMPX IP transport
using any brand or model of FM audio
processor. "
2wcom customers demand 24/7
transmission robustness facilitated
by hardware, hybrid sources, backup
streams,
and
error
correction
mechanisms. IT security is of high
priority to avoid cyber-attacks and
when it comes to audio quality, the
acoustic aspects are still crucial ideally
paired with bandwidth economy.
" Software-based solutions which
support hardware, virtual machines
and cloud services offer flexibility in
system design and save rack space, "
says Werner Drews, CEO at 2wcom.
" To ensure network compatibility,
it is essential that all protocols for
internet interoperability are supported
with the different frame sizes of
audio algorithms. An easy-to-use web

interface and remote management
facilities guarantee access to the
solutions for studio teams, technical
staff, or the team at remote sites.
Contributions should be easily
exchangeable between the remote
team and the studios. In other words,
the devices at the remote sites have
to be fully integrated into the studio
networks.
" Compression technologies allow
users to decide whether to use
constant bitrates to better calculate
bandwidth requirements, variable
bitrate for an increased bandwidth
economy, or multi-rate to be more
adaptable in means of applications and
bandwidth. "
2wcom's own Linux-based embedded
software solution meets the latter
mentioned needs. Available as a server
software called MoIN (Multimedia
over IP network) and as high-density
19'' boxes such as IP-4c codec,
MPX-2c codec, or DAB-4c converter.
" Each meets the requirements of our
customers and provides outstanding
flexibility in application, " 2wcom says.
According to Charlie Gawley, VP
Sales, APAC/EMEA at Tieline, clients
want an appliance that provides
a gateway for their audio within

Tieline's DSP-based multichannel AoIP audio codec, Gateway

their LAN and allows for bridging this
across to other sites over the public
Internet. They also seek the ability
to support traditional audio IO's, i.e.
analogue and AES/EBU, and convert
them into AoIP standards such as
AES67, ST-2110-30, Ravenna, or
Wheatstone, and vice versa.
" In saying that, whilst functionality
is one thing, of utmost importance is
reliability. Customers seek dedicated
and fit for purpose hardware that
stands the test of time, unlike PC
motherboard,
soundcard-based
systems that frequently go end of life.
" We've been very fortunate in that
we have enabled broadcasters to
stream real-time audio over IP for over
20 years now. We have been able to
leverage off this depth of knowledge
and experience whilst others struggle
that are relatively new entrants to the
codec game.
Tieline recently released a powerful
DSP-based multichannel AoIP audio
codec called the Gateway.
The
Gateway delivers the highest number
of audio channels in a single 1RU box
with native support for AES67 and ST2110-30 straight out of the box. It can
stream 16 channels of audio across
the public internet and interface
seamlessly with AES67 infrastructure
at the studio. The Gateway is also
compatible over SIP with all EBU
N/ACIP Tech 3326, 3347 and 3368
compliant codecs and supports a
range of multicasting and multiunicasting solutions.
http://www.inbroadcast.com https://www.2wcom.com/ip-4c/ https://www.telosalliance.com/Omnia https://inbroadcast.com/ezines/tieline-announces-new-gateway-4-ip-codec
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