DENMARK (MuseWire) – IBC 2010 — New loudness meter conforms to the latest American, Japanese and European broadcast standards. Launching at IBC 2010, LM2 brings an authority meter within the reach of any production studio. TC Electronic is already at the forefront of loudness metering for the broadcast industry. For decades, TC has been responsible for some of the most reliable tools available for those needing to measure, correct and convert audio for a variety of broadcast applications.

With LM2 TC Electronic is not only delivering the tools for next generation metering, it has also been instrumental in defining what those new standards should be.

Announcing LM2
By itself, LM2 is a full-featured stereo loudness and true-peak level meter for use in post and live production, broadcast ingest, linking and transmission. LM2’s front panel displays the all-important numbers that reveal whether or not a certain broadcast standard is being met. It is also possible to bring up the Stats display for even more details, or LM2 can be connected to a PC or Mac via USB to get full, realtime Radar screen picture via the included Icon application.

Delivery Specs and Metadata
Global broadcast guidelines now recognize the need for keeping audio transmission easy and predictable, the main facilitators being transparent normalization and fixed metadata. LM2 enables precision normalization and optimum use of dialnorm metadata in AC3 transmission in order to avoid level jumps between regular programming and promos or commercials.

Standard Compliance
LM2 comes pre-loaded with factory presets compliant with new ITU-R BS.1770, ATSC A/85, EBU R128, NABJ, OP-59, BCAP and more guidelines. LM2 is easily field-upgradeable and will keep compliant with global practices as they refine. Undoubtedly, standards will be updated within LM2’s warranty period – which is a whopping 5 years.

Connections
LM2 always offers a wide variety of 24-bit resolution audio inputs and outputs: AES/EBU, TOS, SPDIF / AES3 id, ADAT and Analog. Digital I/Os are fully synchronous while analog I/Os are scaled in the analog domain for max utilization of converter dynamic range. Analog inputs can even be trimmed at 0.01dB precision. LM2 may connect via USB to a PC or Mac for access to the Radar display, Logging, Remote Control, Preset Management, etc.

24/7 Logging
As a standard feature LM2 comes with hindsight: the radar can show the past 24 hours, but LM2 actually includes so much memory of its own that it provides detailed information one week back in time, even if it has had no connection to a computer. By dumping log files routinely to a PC or Mac, it is possible to import files into included, graphing templates, or user’s can simply design their own versions in Excel, Numbers, etc.

Ingest Normalization
The primary application for LM2 is loudness metering, but it does one more thing very well: automatic level offset of programs at a no-compromise resolution (synchronous, 48-bit, fixed point engine). LM2 therefore includes a precision true-peak limiter to avoid output overload when positive gain normalization is required. For fans of speech normalization, LM2 allows for users to measure a bit of regular dialog and normalize to that. Otherwise, LM2’s relative gate function automatically takes care of all sources. Presets are included, so the choice is entirely in the hands of the user.