As of 01 January 2013, TVCs sent to Australian and New Zealand TV Broadcasters should adhere to new Audio Loudness specifications.
But what does this mean for agencies, advertisers and post production houses?
The Loudness Standards
In Australia, the FreeTV loudness recommendation OP-59 has been voluntarily agreed upon by broadcasters. Be aware that a new and revised version of OP-59 will be published in the coming weeks.
In New Zealand, a revised industry-wide “Technical Standards and Documentation Guide for the Delivery of Television Commercials” (NZ Guide) has been issued. This contains the NZ equivalent of OP-59.
Both OP-59 and the NZ Guide use the recently updated international loudness specification ITU BS.1770-3 and require the following:
Regarding the threshold of loudness, the update to OP-59 will state:
Additionally, the existing Australian OP-48 standard is still applicable, together with its equivalent in NZ. Further the NZ Guide specifies:
ITU-R BS.1770-1 vs. BS.1770-3
The update deals with how quiet passages of audio are measured, as BS.1770-3 now ignores audio below a certain threshold. This means overall measured loudness will be closer to audience perception.
The earlier BS.1770-1 specification had the undesirable side effect that if the entire commercial was silent for creative reasons, the measured loudness would fall outside the target figure, making it technically ‘out-of-specification’.
In practice though, over the course of a normal TVC, the difference is negligible. A TVC which is mixed for either market should be acceptable in both.
Adoption and Rollout
The January 1st 2013 timing for adoption was deliberately chosen to be the low point of advertising activity, so that transition issues can be resolved in the relatively quiet month of January.
The New Zealand press reported in October 2012 that TVNZ had started measuring for loudness, earlier than the stated January 1st deadline, which obviously caused some confusion in the industry.
What was meant by this announcement, was that from now until the Jan 1st deadline, TVNZ will perform in-house correction of the loudness of any TVCs delivered. This means that all material will already be compliant for broadcast beyond the year-end.
It is expected that most broadcasters across Australia and New Zealand will be making the same corrections in preparation for the new standards, but have not felt the need to publicize.
What it means for you
“With OP-59, there is no way to ‘make an ad seem louder’ by over-compressing the audio, a trick sometimes used by producers. Over-compression will result in the overall peak level having to be lowered to meet OP-59 standards.” says Abe Udy, Director of Abe’s Audio. “Producing audio to the new standard is a balance of the right compression, EQ, limiting and normalising to the correct level.”
Agencies, advertisers and post production houses do not have to worry about loudness for TVCs sent from now until the end of the year.
Instead, focus should be on establishing internal workflows and processes to ensure TV loudness compliance will be met by the start of 2013.
TVC Technical Rejection
If content does not comply with the new Loudness specifications, then Australian and New Zealand broadcasters have two options:
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Reject TVC and ask that it’s remade to comply. (
Click here for NZ)
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Adjust the level themselves to make it comply.
Which of the 2 options a broadcaster takes depends on their facility’s ability to correct content easily and/or the lead-time before the TVC is to be aired.
However, simply correcting the content does not achieve the desired result, which is to make the content producer responsible for the loudness.
TV broadcasters will continue to work with TVC suppliers and senders ensure commercials are broadcast in the best quality and conditions possible.
eBUS Loudness Quality Control
At eBUS, our aim is for the minimum possible interference with the TV commercial which was seen and heard by the client.
For this reason, the eBUS quality control (QC) system is designed to warn senders of technical specifications which are not met. This means senders can make the changes necessary, assuring that what is sent is exactly what is received at the broadcaster.
The eBUS QC measures loudness against BS.1770 and has been doing so for more than a year now.
A report is instantly given at the point of upload, so you always know the loudness levels and audio levels of your TVC.
If you have questions on the above, please contact us via info@ebus.tv
