ORBAN ROLLS INTO NAB 2010
March 23, 2010 - Orban, a worldwide leader in audio processing for AM, FM, TV and Internet broadcasting, has announced the line-up of products that will be displayed at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention held in April at the Las Vegas Convention Center. New Optimods for FM and TV will be introduced, and popular existing models used by broadcasters around the globe will be available for hands-on demonstrations.
Come and view Orban's Mobile Broadcast Laboratory in booth #C1657 in the Central Hall.
Orban's Mobile Broadcast Laboratory Fleet
New Products:
Optimod-FM 8600 (NEW) - The product of two years of research by Bob Orban, Greg Ogonowski and the Orban engineering team, the new flagship Optimod 8600's dramatically improved peak limiter technology decreases distortion while increasing transient punch and high frequency power handling capacity. Compared to the FM-channel peak limiter in Optimod-FM 8500, the new peak limiter typically provides 2.5 to 3 dB more power at high frequencies, which minimizes audible HF loss caused by preemphasis limiting. Drums and percussion cut through the mix. Vocals are present and up-front. Speech is very clean. Highs are silky and airy. "Problem material" that used to cause audible distortion is handled cleanly.
Optimod-FM 5500 (NEW) - The 5500 combines the functionality of Orban's Optimod-FM 5300 and 2300 processors in a compact 1u rack-mount chassis. It features five-band and two-band processing (including stereo generator), plus a stand-alone stereo generator mode that offers performance equivalent to the stereo generator in Orban's Optimod-FM 8500 and new 8600 processors. New in the 5500 is a 10 MHz frequency reference input that allows the 19 kHz pilot tone frequency to be locked to GPS or another high-accuracy frequency standard. This improves the performance of single-frequency networks in areas where coverage of the transmitters overlaps. In addition, a cool-running switching power supply saves energy and reduces heat build-up inside the chassis. Use of the latest dual-core DSP chip technology from Freescale Semiconductor allows Orban to reduce cost compared to the 5300 and 2300.
Optimod-Surround 8685 with optional Penteo Surround (NEW) - Like its predecessor (Optimod-Surround 8585), the new 8685 provides five-band and two-band audio processing for surround sound broadcasting and netcasting. The 8685 takes the 8585's highly effective loudness control and adds 3G HD-SDI connectivity, dual-redundant power supplies, and optional Dolby-E decode and encode.
A new option is the proprietary Penteo stereo-to-5.1 upconversion process that allows broadcasters and netcasters to effortlessly and automatically broadcast all of their legacy stereo programming and stereo commercials in discrete 5.1 surround. Unlike many other upmix methods, Penteo 5.1 is completely compatible with televisions that have stereo audio systems because these sets will reproduce the original stereo that was applied to the Penteo'. The 8685 is also ideal for mastering audio in broadcast productions as well as productions intended for media such as DVD and Blu-ray.
Optimod-DAB 6300V2 (NEW) - The Orban 6300 is a high-quality, multipurpose stereo audio processor for digital radio, digital television, netcasts, STL protection, satellite uplink protection, and digital mastering. Starting with V2 software (a free upgrade to any existing 6300), the 6300 offers a CBS Loudness Meter and support for Dolby Digital® dialnorm metadata, making it perfect for processing ATSC subchannels while Orban's 8585 Optimod-Surround processes the main channel-the 6300's processing algorithm is now identical to that provided by the 8585's 2.0 processing channel. In addition, the 6300's CBS Loudness Controller has been improved by allowing users to trade off transient impact against loudness consistency.
V2 software also offers presets for analog television using FM aural carriers with 50µs or 75µs preemphasis This allows customers to purchase a 6300 for their analog television transmitters while continuing to use the 6300 when they upgrade to digital transmission
Optimod-PC 1101V2 (NEW) - The 1101 is OPTIMOD 6300-class stereo processing on a three-quarter length form factor PCI or PCIe card for Windows® 2000, 2003, 2008, XP Pro, Vista, and 7. It is optimized for streaming, digital radio, ATSC DTV, and PC mastering. On-board DSPs do all audio processing. Version 2 adds the same features as version 2 of Optimod-DAB 6300, including a CBS Loudness Meter, support for Dolby Digital® dialnorm metadata, and presets appropriate for analog television processing.
The 1101 is also a high-quality sound card with analog I/O, AES/EBU digital output and two mixing AES/EBU digital inputs, either of which can receive sync. Includes WAVE drivers that allow the card to send and receive WAVE streams from the host computer and to mix these with the external analog and digital inputs. The 1101 can be configured as 2 sound devices, ideal for ad insertion. Multiple cards can be installed in host computer, limited only by CPU resources and the number of available PCI /PCIe slots. It readily drives streaming encoders running on the host. Includes PCI or PCIe card, application software, and user documentation. Internal sample rate: 48 kHz
Existing FM Products:
Optimod-FM 8500 - World-class processing featuring versatile five-band and two-band processing for both analog FM transmission and digital radio, the 8500 provides the industry's most consistent sound, track-to-track and source-to-source. This consistency allows you to create a sonic signature for your station with the assurance that your signature will stay locked in, uniquely branding your sound. The 8500 provides stereo enhancement, equalization, AGC, multiband compression, low-IM peak limiting, stereo encoding and composite limiting -everything that even the most competitive major market station needs to stand out on the dial.
Optimod-FM 8300 - V2 software allows the budget-conscious broadcaster the versatility for FM analog and HD Radio regardless of format. The 8300 v2's five-band processing is ideal for any pop music format (even the most competitive and aggressive CHR), while phase-linear two-band processing yields ultra-transparent sound for classical, classic jazz, and fine arts broadcasters. The 8300's built-in stereo encoder, look-ahead limiter, AES/EBU digital inputs and outputs, and analog I/O permit hassle-free interfacing to any broadcast plant, whether the 8300 is located at the studio or the transmitter. Tight band-limiting to 15 kHz means you can use any uncompressed digital STL to pass 8300-processed audio from studio to transmitter without compromising on-air loudness-there's no need to use STLs having 44.1 or 48 kHz sample rates.
Existing AM Products:
Optimod-AM 9300 - Orban's all-digital 9300 Optimod-AM audio processor can help you achieve the highest possible audio quality in monophonic AM shortwave, medium wave and long wave broadcasts. Optimod-AM delivers louder, cleaner, brighter, FM-like audio with an open, fatigue-free quality that attracts listeners and holds them.
Optimod-AM 9400 - Until the 9400 was introduced, if you wanted an AM audio processor that provided no-compromise, independent, multiband processing for analog AM and digital radio (like iBiquity's HD-AM™, system) you had to buy two boxes. Orban's Optimod-AM 9400 changes all that by offering two independently adjustable processing chains: one for the analog channel and one for the digital channel. The only processing common to the two channels is the AGC and stereo enhancer. Beyond this front-end processing, you get two of everything: equalizer, five-band compressor/limiter, and peak limiter, each optimized for its intended transmission channel.
Existing TV Products:
Optimod-Surround 8585 - The 8585 features OPTIMOD-quality two-band and five-band audio processing for surround sound broadcasting and netcasting. Thanks to versatile compression ratio controls and a mastering-quality look-ahead peak limiter, the 8585 is also ideal for mastering audio in broadcast productions as well as productions intended for media such as DVD and Blu-ray. The 8585 starts with the technology of Orban's popular OPTIMOD 6300 and takes it to the next level with surround processing that reflects the latest psychoacoustic research into loudness perception. The 8585's CBS Loudness Controller works in both two-band and five-band modes. Third generation improvements reduce annoyance better than simple loudness control alone, doing so without audible gain pumping.
Existing Streaming/Codec Products:
Optimod-PC 1211 - This package contains the OPTICODEC-PC 1010 PE MPEG-4 AAC/HE-AAC encoding software and an OPTIMOD-PC 1101 PCI or PCIe card. OPTICODEC-PC PE enables broadcasters to encode multiple audio streams from the same source at bit rates from 8 to 320 kbps. Optimized for streaming. Streams support Icecast / Shoutcast (HTTP), Darwin, Real (RTP/RTSP), Adobe and Wowza (RTMP) servers.
Opticodec 7600 - The Opticodec 7600, designed and engineered by Orban's German engineering team in Ludwigsburg, is the next step forward in audio transmission using ISDN - X.21 - V.35 and TCP/IP. The Orban Opticodec 7600 is the natural successor of one of the most used codecs, the MusicTAXI. The Opticodec 7600 is an extremely powerful codec using the latest Motorola DSP (we do not use PC processors). With the 7600's unique Automatic Codec Detect function, users do not have to worry about what codec is on the other side.
For more information on all Orban Audio Processing products, go to: http://www.orban.com/products/