Features and Benefits
- Orban Optimod-FM® 8500HD-class digital audio processing on a PCI sound card—pre-processes audio for consistency and loudness before it is transmitted or recorded.
- Applications include netcasting, HD Radio® (both primary and secondary digital channels), Eureka 147 and other dedicated digital radio services, FMExtra™ and other digital subcarriers, mastering, audio production, and many others.
- 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.
- While primarily oriented toward “flat” media, Optimod-PC can also provide preemphasis limiting for the two standard preemphasis curves of 50 µs and 75 µs. 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.
- 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 parametricequalizer 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Balanced analog input with 24-bit A/D converter is always active, mixing with the two digital inputs.
- Wave input from any PC audio application (like a playout system) that can emit audio. Audio from the Wave input can be mixed and switched with OPTIMOD-PC’s hardware inputs.
- Wave output to any PC audio application that can record or encode.
- AES3 digital output at 32, 44.1, 48, 88.2, or 96 kHz sample rate.
- Supplied WAVE drivers allow OPTIMOD-PC’s processed output to pass through the PCI bus to the CPU, driving standard PC applications, like Microsoft or Real streaming encoders. 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.
- 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.
- Balanced analog monitor output with 24-bit D/A converter.
- 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 µs or 75 µs.
- Internal processing occurs at 48 kHz sample rate and 20 kHz audio bandwidth.
- AES 3 digital output.
- 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 and 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 Eureka-147 transmissions using a 24 kHz sample frequency.
- Three Motorola DSPs do all the audio processing—there is no extra DSP load on your computer’s CPU.
- Full coprocessing (independent of the 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.) The card will continue to pass audio through its hardware I/O without interruption during a normal Windows reboot, permitting the host computer to receive Microsoft system updates while the card is processing audio.
- 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 addressing. Other 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.
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.
- 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.
- A pure peak limiting preset is available. It allows the 1100 to perform very high quality peak limiting in mastering applications.
- OPTIMOD-PC can be used as a studio AGC (including peak limiting) to protect a studio-to-transmitter link ( STL), optimally using the STL’s native dynamic range.