Specifications

Dolby
®
DP600 Program Optimizer Manual 1
Chapter 1
Introduction
WelcometoDolby
®
file‐basedaudio!
TheDolbyDP600ProgramOptimizerisaresultofDolbyLaboratories’continued
leadershipinthedevelopmentofinnovativebroadcasttechnologies.
TheDP600providesafile‐basedwork‐flowsolutionforloudnesscorrection,audio
conversion,andupmixing.Itisspecificallydesignedforuseincable,satellite,IPTV,
terrestrialTV,
radio,andpostproductionfacilities.TheDP600includestheworld’sfirst
intelligentaudioanalysisandautomatedloudnessnormalizationengine,alongwiththe
abilitytoencode,decode,convert,ortranscodebetweenthefollowingDolbyformats:
DolbyDigital,DolbyDigitalPlus,andDolbyEbitstreams;aswellasPCMandMPEG‐1LII.
Italsofeaturesanewlydesignedalgorithmforupmixinglegacytwo‐channelaudiofor
5.1‐channeldelivery.Toeasethetransitionintoafile‐basedworkflow,theDP600also
supportsmanyofthemostcommonbroadcastmediafileandaudioformatsinusetoday.
Forcompressedaudioformatsthatincludemetadata
(forexample,DolbyE,DolbyDigital,
andDolbyDigitalPlus),theDP600canautomaticallysetorcorrectthe
dialnormaudio
metadataparameter(seeFigure 1‐1).
Foraudioformatsthatdonotincludemetadata,theDP600canautomaticallysetorcorrect
the
dialnormparameterbyreferencingauser‐definedtargetlevel(seeFigure 1‐2).
ContentproducersandbroadcasterscanreduceloudnesscomplaintsbyusingtheDP600
toprovideviewerswithaconsistentaudioexperienceacrossprograms,channels,and
networks.ExpandingupontheuniqueDialogueIntelligence
™
technologydevelopedfor
theDolbyLM 100BroadcastLoudnessMeter,theDP600normalizestheloudnessofaudio
programswhilepreservingtheiroriginaldynamicrange.
1
TheDP600analyzesthe
loudnessoffile‐basedaudiobitstreamscodedinDolbyDigital,DolbyDigitalPlus,and
DolbyE,andvalidatesandcorrectsthe
dialnormparameterwithouttheneedforde coding
andreencodingtheoriginalaudiobitstream.TheDP600alsoprovidesintelligent
speech‐basedloudnessnormalizationforbothPCMau dio andMPEG‐1LIIaudio.
TheDP600‐Cprovidesfaster‐than‐real‐timefile‐basedencoding,decoding,andconversion
betweenallofDolby’saudioformats(Dolby
Digital,DolbyDigitalPlus,andDolbyE),
PCM,andMPEG‐1LII, whilepreservingthe audiometadata.In addition,itoffersaunique,
high‐quality,single‐stepDolbyDigitaltoDolbyDigitalPlusconverterthatpreservesthe
metadataandminimizestandemcodinglosses.Thisallowstheaudiofromexistingmedia
archivestobeconvertedtonext‐generationbroadcastformats.TheDP600alsosupports
DolbyProLogic
®
IIencodingfortwo‐channelmatrix‐encodedcontentderivedfrom
multichannelsourcefiles.
1
Inveryrarecasesinvolvingextremeloudnesscorrectionsthatrequiregain,softlimitingwilloccuronly
duringprogrampeaklevelsthatwouldexceedclippingafterapplyingthistypeofloudnesscorrection.