OPTIMOD SURROUND PROCESSOR OPERATION
3-29
anced. The center channel compressor effectively de-esses dialog without punching
holes in the remaining channels. Coupling between the center channel and remain-
ing channels allows the center channel’s level to be boosted automatically by as
much as 3 dB with respect to the other channels if this is needed to help intelligibil-
ity.
We prefer this preset to TV
2B-DRAMA because of its effective, unobtrusive de-essing
and because it is more resistant to spectral gain intermodulation, which is program
material in one frequency range’s audibly pumping material in a different range.
Like its two-band counterpart, this preset is sensitive to input levels because its com-
pression ratio is finite. It also fully exploits the Loudness Controller, which usually
shows slight gain reduction with dialog at normal levels.
TV 5B-DRAMA COUPLD (TV Five-Band Drama Coupled): is similar to TV
5B DRAMA
but uses more interband band coupling in the five-band compressor and a slower
multiband compressor release time so it performs less automatic re-equalization of
the program material. This is an alternative to TV
2B DRAMA that de-esses more ef-
fectively.
TV 5B-NEWS (TV Five-Band News): rides gain more quickly than the general-
purpose presets. Its AGC release time is faster, so it will bring up low-level material
more quickly. It is designed for live news programs where input levels may be quite
unpredictable. It also automatically re-equalizes substandard audio (which is quite
common in live news broadcasts). The dynamic single-ended noise reduction is
turned on.
TV 5B-SPORTS (TV Five-Band Sports): is similar to TV
5B-NEWS, except the AGC re-
lease time is slower to
resist pumping up crowd noise.
TV 5B-OPTICAL FILM (TV Five-Band Optical Film): is designed to make the best of
the low-quality audio provided with optical film sound tracks (particularly 16mm).
The gate threshold is quite high to avoid pumping up hiss, thumps, and other opti-
cal artifacts. The threshold of the single-ended dynamic noise reduction system is
also high so that this system can reduce artifacts as far as possible. Release times are
slow, because we assumed that material encoded on optical film has already been
carefully level-controlled to accommodate the very limited dynamic range of the
medium, so little gain riding is therefore required from the 8685.
TV AGC+LC and TV AGC+LC+DS are intended for stations that are prohibited by
network or other edict from using multiband processing. The AGC performs gain rid-
ing and the loudness controller regulates loudness without aid from the multiband
compressor. Both are configured to produce only wideband gain reduction.
• TV
AGC+LC uses the five-band structure with all compressors of the multiband
compressors except for LFE turned off. Except for independent control of the LFE
level, which is important to prevent power in the LFE channel from causing audi-
ble midrange pumping in the loudness controller, all gain reduction is strictly
wideband.
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