The Telos Alliance is readying a “significant upgrade” to one of its Omnia line broadcast audio processors. The parent company to brands such as Telos, Axia, Linear Acoustic, 25-Seven and Minnetonka will be formally revealing the improved product at the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas.
“The Omnia.11 broadcast audio processor has a significant upgrade with software v3.5,” Telos notes.
The new software upgrade, now shipping and already running at dozens of stations, is part of Omnia’s “Great Sound Matters Most” initiative, which Telos says “focuses on the quality and performance of broadcast audio as the best way for broadcasters to obtain listeners and retain audiences.”
Omnia.11 v3.5 brings changes to the Omnia.11 platform, including the new “Pepino” clipper—the latest FM final clipper design from Executive Chairman of the Telos Alliance and Founder of Omnia Audio Frank Foti. With Pepino, Foti redesigned the clipper section to compliment Omnia.11’s G-Force dynamics engine. Likewise, G-Force processing improvements now take advantage of the newly designed clipper. (G-Force is now shipping on all 11 models and available as a software upgrade to older “orange” Omnia.11 units.)
“The toughest job, or function, for a broadcast audio processor is the final stage, which is known as the clipper or peak limiter, as this is where the precision peak control is accomplished,” Foti says. “Controlling the peaks with some form of clip function is quite easy. The challenge is what to do with the portion of the signal that has been clipped off, as this content gets distributed within the audio spectrum as both harmonic and intermodulation distortion. Over the years there have been various means to suppress some of the distortion, but, all of those methods have a limit as to how much sonic annoyance can be reduced.”
Through advanced research into the peak limiting mechanism and how distortion is created, Foti and his team designed a new clipper system that suppresses both harmonic and intermodulation distortion as the clipping function is realized. “This is applied over the entire audio spectrum, and the result is cleaner audio overall, yet without any compromise to the desired competitive loudness level,” he says.
This new system is available in the latest Omnia.11 software v3.5. For a given amount of peak limiting in older Omnia.11 software, this new clipper system will sound noticeably cleaner for the same setting, as well as maintaining the same level of perceived loudness.
Live Omnia demos at NAB 2018, along with demonstrations of other products, will be seen at two expo booths—Telos Alliance radio solutions (N6531) and Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group (SU2321).
