TC Electronic LM5 loudness meter

[rhumphries]

This may have come up already but I just ran into it today. TC Electronic has released their loudness meter, the LM5.

http://www.tcelectronic.com/LoudnessRadarMeters.asp

At AES last fall I saw a presentation about it. It seems like a cool concept and is now another tool to measure "loudness" over time (and it's not Dolby!) . There's a 10 day demo which I haven't tried it out yet, but I will as soon as I have time. It's a bit pricey at $1295, but cheaper than the similar hardware meters available.

-Richard

[Roy Pahlman]

I wonder if it takes into account Dolby's Dialog Intelligence? Could still be a sticky point for Dolby E if it does not have this feature.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by Roy Pahlman

I wonder if it takes into account Dolby's Dialog Intelligence?

It does not. Then again, neither does the forthcoming Dolby plug-in.

[Pirate Post]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

It does not. Then again, neither does the forthcoming Dolby plug-in.

Yes, the Plug-In does do Dialog Intelligence. I spoke with Dolby today. One thing to keep in mind is the Plug-In is based on the new ITU-BS.1770 spec while the LM100 hardware is based on Leq(A). There will be an update to the LM100 hardware at some point.

I'm going for the Dolby Plug-in.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by Pirate Post

Yes, the Plug-In does do Dialog Intelligence.

Really? Any link you can provide that indicates as such? I am only working on a conversation I had at NAB, but I was told that is uses ITU-R BS.1770, but that it did not have the dialnorm algorithm for latching onto speech.

Surprised the t.c. electronic plug-in still costs as much as it does, because I spoke with someone from t.c. electronic at NAB and that person told me they were going to rethink their pricing. If they did, it doesn't look like much thought went into the process.

[Pirate Post]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

Really? Any link you can provide that indicates as such? I am only working on a conversation I had at NAB, but I was told that is uses ITU-R BS.1770, but that it did not have the dialnorm algorithm for latching onto speech.

Surprised the t.c. electronic plug-in still costs as much as it does, because I spoke with someone from t.c. electronic at NAB and that person told me they were going to rethink their pricing. If they did, it doesn't look like much thought went into the process.

and its cheaper too! I think it will be around $800.[url

http://www.dolby.com/professional/pr...-overview.html[url]

[kkfaudio]

Does anyone have a timeline on the release?

[Pirate Post]

Originally Posted by kkfaudio

Does anyone have a timeline on the release?

about 4 weeks I'm told.

[Chief Technician]

So it does have Dialnorm, but its not using LEQ(a) for that measurement; it's using ITU-R BS.1770. I know the ITU-R measurement is better, but I wonder if any networks are going to say "If it's not an LEQ(a) measurement, buy an LM100 and then get back to us".

[rhumphries]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

So it does have Dialnorm, but its not using LEQ(a) for that measurement; it's using ITU-R BS.1770. I know the ITU-R measurement is better, but I wonder if any networks are going to say "If it's not an LEQ(a) measurement, buy an LM100 and then get back to us".

From what I understand, the new LM100s will use ITU-R BS.1770 too and there will also be a firmware update for LM100s currently in the field.

-Richard