Integrated Dolby DP600
Integrating the Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer with Anystream Agility 2G
This application note describes the integration of the Dolby® DP600 Program Optimizer and the Anystream® Agility® 2G from Grab Networks to provide media companies with a seamless automated workflow for repurposing video and audio assets.
The Challenge for Broadcast Professionals
Advances in broadcast, broadband, and information technologies have substantially changed the operational environment for content originators and aggregators. Stand-alone dedicated equipment and manual processes are being replaced with more flexible and dynamic environments that are managed in automated workflows. At the same time, the rise of online and mobile space increases the need for a scalable and flexible way to repurpose your media content.
The Solution—The Dolby DP600 Program Optimizer and Anystream Agility 2G
The DP600 is an innovative and award-winning audio platform that provides a filebased workflow solution for loudness correction, audio creation and conversion (with metadata preservation), and intelligent upmixing. The Anystream Agility 2G is a digital media automation and production system that provides the industry’s most extensive support of broadcast server and video formats, enabling customers to rapidly repurpose broadcast content for the IPTV, Web, and mobile markets. The Agility 2G utilizes theDP600 Web services application programming interface (API) to provide a seamless automated workflow to address your evolving video and audio processing needs.
Benefits of Integrating the DP600 and Agility 2G Work Flows
The integration of the Dolby DP600 and the Agility 2G simplifies and optimizes your operational environment through the following:
- Single work-flow management–The DP600 is integrated directly into the Agility 2G media pipeline so that Agility 2G manages all aspects of the media processing work flow, eliminating the need for any custom integration or manual process steps.
- Optimized network and DP600 utilization–Agility 2G extracts the audio essence and provides it to the DP600 for processing, eliminating the need for the DP600 to unwrap and filter the video portion of programs. This minimizes network congestion and frees up the DP600 to concentrate on audio processing.
- Greater accessibility to the DP600’s powerful capabilities–Agility 2G’s extensive support of media and container formats extends the DP600’s powerful audio processing capabilities (like the unique Dialogue Intelligence™ used in loudness correction) into new markets like online and mobile.
Features of the DP600
The DP600 provides the following capabilities:
- Audio analysis and loudness correction using Dolby’s intelligent and automatic speech-based loudness normalization or the ITU-R BS.1770-1 loudness specification.
- The DP600-C version of the Program Optimizer provides faster-than-real-time filebased encoding, decoding, and conversion between any of Dolby’s broadcast audio formats (Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Pulse, and Dolby E), and PCM, MPEG-1 LII, AAC, HE AAC, and HE AAC v.2, while preserving the audio metadata.
- A highly efficient single-step transcode of Dolby Digital to Dolby Digital Plus.
- An intelligent upmixing option for enhancing two-channel audio for use in 5.1-channel applications.
Please see the DP600 specifications for additional details.
The Workflow
In the following work flow example, the Agility 2G is using the DP600 to help transition from the programmer and postproduction infrastructure (where the audio is distributed within Dolby E) to prepare it for broadcast distribution (where Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus audio is required).
The work flow includes the following steps:
- Agility 2G obtains a file from an ingest server and unwraps the media container (for example, GXF).
- The audio essence (Dolby E in the form of a multiprogram PCM file) is placed onto a network location either as a Samba share or via an FTP file transfer request.
- The Agility 2G uses the DP600 Web services API to submit a workorder to the DP600.
- The DP600 fetches the audio from the source location specified in the workorder and does the requested loudness measurement and correction and Dolby Digital encoding (while creating the appropriate metadata that enables decoders to support complicated and mixed audio formats). The processed file is then transferred to the destination specified in the workorder.
- The Agility 2G queries the DP600 through the API. When it determines that the processing was successful, it rewraps the audio and the video (which may have been processed in parallel) into the appropriate container format and forwards it to a server location for broadcast or online distribution.
