Emotion’s loudness compliance tools ensure that your content’s integrated loudness falls within the required broadcast loudness standards, without compromising the audio experience. Available in the Eff product and as a module within Engine, our loudness tools have been verified by Netflix, are compatible with worldwide standards (including ATSC A85, CALM, EBU R128) and support legacy PPM and VU measurements.

Engine can convert any input stream format to any output stream format, can flexibly reorder channels according to your requirements, provides the ability to change the number of audio channels and can insert various types of metadata into supported file types, including channel layout data and language tags.

Engine automates the traditionally challenging process of converting media from one frame rate to another, maintaining the original video whilst providing impeccable audio to match. Our methodology has been developed in consultation with post-production facilities and is trusted by customers around the world.

Converting the different input formats into the required standard needed for playout – or ‘normalising’ these files – is often done by editors working in expensive edit suites. But the process can be entirely automated using Engine, including the ability to add audio channels to your media files and upmix or downmix soundtracks.

Because Dolby E was originally designed around hardware and real-time solutions, transitioning this technology to file-based workflows can be challenging. But not with Engine. Engine covers all your essential Dolby E requirements and has modules available for Dolby E encoding, Dolby E decoding, and for Dolby E guard band correction. Full access to Dolby Digital Plus metadata is provided, and you can also obtain comprehensive XML reports of all metadata.

Files that contain common formats of Dolby Digital Pro and Dolby Digital Plus Pro can be processed in Engine for loudness compliance to normal worldwide standards. Engine also supports the encoding of PCM audio into these formats with the same flexibility.

The move to surround sound audio delivery can cause problems for broadcasters dealing with legacy content that’s only available in stereo. Returning to edit to create a surround sound mix is expensive and relies on access to the original master audio, but Engine provides a high-quality, automated solution to this problem. By incorporating world-leading upmix technology into Engine, we can produce a very stable and natural sounding 5.1 mix without destroying the original stereo image. Engine has an equivalent solution for creating stereo where only a surround track exists.

Engine’s channel mapping module provides a flexible and easy-to-configure method of remapping your channel layout. Audio can be treated as groups of channels, in mono, stereo or 5.1 format; groups can be swapped or duplicated and selected channels can be muted using our easy-to-use editor.

Engine provides a fully automated and faster-than-real-time method to insert audio from an AIFF or WAV file directly into your media or to extract chosen tracks from your files. This is particularly useful when preparing different language versions of content for global distribution. Engine can also be used to apply language tags to each track.

Whether they’re referred to as audio or video descriptions in your part of the world, preparing the commentary track used to describe the video content for visually impaired audiences can be tricky. Because devices like tablets and computers don’t have the ability to stream the description track in parallel to the main soundtrack, a separate mix has to be created to combine the commentary and original audio. Engine’s AD mix module provides a range of solutions for premixing the commentary using a standard Pan/Fade control track, or can create a control track from a commentary track for use with set top boxes.

File preparation for VOD has some characteristics that differ from regular broadcast, dictated by the different playout mechanisms employed. A common requirement is for files with 16 channels of audio, even when only a single stereo mix is provided. Engine takes this task out of the edit suite with automated workflows that can be customised to your needs.