Linear Acoustic ATSC 3.0 Audio Processor Adds Verance Watermarking

(Image credit: Linear Acoustic)

CLEVELAND & SAN DIEGO—The Telos Alliance and Verance have announced Verance’s Aspect watermarking is now available in Linear Acoustic’s LA-5300 Broadcast Audio Processor, designed specifically for ATSC 3.0 broadcast use.

The LA-5300 provides loudness control, upmixing, Dolby AC-4 decoding and encoding, bitstream analysis and monitoring for NextGen TV audio applications.

“The transition to ATSC 3.0 is an exciting time for TV content creators, distributors and broadcasters, but as with any change of this magnitude, it will present challenges as well as opportunities,” says John Schur, president, Telos Alliance Solutions Group.

“By expanding our partnership with Verance beyond the Linear Acoustic AERO.100, 2000 and 8000 to include the LA-5300, our partners now have a full range of products for the delivery of compelling new consumer features.” 

The LA-5300 audio processor can handle up to four programs, which means it can provide unique encoded streams for the main program audio, SAP and video descriptive services in a 1RU form factor.

The Verance Aspect watermark works for both ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 broadcast environments. It was selected as part of the 3.0 standard to maximize the reach of interactive TV services in broadcast television, the company said. 

The Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television Association (HbbTV) adopted ATSC 3.0 watermarking into its Phase 2 Application Discovery over Broadband specification, which was published in September 2019.

The availability of Aspect in the LA-5300 processor allows programmers to activate interactive services, including addressable advertising, fantasy/predictive gaming and sports betting within Aspect-enabled smart televisions across all distribution paths, said Verance.

“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that drive revenue and viewer engagement in today’s and tomorrow’s broadcast environments,” explained Nil Shah, CEO of Verance. “We have a longstanding and successful partnership with Telos Alliance and are pleased to expand our product suite and support our partners as they transition to NextGen TV.” 

For more information, visit www.telosalliance.com/linear.

Phil Kurz

Phil Kurz is a contributing editor to TV Tech. He has written about TV and video technology for more than 30 years and served as editor of three leading industry magazines. He earned a Bachelor of Journalism and a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism.