Radio World is featuring winners of its 2011 “Cool Stuff” Award this month.

The company promises “a completely new platform … unlike anything ever offered within the Omnia family.”

If last year’s big Omnia processor was the offspring of Frank Foti and Cornelius Gould, this year’s Omnia.9 is birthed from the mind of Leif Claesson. Foti anticipates big things for Gould and Claesson, calling them “the next leaders in audio processing.”

Claesson gives Foti a lift while Paul McLane and Angi Roberson watch. Photo by Jim Peck

Notable features include “undo” technology, a source declipping algorithm and a program-adaptive multiband expander that removes distortion from source material to correct damage done in mastering.

“Undo actually fixes the over-processed CDs so common in today’s contemporary music,” Omnia states. “A Psychoacoustic Composite Embedder allows up to 140 percent audio peaks in stereo, within 100 percent total modulation, creating up to 3 dB extra treble headroom.”

The box has selectable patch points so you can audition an audio signal from anywhere in the chain without affecting program output. There’s separate processing for FM and HD1 (and, optionally, HD2 and HD3 paths); and independent encoding and processing for Internet streams of FM analog and HD channels, with the ability to encode to numerous formats. The unit comes with an onboard RDS encoder and HTTP push support for automation systems that can use dynamic RDS and streaming song titles.

Info: www.omniaaudio.com/9