Linear Acoustic Processor Is Aimed at HD Radio, Surround

Linear Acoustic said its new Aeromax-HDFM Multichannel Digital Processor is being demo’ed at NAB in the SRS Labs booth.
The company said the box incorporates programmable audio processing for a station’s main FM and HD/Digital Radio signal paths, in addition to providing separate multiband processing for up to two supplementary audio channels.
The unit also provides 5.1-channel surround-sound encoding using SRS Labs Circle Surround technology. Linear Acoustic is licensing Circle Surround from SRS.
Linear founder Tim Carroll said in the announcement, “Our new radio processor also enables radio stations to deliver 5.1 channel surround content which can be decoded by a large number of currently-available surround decoders, including Circle Surround, Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby PLII, DTS Neo 6 and Harman Logic 7.”
The unit will be used on-air at NAB via a BE HD Radio transmitter and a Yamaha RX-V4600 A/V Digital Home Theater receiver, which uses Circle Surround and HD Radio technology.
Working with SRS Labs, it said, Linear Acoustic has integrated the Circle Surround 5.1 Channel encoder into the processor.
“Circle Surround provides one of the unit’s major features: the ability to encode 5.1-channel surround sound audio – produced, for example, by DVD-A or SACD discs, or live sources – into a compatible two-channel signal that can be broadcast over HD Radio and even FM utilizing the processing contained in Aeromax-HDFM.”
Linear Acoustic calls the processor “the first multiband radio processor to combine processing for the main FM and HD Radio channels, with processing for up to two supplemental channels – such as NPR’s Tomorrow Radio project – and 5.1-channel surround encoding that can be routed to any or all outputs.”
It also has a built-in spectrum analyzer and digital oscilloscope displays.
SRS booth: N2026.
Info: www.linearacoustic.com