Working with processing guru Leif Claesson, Omnia Audio said it is bringing a new processor to the NAB Show.
The Omnia.9 looks different than the Omnia.11 introduced at last year’s NAB Show. A more traditional box at 3RU, it has a 7-inch front panel touchscreen. It is compatible with Axia Livewire networking.
According to Omnia the .9 handles multiple streams of audio. Along with traditional processing for the FM program there is processing for an HD Radio channel (optional HD2 and HD3 as well) and they’ve built in encoding for streaming services (MP2, MP3, AAC, HE-AAC, Ogg Vorbis and WMA Pro). It has simultaneous separate processing cores for FM and HD and, optionally, HD2 and HD3; each processing core is separately adjustable and has selectable four, five, six or seven bands.
On the processing front onboard are multiband downward expansion, three-stage wideband AGC (with adjustable side-chain EQ), program-dependent multiband compression, multiband look-ahead limiting, adjustable dynamic bass clipping, high-pass filter (15 Hz, 30 Hz or 45 Hz), automatic program-dependent declipper and a multiband expander.
Omnia is trumpeting this as “the single most versatile audio processor in the world.” A YouTube video of a recent presentation about the unit by Claesson has been posted.
