The Telos Alliance®—innovator in broadcast radio and TV technology and parent company to Telos®, Omnia®, Axia®, Linear Acoustic®, 25-Seven®, and Minnetonka™—announced today that the Omnia.11 broadcast audio processor has a significant upgrade with software v3.5, premiering at NAB 2018, April 9–12 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. This new software upgrade (now shipping and already running at dozens of stations), is part of Omnia’s “Great Sound Matters Most” initiative, which focuses on the quality and performance of broadcast audio as the best way for broadcasters to obtain listeners and retain audiences.
New Omnia.11 Pepino Clipper & G-Force Dynamics Updates
Omnia.11 v3.5 brings significant new updates to the Omnia.11 platform, including the new “Pepino” clipper—the latest FM final clipper design from Frank Foti. With Pepino, Foti redesigned the clipper section to perfectly compliment Omnia.11’s G-Force dynamics engine. Likewise, G-Force processing improvements now take advantage of the newly designed clipper. (G-Force is now shipping on all 11 models and available as a software upgrade to older “orange” Omnia.11 units.)
Frank Foti Explains Pepino
The toughest job, or function, for a broadcast audio processor is the final stage, which is known as the clipper or peak limiter, as this is where the precision peak control is accomplished. Controlling the peaks with some form of clip function is quite easy. The challenge is what to do with the portion of the signal that has been clipped off, as this content gets distributed within the audio spectrum as both harmonic and intermodulation distortion. Over the years there have been various means to suppress some of the distortion, but, all of those methods have a limit as to how much sonic annoyance can be reduced.
Through advanced research into the peak limiting mechanism and how distortion is created, we have designed a new clipper system that suppresses both harmonic and intermodulation distortion as the clipping function is realized. This is applied over the entire audio spectrum, and the result is cleaner audio overall, yet without any compromise to the desired competitive loudness level. This new system is available in the latest Omnia.11 software v3.5. For a given amount of peak limiting in older Omnia.11 software, this new clipper system will sound noticeably cleaner for the same setting, as well as maintaining the same level of perceived loudness.
Great Sound Matters is something I take seriously and personally. This has been a personal discipline all the way back to my days as a chief engineer. Knowing the station where I was employed sounded cleaner and louder than anyone else on the dial was a right of passage in my book. Today, it’s the motto by which we exist, and the new Omnia.11 software, v3.5, is an example of that.
—Frank Foti, Executive Chairman of the Telos Alliance and Founder of Omnia Audio.
FM/HD Blend and Other Performance Improvements
V3.5 includes several other dramatic improvements, including better high-frequency handling and more consistent bass response; seamless transitions when switching between presets with extremely different EQ and compression characteristics; improved audio consistency for better blending between FM and HD channels, including a unified FM/HD Bass Clipper; a new “Phat Bass” update for richer, stronger bass presence; improved sound in the low-latency DJ section; a greatly improved HD look-ahead limiter in HD-enabled units; and warmer and cleaner live/dry voice performance. A Transient Detail Enhancer in the dynamics section offers smarter, more powerful RMS control in the AGCs, producing a solid increase in loudness to match the performance of the Pepino clipper.
Invest Once, Keep Benefitting
When it comes to getting listeners to tune in all day long, great sound is what matters most. But with technology moving at breakneck speed, hardware can become outdated quickly, with many manufacturers requiring you to purchase a whole new processor once technology is improved, quickly obsoleting their own products. Omnia engineers are always looking for ways to supercharge their processors with improvements and features that benefit all users. But instead of making customers buy a whole new processor every time, Omnia offers free and low-cost software upgrades, actually making customers’ machines better over time and paying dividends on customers’ investment in Omnia processors.
For full v3.5 functionality, users need to be running the Omnia.11 G-Force platform. To download the v3.5 software upgrade, visit www.telosalliance.com/Omnia11.
To sign up for a live Omnia demo at NAB 2018 or beyond, visit TelosAlliance.com/Omnia-Sound-Matters. In addition to launching Omnia.11 v3.5 at NAB, Telos Alliance will be showing other exciting new products and technology in two booths—Telos Alliance radio solutions (N6531) and Telos Alliance TV Solutions Group (SU2321). Visit the Telos Alliance NAB 2018 page for other Telos Alliance NAB news.
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About The Telos Alliance
For three decades, the brands of the Telos Alliance have revolutionized radio and television by pioneering disruptive, cutting-edge audio technology with the goal of helping global networks and local stations produce better programming, improve audience engagement, and bolster ratings. The Telos Alliance is made up of six brands—Telos Systems, Omnia Audio, AxiaAudio, Linear Acoustic, 25-SevenSystems, and Minnetonka Audio—that raise the bar for quality and innovation in the radio and television industries. The Telos Alliance invented Audio over IP for broadcast and contributed time and resources to the effort that led to the AES67 standard. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, with additional offices and dealers around the world, the Telos Alliance offers an industry-leading warranty and backs users’ critical on-air needs with worldwide 24/7 round-the-clock support for all customers. A complete list of dealers can be found at TelosAlliance.com/Dealers.
