Linear Acoustic LA-5300 ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Signal Processor

The Linear Acoustic LA-5300 Broadcast Audio Processor provides everything broadcasters need to be ready for NEXTGEN TV/ATSC 3.0 audio along with the flexibility to support legacy ATSC 1.0* in a single, compact, integrated package, including loudness control, upmixing, encoding, transcoding, audience measurement watermarking, bitstream analysis for up to four simultaneous real-time program streams, and a confidence monitor output.

Features:

• Dolby® AC-4 encoding from PCM
• Transcoding from Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus to AC-4
• AC-4 decoding for watermarking and bitstream analysis and monitoring
• Linear Acoustic UPMAX® ISC Upmixing
• Optional Verance or Nielsen watermarking
• Dolby Real-Time Loudness Leveler when encoding to AC-4
• Dual 3Gb/s HD/SD-SDI, 5 pairs of AES-3 I/O, and AES67 I/O in support of SMPTE ST 2110-30 and -31 workflows
• Optional Quad-Link 3Gb/s SDI I/O for supporting 4K workflows or MADI I/O (mutually exclusive)
• Dual 1000BaseT Ethernet connections (AES67 and control)
• SNMP alarm and status reporting
• Web-based user interface provides comprehensive setup, configuration, routing, control, and metering

A Complete ATSC 3.0/NEXTGEN TV Audio Solution
The roll-out of ATSC 3.0 - better known to consumers as NEXTGEN TV - brings with it a unique set of requirements, challenges, and opportunities for television broadcasters. The Linear Acoustic LA-5300 provides a single solution for loudness control, upmixing, decoding AC-4 for audience measurement watermark insertion, bitstream analysis, and monitoring, transcoding of Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus to AC-4, and Dolby AC-4 encoding. The ability to handle up to 4 programs means one LA-5300 can provide unique encoded streams for the main program audio, SAP, and video descriptive services—all in a single 1RU solution. A decode and monitor-only version is also available which omits upmixing, watermarking, and AC-4 encoding.

I/O for Any Facility
The LA-5300 comes standard with 5 pairs of AES-3 I/O, dual 3G SDI I/O, and AES67 I/O to support SMPTE ST 2110-30 and -31 workflows. Options include Quad-Link 3G SDI for facilities utilizing 4K workflows, or MADI I/O. Two Gigabit Ethernet ports are provided, one for AES67, and one for remote control via the web-based GUI.

Ready for Today, Ready for Tomorrow
The LA-5300 meets the immediate requirements for NEXTGEN TV/ATSC 3.0 audio right out of the box, with channel-based AC-4 encoding, loudness control, and upmixing for multiple programs. As ATSC 3.0 adoption grows, support for its additional features and benefits such as immersive and object-based audio, interactive consumer control, personalized audio, and multiple presentations within a single stream will be incorporated into the LA-5300 via software updates.