DK-Technologies To Bring Sight To Surround Sound At NAB

DK-Technologies will be attending this year’s NAB Convention in Las Vegas with a new StarFish display for its audio meters that will literally allow users to see what they are hearing when they are listening in surround sound.
Karsten Hansen, CEO of DK-Technologies, said: "This new display technology is a major advancement that will have huge implications for audio engineers working in recording studios, broadcast and post production facilities. Our JellyFish display has now become industry standard because it is so easy to use and we anticipate that StarFish will be equally revolutionary for all those working in surround sound."
Based on the company’s unique and hugely popular JellyFish display, the StarFish goes one step further by displaying an image of the acoustic audio levels as they are experienced by the listener. This information is given alongside the images already provided by JellyFish, which shows audio levels supplied to the centre, left/right and left/right rear speakers.
When the same audio signal is applied to two loudspeakers, it can – under certain conditions – sound twice as loud as it does when one of the loudspeakers is switched off. This phenomenon cannot be read from the levels shown on the normal PPM, but thanks to DK-Technologies new StarFish display it is now possible to visualise the true acoustic audio level.
The colour of the StarFish contour reflects the correlation between neighbouring audio channels in the surround signal. It simply changes colour to indicate positive, neutral, and negative correlation so that users can see at a glance any unwanted effects in the surround sound signal.
Both the stereo downmix and the mono downmix can be displayed simultaneously with the surround sound signal. This means that any surround sound mix already in the production or postproduction stage can be optimized for stereo and mono listening – a feature that will make it particularly useful for television and radio broadcasters where stereo and mono optimisation is still regularly required.
The StarFish and the JellyFish displays are incorporated in DK-Technologies’ version 5.1 software for the MSD600M Series of audio meters. The new software will be released at NAB 2007. Upgrades will be made available for audio meters with earlier software.
For a full demonstration of this new display technology, please visit the DK-Technologies NAB Booth N1835.
(DS)