Applying the EBU R128 Loudness Standard in live-streaming sound sculptures

Marie Højlund, Morten Riis, Daniel Rothmann, and Jonas Kirkegaard

Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2017
• Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Pages: 420–425
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1176354 (Link to paper)
• PDF link

Abstract:

This paper describes the development of a loudness-based compressor for live audio streams. The need for this device arose while developing the public sound art project The Overheard, which involves mixing together several live audio streams through a web based mixing interface. In order to preserve a natural sounding dynamic image from the varying sound sources that can be played back under varying conditions, an adaptation of the EBU R128 loudness measurement recommendation, originally developed for levelling non-real-time broadcast material, has been applied. The paper describes the Pure Data implementation and the necessary compromises enforced by the live streaming condition. Lastly observations regarding design challenges, related application areas and future goals are presented.

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @inproceedings{mhojlund2017,
 abstract = {This paper describes the development of a loudness-based compressor for live audio streams. The need for this device arose while developing the public sound art project The Overheard, which involves mixing together several live audio streams through a web based mixing interface. In order to preserve a natural sounding dynamic image from the varying sound sources that can be played back under varying conditions, an adaptation of the EBU R128 loudness measurement recommendation, originally developed for levelling non-real-time broadcast material, has been applied. The paper describes the Pure Data implementation and the necessary compromises enforced by the live streaming condition. Lastly observations regarding design challenges, related application areas and future goals are presented.  },
 address = {Copenhagen, Denmark},
 author = {Marie Højlund and Morten Riis and Daniel Rothmann and Jonas Kirkegaard},
 booktitle = {Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.1176354},
 issn = {2220-4806},
 pages = {420--425},
 publisher = {Aalborg University Copenhagen},
 title = {Applying the EBU R128 Loudness Standard in live-streaming sound sculptures},
 url = {http://www.nime.org/proceedings/2017/nime2017_paper0079.pdf},
 year = {2017}
}