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Loudness Control — volume management

Loudness Control is the integrated loudness normalization feature for broadcasts. It lets you create normalization profiles (audio presets) and apply them to any schedule item — video files, live sources, and blocks.

It requires an ALC (Automatic Loudness Control) license for each broadcast channel.

Setup

1. Check the license

Loudness license check

In vpControl → License info, the Automatic Loudness Control line must be greater than zero.

Loudness license check

2. Create audio presets

In vpControl, open the Loudness Control section on the left side of the window:

Adding and configuring audio presets

  1. The Default preset exists by default — it is applied to all items when a license is present
  2. Click Add → enter a name for the new preset
  3. Configure the parameters:
Parameter Description
Integrated loudness Target integrated loudness level (dB LUFS). EBU R128 standard: -23 LUFS; ATSC A/85: -24 LKFS
True peak Maximum allowed peak value (dBTP). EBU recommendation: -1 dBTP
Gain range Gain/attenuation range (dB)
Smoothing Integration time — how quickly the system reacts to loudness changes
Threshold A signal below this level is considered silence and is ignored during normalization
  1. Select the Enable audio normalization checkbox
  2. Click Save

3. Enable normalization on the channel

In vpControl → channel settings, select the Enable Loudness Normalization by Default checkbox.

Enable Loudness Normalization in channel settings

Use in the schedule

Starting with VPlay 5.6, Channel Manager has an Audio preset column.

To assign a preset to an item:

Audio preset column in the schedule

  1. Select a schedule row
  2. In the Audio preset column, open the drop-down list
  3. Select the preset you need

If no preset is selected, Default is applied. If the same item appears in the schedule several times, the preset is set independently for each occurrence.

Setting a preset for an individual asset in PAM

Starting with VPlay 5.6, you can set an audio preset directly in the asset metadata — it is then used automatically every time the asset is added to the schedule.

  1. In Channel Manager Adding the Loudness parameter to Asset Info

select the asset in Source content browser 2. In the Content property window → Asset Info tab → Asset configuration section 3. In the Loudness field, select a preset from the drop-down list

Typical values

Standard Integrated loudness True peak
EBU R128 (Europe) -23 LUFS -1 dBTP
ATSC A/85 (USA) -24 LKFS -2 dBTP
Streaming (YouTube) -14 LUFS -1 dBTP