science

Linear Acoustic

Linear Acoustic is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Linear Acoustic rather than just read about it. In short: Linear Acoustic is an American company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that develops technology and manufacturers equipment used by television stations, cable television and satellite television services providers, post-production facilities and other content services providers to control, measure, manage and monitor multi-channel digital audio. The company has been especially active in areas related to automated u…

Key takeaways

Linear Acoustic belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Linear Acoustic to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Linear Acoustic from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Linear Acoustic is an American company based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania that develops technology and manufacturers equipment used by television stations, cable television and satellite television services providers, post-production facilities and other content services providers to control, measure, manage and monitor multi-channel digital audio. The company has been especially active in areas related to automated upmixing and downmixing of multichannel broadcast audio, and with issues related to relative loudness of broadcast audio. The company was founded in 2002 by Tim Carroll, who had previously worked as Product Manager for the Professional Audio Division of Dolby Laboratories in San Francisco. While at Dolby, Carroll contributed to the development of Dolby Digital (AC-3) and Dolby E encoding systems for DVD and high-definition television (HDTV) applications. Christina Carroll is the Vice President and Executive Director of Linear Acoustic and is responsible for managing day-to-day company operations. The company’s products can be broadly broken down into three categories: Loudness controllers designed to help television broadcasters maintain consistent audio levels; monitors and meters that measure digital audio levels, including loudness; and stand-alone encoding and transcoding products for handling the various data compression technologies commonly found in digital television plants. The subject of controlling loudness in television broadcasts has garnered considerable publicity since the FCC moved to implement enforcement of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation or CALM Act on December 13, 2012. While consumer complaints about overly loud television commercials are almost as old as the medium itself, the CALM Act began as legislation was first sponsored by Representative Anna Eshoo, a Democratic congresswoman in California, in 2008. The law was passed in 2010 and went into full effect in 2011 and 2012. The Linear Acoustic AERO line of audio processors effectively measures and manages shifts in loudness and controls discrepancies between program and commercial audio without unnecessarily degrading the quality of the audio or significantly affecting the dynamic range that adds impact to digital television audio. When used in combination with a meter capable of measuring loudness by the ITU-R BS.1770 standard (or derivatives of this standard, such as EBU R128) U.S. broadcasters will be able to achieve CALM compliance by effectively managing and monitoring audio levels. Linear Acoustic also manufacturers the UPMAX 5.1-channel upmixer, which creates multi-channel surround sound audio from 2-channel (stereo) sources. NBC utilized this product during the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, and relied upon the company’s AERO.qc products during the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. In 2008, Linear Acoustic became part of The Telos Alliance, based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Telos Alliance comprises Telos Systems, Axia Audio, Omnia Audio, and 25-Seven Systems that manufacture broadcast telephone systems, consoles and audio over IP gear, audio processors, and audio time management hardware for radio stations. Frank Foti, founder of Omnia Audio, is The Telos Alliance CEO. At the 2012 NAB Show in Las Vegas, Linear Acoustic announced a co-branding agreement with Dolby Laboratories under which the company will manufacture stand-alone Dolby-centric professional products such as audio codecs and audio bitstream test tools.

Awards In 2011, Linear Acoustic received a Technical Emmy for The Pioneering Development of an Audio/Metadata Processor for Conforming Audio to the ATSC Standard.

References

External links EBU Recommendation R128 - Loudness normalisation and permitted maximum level of audio levels (2010) [1]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Linear Acoustic

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Linear Acoustic claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Linear Acoustic before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Linear Acoustic ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Linear Acoustic

In research: Linear Acoustic appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Linear Acoustic in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Linear Acoustic is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Digital audio, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Linear Acoustic outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Linear Acoustic in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Linear Acoustic means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Linear Acoustic out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Linear Acoustic in simple terms?

Why does Linear Acoustic matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Linear Acoustic?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Linear Acoustic.