Telos Audio Processor integrates Verance watermarking for ATSC 3.0

Verance Aspect Watermarking Support for Linear Acoustic LA-5300

CLEVELAND, OH and SAN DIEGO, CA — Telos Alliance®, global leader in broadcast audio and Verance®, a leading global provider of standards-based watermarking solutions, announces the availability of Aspect™ watermarking in the Linear Acoustic® LA-5300 Broadcast Audio Processor.

The LA-5300 processor was developed by Telos Alliance specifically for the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard. It provides a single solution for loudness control, upmixing, Dolby® AC-4 decoding and encoding, bitstream analysis, and monitoring. The ability to handle up to four 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.

The Aspect watermark works in both today’s 1.0 and tomorrow’s 3.0 broadcast environments and was selected to be part of the ATSC 3.0 standard as a way to maximize the reach of interactive television services in broadcast television. For the same reason, the Hybrid Broadcast Broadband Television Association (HbbTV) adopted ATSC 3.0 watermarking into its Phase 2 Application Discovery over Broadband specification published in September 2019.

By deploying Aspect within the LA-5300, programmers can activate interactive services, including addressable advertising, fantasy/predictive gaming, and sports betting within Aspect-enabled smart televisions across all distribution paths. Without Aspect, programmers will be unable to deliver these services to the estimated 80% of U.S. households receiving television via cable/satellite (MVPD) and over-the-top distribution paths.

“The transition to ATSC 3.0 is an exciting time for TV content creators, distributors, and broadcasters, but as with any change of this magnitude, it will present challenges as well as opportunities,” says John Schur, President, Telos Alliance Solutions Group. “By expanding our partnership with Verance beyond the Linear Acoustic AERO.100, 2000, and 8000 to include the LA-5300, our partners now have a full range of products for the delivery of compelling new consumer features.”

“Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to delivering innovative solutions that drive revenue and viewer engagement in today’s and tomorrow’s broadcast environments,” explained Nil Shah, CEO, Verance. “We have a longstanding and successful partnership with Telos Alliance and are pleased to expand our product suite and support our partners as they transition to NextGen TV.”