Combining our NGA efforts in an open-source ADM production tool

If you are following our work towards a truly open and codec-independent workflow for Next Generation Audio, you will have noticed that we not only work together with other broadcasters and industry representatives to define relevant standards for that purpose, i.e. Audio Definition Model (ADM), Serial ADM, the ITU ADM Renderer and further specifications. We also implemented these standards in open-source software libraries such as libadm, libbw64 and libear which will simplify the integration of the ADM workflow in production tools, foster a wide support and guarantees a smooth interoperability. But we didn’t stop there and teamed up once again with our BBC R&D audio colleagues for an exciting new project where all these developments come together: the so-called EAR Production Suite.

The EAR Production Suite is a set of VST® plugins for Digital Work Stations (DAW) which enables you to produce and author content using the ADM format and to monitor it for any ITU-R BS.2051 loudspeaker configuration using the ITU ADM Renderer. Moreover, the EAR Production Suite will enable you to import and export ADM files, compliant to the EBU ADM Production profile. The VST® plugins are currently optimized for the Reaper DAW which features an extension interface that we use to import and export ADM files within an BW64 container.

The current status of this joint development (as shown in the figure below) has already the majority of basic features implemented:

• Import of ADM files and explode object-based content to Reaper tracks, groups and automation curves
• Editing of audio objects in each track (“Object Input Plugin”)
• Overview of existing objects in the “Scene Master Plugin”
• Rendering of different loudspeaker configurations for monitoring

We are proud to announce that we will demonstrate the current development status at EBU booth during IBC (10.F20). Come along and have a chat with us about the future of audio production. We plan to publish the source code of the Production Suite as open-source project on Github in addition to freely available release builds. There are still a few things to implement before we can publish it but we expect the release soon.

The user interface is currently also still rather basic but we are already investigating  a reasonable user interface. Once we completed further features (see figure below), the new user interface will be integrated. But this is another story about which we will report in the next months. So stay tuned for further updates about feedback from the IBC, new features and releases!