Ah! The economic pinch is felt in all areas of life forcing even broadcasters to work with shrinking budgets while engineers and executives are demanding audio processing systems that feature more robust functionality in preparing legacy media assets for 5.1 delivery. Linear Acoustic and Cobalt Digital Inc. have teamed up to meet this need by incorporating Linear Acoustic upMAX™ surround sound upmixing technology into Cobalt's 9305 embedded audio delay processor.

Together, these technologies enable broadcasters to receive any stereo pair source material and upmix it to 5.1 for storage or transmission, in turn providing their viewers with the highest level of audio quality.

"Broadcasters today need processing solutions that can reduce both the time and expense of bringing programming with 5.1-channel surround sound to their audiences," said Christina Carroll, vice president of sales and marketing for Linear Acoustic. "Working with Cobalt Digital, we offer the market a smart, flexible solution for surround-sound delivery. Our partnership enables high-performance stereo-to-5.1 conversion at a fraction of the cost of purchasing outboard upmixing equipment."

"With the upMAX-enabled 9305-UM, we can offer our customers and openGear partners cutting-edge upmixing capabilities for outstanding 5.1 surround sound while saving them both money and space," said Chris Shaw, vice president of sales for Cobalt Digital Inc. "Linear Acoustic was our partner of choice in enhancing the 9305 because the company is a well-respected leader in audio processing with a reputation for high-quality, innovative solutions. The upMAX technology in the 9305-UM has certainly lived up to that reputation."

Upmixing for Cobalt's 9305 processor is provided by the renowned Linear Acoustic upMAX algorithm, which enables compelling 5.1-channel audio with complete downmix compatibility. The upMAX algorithm also includes the new Linear Acoustic AutoMAX-II™ auto-detection algorithm, which smoothly and automatically bypasses upmixing when applied content is already 5.1 channels. The upmix can be enabled by the user or it can run in an automatic mode, monitoring the input audio for stereo audio, which is converted to upmixed 5.1 surround. User controls support audio channel mapping, allowing the operator to adjust audio center width and the surround field depth, as well as to enable/disable the LFE channel. Capable of applying independent delay for up to 16 channels, the Cobalt 9305 processor receives an HD/SD-SDI signal, de-embeds all audio data, applies a separate delay to each channel, and re-embeds the audio into the video stream — all without touching the active picture or any non-audio ancillary packets. The system offers adjustable delay to 30 seconds and allows the operator to lock pair delays.