Bob Orban will teleconference in to discuss analog and digital radio audio processing, including techniques for processing bass (including subharmonic synthesis), the uses and pitfalls of de-clippers, use of multidimensional phase correction to minimize mono reception while minimizing multipath distortion, and use of parallel compression for pre-processing. He’ll also touch on loudness management of digital radio and streaming using both the BS.1770 and the Jones Torick (CBS) algorithms, with particular consideration given to the 2015 AES TD1004.1.15-10 “Recommendation for Loudness of Audio Streaming and Network File Playback” publication. Bob will show measurements assessing how effectively conventional radio-style audio processing controls loudness, and will include practical suggestions about loudness management, and will wrap up with a brief discussion of two recent Orban products for radio and streaming.

Members and guests are welcome to our monthly meeting Wednesday, July 19th at 12 noon at iHeart Media, 9660 Granite Ridge Drive in San Diego. Orban will buy pizza for the occasion.

About Bob Orban

In 1970, Bob founded Orban Associates, originally as a manufacturer of studio equipment. In 1975, Orban Associates introduced the original Optimod-FM 8000, which was the first in a long line of broadcast audio processors for AM, FM, TV and digital broadcasting from the company.

Orban has also been involved in professional recording for many years and has mixed several records released on the Warner Brothers label, as well as on small independent labels. As a composer, his music has been heard on classical radio stations in New York and San Francisco, and his score for a short film, “Dead Pan,” was heard on PBS television in Chicago. He has designed studio reverberators, stereo synthesizers, compressors, parametric equalizers, enhancers, and de-essers under both the Orban and dbx brand names.

Bob Orban has been actively involved in NRSC committee AM improvement work. He has been widely published in both the trade and revered press (including Audio Engineering Society, Proceedings of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and SMPTE). He co-authored the chapter on “Transmission Audio Processing” in the NAB Engineering Handbook, 10th Edition. He currently holds over 20 U.S. patents. In 1973 he was elected a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society. In 1993, he shared with Dolby Laboratories a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. In 1995, he received the NAB Radio Engineering Achievement Award. In 2002, he received the Innovator Award from Radio Magazine.

In 2015 Orban introduced the Optimod PCn 1600, the first Optimod that runs natively on the host computer’s Intel x86 processor; the software does not use dedicated DSP chips. This year Orban introduced the company’s new flagship FM audio processor, the OPTIMOD-FM 8700, featuring versatile five-band and two-band processing for both analog FM transmission and digital media.