Reverberation
Reverberation, in psychoacoustics and acoustics,
is a persistence of sound after
the sound is produced. A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a
sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then
decay as the sound is absorbed by the surfaces of objects in the space – which
could include furniture, people, and air.
Reverberation time
Reverberation time is the time required for the sound to “fade away” or
decay in a closed space after the
source of the sound has stopped.
Directivity/Pickup
pattern/Polar pattern
Sensitivity
Frequency response
Low-pass filter (LPF) and High-pass filter (HPF)
A low-pass filter (LPF) is a filter that passes signals with a frequency lower than a selected cutoff
frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies greater than the
cutoff frequency. The exact frequency response of the filter depends on the filter
design. The filter is
sometimes called a high-cut filter, or treble-cut filter in
audio applications. A low-pass filter is the complement of a high-pass
filter.
A high-pass filter (HPF) is an electronic filter that passes signals with a frequency higher than a certain cutoff
frequency and attenuates signals with frequencies lower than the
cutoff frequency. The amount of attenuation for each frequency depends on the filter
design. A high-pass filter is usually modeled as a linear time-invariant system. It is sometimes called a low-cut
filter or bass-cut filter.
Analog Videotape
Recording Principles
A real problem
when we try to record full blown video using a method similar to what we do
with audio. Basic physics states that the highest frequency you can record
on magnetic tape is determined by two things.
·
One is how fast
the tape travels by the head,
·
and the other is
how narrow the head gap is (the space between the two poles on a recording
head).
The
formula is : Fmax = Vtape / 2 x
Wgap.
·
This means that
the maximum frequency you can record is equal to the velocity of the tape as is
passes by the head, divided by twice the width of the tape head's gap
·
In audio, the
highest frequency that has to be recorded is about 20,000 cycles per second.
·
This means that,
at 15 inches per second tape speed, It will need a head gap of .000375 of an
inch (20,000 = 15 / 2 x Wgap, or Wgap = 15 / 2
x 20000 = .000375.)
· The video signal has frequencies up to 4.2 million
Hz in it. Using the formula,
we get 4200000 Hz x 2 x .00006 gap width = 504
inches per second.
· A half hour recording at this speed would require 75,600
feet of videotape
(a little more than 14 miles).
|
Growth and Decay of
sound in an enclosure
An enclosed space is a
room or area bounded on every of its sides. The materials for enclosure may be
classified into two:
• Those that allow sound rays to pass through
and
• Those that do not
allow sound rays to pass through.
When a sound source
releases sound energy, the intensity of sound suddenly increased when measured
at any particular point. This intensity is caused by the direct sound that reaches
the measurement point and is dependent on the distance between the source and
the destination.
Indirect sound is caused
by reflections from the various surfaces within he enclosure and is not a
factor distance between the source and the destination. The total sound level
is the sum of the direct sound and will keep increasing till the equilibrium.
When sound sources switched off suddenly the
sound intensity will gradually die away and not end suddenly. But the indirect
song keeps bouncing around the enclosures various surfaces that absorb some of
the energy before it reaches the measurement point a little after the directive
sound.
Sound decay
can take a long time as it is dependent on the shape of the enclosure and the
amount of absorbent material used and how it is positioned in the enclosure. The
term used for the gradual decay of sound energy is reverberation .
The Difference Between a Graphic and a Parametric Equalizer
Equalization in the
process of balancing frequency components with an electronic signal and is very
popular in sound recording and reproduction. An Equaliser is the equipment that
facilitates equalization by strengthening or weakening in the energy of specific
frequency band. Graphic and parametric
equalizers have much more flexibility in modification of the frequency content
of an audio signal. Since equalizers "adjust the amplitude of audio
signals at particular frequencies.
Graphic equalizer
In the graphic
equalizer, the input signal is sent to a bank of filters. Each
filter passes the portion of the signal present in its own frequency range
or band. The amplitude passed by each filter is adjusted using a
slide control to boost or cut frequency components passed by that filter. The
vertical position of each slider thus indicates the gain applied at that
frequency band, so that the knobs resemble a graph of the
equalizer's response plotted versus frequency.
The number of frequency
channels (and therefore each one's bandwidth) affects the cost of production
and may be matched to the requirements of the intended application.
Parametric equalizer
Parametric
EQ.
Parametric equalizers
are multi-band variable equalizers which allow users to control the three
primary parameters: amplitude, center frequency and bandwidth.
·
The amplitude of
each band can be controlled,
·
and the center
frequency can be shifted,
Parametric equalizers
are capable of making much more precise adjustments to sound than other
equalizers, and are commonly used in sound recording and live sound reinforcement. Parametric equalizers are also sold as
standalone outboard gear units.
Tape
bias
Tape bias is the term for two techniques, AC bias and DC bias, that
improve the fidelity of analogue tape recorders.
When recording, magnetic tape has
a nonlinear response as determined by its coercivity. Without
bias, this response results in poor performance, especially at low signal
levels. A recording signal which generates a magnetic field strength less than
tape's coercivity is unable to magnetise the tape and produces little playback
signal. Bias increases the signal quality of most audio recordings
significantly by pushing the signal into more linear zones
of the tape's magnetic transfer function.
DC bias
The earliest magnetic
recording systems simply applied the unadulterated (baseband) input
signal to a recording head, resulting in recordings with poor low-frequency
response and high distortion. Within short order, the addition of a suitable direct
current to the signal, a DC bias. The
principal disadvantage of DC bias was that it left the tape with a net
magnetization, which generated significant noise on replay because of the grain
of the tape particles. Some early DC-bias systems used a permanent magnet that
was placed near the record head. It had to be swung out of the way for replay.
DC bias was replaced by AC bias but was later re-adopted by some very
low-cost cassette recorders
AC
bias
AC bias is the addition
of an inaudible high-frequency
signal (generally from 40 to
150 kHz) to the audio
signal. Most contemporary tape recorders use AC bias.
The mixing console or
"mixer" is a central component of most sound systems. In fact, the
mixer used will have a large influence on the operability and efficiency of the
entire system.
Digital Mixers
In digital mixers audio
signals are converted to and processed in digital form. This type is more
expandable, meaning you can connect a greater number of external devices.
Advantages of a digital
mixer are
(1) Settings can be
pre-programmed and recalled when necessary
(2) Mixing and
processing features that only digital can provide
(3) Expansion and external devices
(4) Noise-resistant
digital transmission
(5) Multiple functions
in small spaces
Analog Mixers
Analog mixers work in
the opposite way of digital mixers — this type of mixer uses analog sound transmission
instead of digital sound transmission.
Analog mixers are much
easier to operate because they have only one function per control. The more simple design is better suited for
those learning how to use mixers. Analog mixers are also less expensive than
digital mixers.
MPEG
MPEG stands for Motion
Pictures Expert Group. It is ISO standard for Video and Audio. MPEG standard
also support online Audio and Video. MPEG also refer the family of Digital
Video Compression standard and file formats of this group MPEG algorithm show
better compression so video data can be eaisly communicated through on line
channel and easily decompressed at receiver site.
MPEG follow lossy
compression Technique for the compression of Video data. The video data which
is not relevant to visualization of human eyes these data is removed from the
video that’s why Video Compression follow lossy compression MPEG show high
compression rate because it store difference of frames rather than entire frame
of video.
MPEG1
·
Standard for lossy video/audio
compression Developed by ISO,IEC. Designed to compress VHS-quality raw digital
video and CD audio down to 1.5 Mbit/s
Provide coding of Video and its associated Audio with speed 1.5 MBPS for
digital storage media. It is an extension of JPEG ,H.261. Only supports
progressive pictures.
Applications/Advantages
·
Most popular s/w for video playback
includes MPEG-1 decoding, in addition to any other supported formats.
·
The popularity of MP3audio has
established a massive installed base of hardware that can play back MPEG-1
Audio (all three layers).
·
"Virtually all digital audio
devices " can play back MPEG-1 Audio.Many millions have been sold to-date.
·
Before MPEG-2 became widespread, many
digitalq
satellite/cable TV services used MPEG-1 exclusively.
·
The Super Video CD standard, based on
VCD, uses MPEG-1 audio exclusively, as well as MPEG-2 video.
·
Most DVD players also support Video CD
andq
MP3 CD playback, which use MPEG-1
·
The international Digital Video Broadcastingq
(DVB) standard primarily uses MPEG-1 Layer II audio, and MPEG-2 video.
Drawback of MPEG 1
·
Only support Progressive scanning
·
Do not support broadcasting
·
Low picture quality
·
Achieve Low compression ratio.
MPEG2
MPEG2 is used for DVDs,
ATSC (High Definition Television) broadcasts, Personal Video Recorders (such as
TiVo), and many other applications. MPEG2
is so versatile that while originally it was planned to have an MPEG3 standard
for High Definition TV broadcasts, it turned out that MPEG2 scaled in terms of
bit rate so that only 1 standard was necessary for both Standard and High
Definition video.
Advantages
·
MPEG2 gives better picture quality than
MPEG1 at full CCIR 601 resolution (720x480) and at comparable bit rate.
·
MPEG 2 support scaling but MPEG1 not
support it.
·
MPEG 2 Support both Progressive and
Interlaced Scanning but MPEG1 support only Progressive scanning.
Disadvantage of MPEG2
·
MPEG2 takes more CPU horsepower to
decompress, and basically has no advantage over MPEG1 at lower
resolutions.
·
If you're distributing for the web,
you're not going to want to be compressing stuff in MPEG2 instead of MPEG1
because the benefits of MPEG2 aren't realized until you get into full TV
resolution, which means big file sizes.
MPEG4
MPEG-4 is a new
multimedia standard that is designed for use in broadcast, interactive and
conversational environments. The way MPEG-4 is built allows MPEG-4 to be used
in Television and Web environments, not just the one after the other, but also
facilitates integration of content coming from both channels in the same
multimedia scene.
Advantages
·
Integration of natural and synthetic
content, in the form of objects. Such objects could represent 'recorded'
entities (a person, a chair) or synthesised material (a voice, a face, an
animated 3D model).
·
Support for 2D and 3D content.
·
Support for several types of
interactivity.
·
Coding at very low rates (2 Kbit/s for
speech, 5q
Kbit/s for video) to very high ones (5 Mbit for transparent quality Video, 64
Kbit/s per channel for CD quality Audio). Support for management and protection
ofq
intellectual property.
·
MPEG-4 provides DVD quality video, but
uses lower bit rate in comparison to MPEG 2 so that it's feasible to transmit
digitized video streams in MAN , and also in WAN, where bandwidth is more
critical, and hard to guarantee.
·
Support video conferencing over
Internet.
·
MPEG-4 preserves compatibility with
major existing standards: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, ITU-T H.263, and VRML.
·
Good video quality at reasonable
bitrates
·
Excellent cost/performance
·
Near universal support by VMS
·
Low latency