Testing and Quality Assurance

The perfect volume for the playback of media content is a highly individual issue. A seamless experience where all content is played back at a similar loudness level is not. Make sure your loudness normalization works just as it should to deliver the best possible experience.

Older audio codecs are known for delivering content at varying levels of loudness. Even though a “louder” codec might initially be perceived as performing better, the disparity in playback loudness can interrupt the experience by forcing users to adjust the volume. That’s why advanced codecs such as MPEG-H Audio contain loudness information. It is the basis for evening out content pieces recorded at different loudness levels and ensures a seamless experience where users don’t have to adapt the volume of each content piece manually.

Use the test signals provided below to check if the loudness normalization of your MPEG-H Audio, AC-3, and E-AC-3 content works properly. Unlike these three codecs, AAC-LC does not include loudness information. Our test setup uses this fact to help you determine the target loudness of a playout device by comparing the normalized loudness level of MPEG-H Audio, AC-3, and E-AC-3 with the non-normalized one of AAC-LC.