2008

Abrupt volume level changes between different program types and channels became more and more an annoyance for listeners and audience. To get this problem under control, a reliable and standardized method for evaluating program loudness seemed to be essential in radio and TV production and broadcast. Corresponding recommendations should provide binding standards for comparing loudness measurements and enabling a global exchange of programs on the basis of unified evaluation criteria.

In Europe, the project group PLoud was founded at EBU. PLoud made a major contribution in establishing a common, vendor-independent and relatively simple way to measure loudness, creating appropriate standards, and publishing them as EBU R128 Loudness Recommendation. Simultaneously, detailed practical guidelines were created to help audio professionals make the switch from peak to loudness. RTW's Head of Product Management is part of PLoud and actively took part in creating EBU R128.
Many european countries moved on to mandatory introduce EBU R128. In Germany, it became binding end of August 2012.
In parallel, other continents published comparable standards, different in details, but essentially all based on the k-filter according to ITU-R BS.1770.

to PLoud web site at EBU >