INTERVIEW WITH LEIF CLAESSON: THE OMNIA.9
Q: First, tell us about yourself. How did you get interested in developing audio processing solutions?
Excellent question! I've been interested in music and audio equipment (and electronics) literally my whole life -- even before I turned two. My dad taught me how to use the soldering iron at age 6, and I built amplifiers and other audio-related things, although I was as yet blissfully unaware of audio processing.
I was born and raised in Sweden, and in 1993 we finally got commercial radio. It was virtually unprocessed in the beginning -- but then everyone bought 8200s. I noticed the radical change in the audio, and couldn't help but get extremely interested. I'm from Gothenburg, and NRJ had a cranked 8200 up in Stockholm and a 2200 here locally, so throughout the day (broadcasting from their main studio in Stockholm) their audio was double-processed. You can imagine how it sounded, and immediately I thought: "Even I can do better than this". I was already programming graphical effects and recreational programs, but when I started on my own audio processor (wideband at first, multiband later), I had NO clue just how deep that rabbit hole was. I have now come to the conclusion that it is bottomless, and I'm sticking to it.
Q: The Omnia.9 is quite a unit. What was the thought process behind creating such a full-featured box?
I think it's a combination of things. I'm a stubborn, extremely driven, easily annoyed perfectionist -- but I'm not a complainer, so when something is not as good as it can be, I actually take the time and make the effort to improve it. I also always strive to improve efficiency in everything I do -- I can't stand wasting time, I'm always optimizing the process.
I LOVE music -- always have, always will, and I'm listening to something nearly all the time. I listen to so many different genres -- from pop, rock, electronic music (house and trance in particular), some jazz, some classical, some rap, country, and right this second Dutch 70s schlager pop. You get the idea.
However, the more I listen, and improve my listening environment, the more critical my ears have become, and I get better and better at picking up artifacts, whether I like it or not. It's truly an occupational hazard. To be able to get to the bottom of any issue I hear, I've had to develop my own tools in software so that they're always handy. RTAs, spectrum analyzers, oscilloscopes -- I really need all of them, to properly be able to make decisions on how to adjust any kind of processing. There's that efficiency / time-wasting thing again -- hooking up hardware takes a lot of time that could be better spent listening, experimenting and adjusting. For that reason, even if it means laying all the cards on the table, I feel they have to be included in the product -- if I myself need them (and I wrote the algorithms myself so I know exactly how they work!), how could I possibly expect a customer to be able to use and adjust it without having these instruments available? Working blind just won't do it -- listening alone is not enough when there are this many things going on. Once we use our eyes as well as our ears, it becomes much easier to figure out what's really going on. This is why Omnia.9 has a nice set of measurement tools with a huge amount of patch points, built right into the product. It's not a complete set yet, but it will improve - spectrogram (voiceprint) is coming, and so is an X-Y oscilloscope.
A shorter but equally accurate answer to the above question might have been: "Because I could".
Q: What is the "Undo" technology? This will really clean up distorted, over processed CDs?
Yes, it is very common that CDs of contemporary music are often squashed and over processed. The Omnia.9 has "Undo", an exclusive source declipping algorithm and program-adaptive multiband expander which removes distortion and adds punch to source material. In many cases, it makes the recording sound cleaner than the original CD!
Q: You also have a way of squeezing out more overall loudness? How do you do that?
With our Psychoacoustic Composite Embedder, which allows up to 140% audio peaks in stereo, within 100% total modulation. This creates about 3dB extra treble headroom. This is another Omnia.9 exclusive.
Q: Tell me about the encoding capabilities. You mean this unit will also encode my internet streams, including the separate HD streams?
Omnia.9 can indeed encode your internet streams! It has completely separate processing cores for analog and digital, and all popular codecs are built in. Setting up internet streams is usually a royal pain in the neck -- audio interface issues, driver issues, buggy software. I thought, why not put good, stable encoders right in the audio processor? It makes sense -- the audio is there already, it's on the network already, and we have plenty of CPU left over to do it. Let's face it -- many stations have awful sounding internet streams, and this way, not only does it make setup a breeze, it also ensures the absolute highest audio quality, because there is no chance of glitches or audio degradation beyond what the chosen codec itself does.
Omnia.9 also has digital outputs to feed your existing HD encoders, however it does not itself do the HD encoding, because even if it did, there would be no way to get the signal through to the transmitter, as IBOC is not a subcarrier but rather separate carriers, and must be inserted into the RF, not the MPX.
Q: What if I don't have an HD-2 or HD-3 service? Can I purchase and Omnia.9 without the extra HD processing and encoding capabilities?
Absolutely! The introductory base model has Analog (FM + AM, simultaneously if you like), Digital output (for HD / DAB / DRM) and Internet streaming.
The premium version also includes separate HD-2 and HD-3 processing, as well as multiple separate encoders.
Q: RDS, too? Tell me about this.
Indeed! Omnia.9 has a full dynamic RDS encoder, and with the Psychoacoustic Composite Embedder also having access to the RDS signal, we can take it into account, and actually insert the RDS without losing loudness. Adding the RDS to the composite signal adds overshoots which must then be compensated for by turning down the average modulation, and this means a 0.7dB loudness loss for 8% RDS injection. In today's competitive radio environment, every little bit counts, so being able to turn up the RDS (for increased coverage) while still maintaining loudness and signal-to-noise ratio (again for increased coverage) is a win-win.
The RDS encoder can be controlled from the front panel or remote application, as well as from the built-in HTTP server, for example for displaying the currently playing song, important messages, or advertisements.
Q: The Omnia.9 does so much. What do you say to people who are nervous about having all of their eggs in one basket, so to speak, in terms of reliability?
Omnia.9 was built for years of trouble-free operation, both the software and hardware. It has dual independent hot-swappable power supplies (and can run on just one), software and hardware watchdogs, and MPX relay bypass for your backup chain. We have years of experience in building reliable systems for broadcast, both TV and radio, so we have learned how to build reliable systems. Computers are more reliable than ever before. We're confident in the Omnia.9.
Q: Is the Omnia.9 difficult to set up and manage?
Not at all! The user interface is clean and organized, and you get the exact same user interface in the remote control as on the front panel, including all the instrumentation, as well as dedicated audio streaming for the remote, where you can listen to the audio from any patch point in the chain. No processor has ever been so cooperative in helping you get everything set up just the way you like it.
Q: Final thoughts?
I passed ecstatic about 50 miles back. I'm completely beside myself that we are finally able to release the Omnia.9. It has been years in the making! I want to thank everyone who has helped make this possible -- in particular Tim Carroll and Frank Foti, for believing in me and this project. It's been a long road (I made my first proper pre-emphasis clipper in 2003 -- 8 years ago) full of holes and obstacles. The grandfather of the Omnia.9, "Aeromax-HDFM" by Linear Acoustic, was shown at NAB 2005 and won an award, but circumstances conspired to prevent its release. Now, it's finally reality, and I can't wait to see where this goes. If you like Omnia.9 even half as much as I am proud of it, I know I've done my job well.
