RealNetworks Selects Symetrix For Leveling

RealNetworks' Internet Broadcast Operations Center (BOC), the new hub for the company’s Internet streaming services, includes more than 125 Symetrix 421m and 422 AGC levelers.

Systems for the new BOC, located in Seattle, WA, were specified and installed by Digital Systems Technology (DST), also of Seattle. The Symetrix AGC levelers work in tandem with other key system components that include custom Pinnacle System digital encoders as well as a Philips routing system, CircuitWerks phone couplers, and Snell & Wilcox Kudos Series A-D converters.

Specifically, 76 Symetrix 421m levelers manipulate incoming telephone signals to ensure consistency, with an additional 52 Symetrix 422 levelers performing the same task on incoming satellite channels. The units deliver uniform output levels via compression for signals that are too loud, too quiet or in some cases, both. By attacking inconsistent levels at both ends, the Symetrix AGC/Levelers avoid over-compression and at the same time ensure that no overly loud signal will "escape".

"The RealNetworks staff has its hands full setting up and monitoring the output streams,” explains DST’s Ben Wolk. “We designed this system so that operators would not have to leave their workstations to tweak input audio levels.

“The Symetrix AGCs handle the leveling task capably, and they do it with without compromising sound quality,” he continues. “The other auto-levelers we considered were “one trick ponies” - all they could do was compress. As a result, matching the really loud signals to the really quiet signals meant squashing the life out of them, a technique that's far from ideal. The Symetrix way of handling the task is much more intelligent, and the results are infinitely more pleasing."