Audio Engineering Society

Convention Paper 9465

Presented at the 139th Convention
2015 October 29–November 1 New York, USA

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Audio Engineering Society.

Dynamic Range and Loudness Control in

MPEG-H 3D Audio
1 1 1 1 2
Fabian Kuech , Michael Kratschmer , Bernhard Neugebauer , Michael Meier and Frank Baumgarte
1
Fraunhofer IIS, Erlangen, Germany
2
Apple Inc., Cupertino, USA

ABSTRACT

Recently, the new MPEG-H 3D Audio standard has been finalized. It has been designed for delivery of next
generation audio content to the user. In addition to highly efficient immersive audio transmission, MPEG-H 3D
Audio allows new capabilities such as personalization and adaptation of the audio content to different use scenarios.
It also provides an enhanced concept for loudness and dynamic range control (DRC) to adapt the characteristics of
the audio content to the requirements of different playback scenarios and listening conditions. This paper gives a
detailed overview of the loudness control and DRC functionality of MPEG-H 3D Audio. Relevant use cases are
discussed to exemplify the application of the enhanced DRC and loudness management features.

capabilities of the receiving device as well as user

1. INTRODUCTION
The new MPEG-H 3D Audio standard [1] has recently
been finalized. It allows a highly efficient transmission
of immersive audio content in three different formats,
channel-based, object-based and scene-based using
Higher Order Ambisonics (HOA). It has been designed
to offer new capabilities such as user interaction for
personalization and adaptation of the audio content for
different use scenarios. Additionally, MPEG-H 3D
Audio (MPEG-H 3DA) offers a flexible and
comprehensive concept for loudness control and DRC
to adapt the characteristics of the audio content as
appropriate for the content type, listening environment,
preferences.
The traditional TV broadcast environment uses a well-
defined end-to-end solution to deliver audio content to
the end user. Accordingly, it has been a good
compromise to define a particular target loudness and
dynamic range for this specific delivery channel and
well-known type of sound reproduction system of the
receiving device.
However, new types of delivery platforms and
infrastructures have become significant and are
constantly evolving. In a multi-platform environment,
the same content is delivered through different
distribution networks (e.g. broadcast, broadband and
Kuech et al.
mobile networks) and is consumed on a variety of
devices (e.g. AVR, TV set, mobile device) in different
environments (e.g. silent living room, noisy public
transport).
From the consumer’s point of view, the characteristics
of the audio content should fit the individual listening
condition and preference irrespective of the origin and
distribution channel of the content. As a consequence of
the wide variability of listening environments, flexible
adaptation of the audio content is required to avoid user
annoyance in many cases. To be more specific, here are
a few examples that illustrate common problems that
may result from the scenario described above:
• The user needs to adjust the playback volume
when switching between different distribution
channels because the loudness is not consistent.
• Consecutive program items don’t share a
common loudness level, e.g. a movie is
followed by an annoyingly loud commercial.
• The intelligibility of movie dialog is adversely
affected in soft parts due to a noisy listening
environment.
• The dynamic range of an asset is too large for
the desired playback level: The level of loud
parts of a movie is annoyingly high when soft
parts are just loud enough; or soft parts are
inaudible when loud parts are at a reasonable
level.
• The dynamic range of an asset is too large for
the employed playback device, e.g. low-quality
loudspeakers in portable devices.
• The audio signal clips after downmixing the
original immersive content to a lower number
of playback loudspeakers.
To meet the requirements of multi-platform
environments, a sophisticated control of loudness and
dynamics over a large range is necessary. Such a
solution is provided in MPEG-H 3DA based on the
loudness control and DRC tools of the new MPEG-D
Dynamic Range Control standard [2][6]. MPEG-D DRC
provides an enhanced feature set and improved quality
compared to DRC systems of legacy audio codecs. It
defines a comprehensive metadata format – including
program loudness information and time-varying gain
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DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio
values – and how it is applied. The metadata is typically
generated by the content provider and attached to the
content. The audio content is delivered unmodified and
the metadata can be applied at the receiver if desired.
The content provider has full control of the whole
process and can ensure that the DRC metadata produces
a high-quality result in all scenarios.
For the integration into MPEG-H 3DA, additional
requirements for interactive and immersive audio have
been taken into account and corresponding extensions
have been added. The loudness control and DRC tool of
MPEG-H 3DA provides automatic loudness
normalization to a desired target level regardless of the
given content format, the loudspeaker configuration for
playback, or the user’s selection of a specific
presentation of the delivered program. It allows
reversible adaptation of the dynamic range of the audio
as appropriate for the content type, listening
environment, capabilities of the receiving device as well
as user preferences.
This paper provides an overview of dynamic range and
loudness control as specified in the MPEG-H 3DA
standard. First, a brief summary of the MPEG-H 3DA
decoder is presented in Section 2. The different
functional blocks that are related to DRC and loudness
processing are discussed in more detail in Section 3.
Practical examples for configuring the loudness/DRC
system and how to control it are given in Section 4,
where both content production side and receiving side
are considered.
2. OVERVIEW OF MPEG-H 3D AUDIO
In this section, a brief overview of the MPEG-H 3DA
system is presented. Figure 1 shows a block diagram
illustrating the main functional blocks of the MPEG-H
3DA decoder.
As a first step, all transmitted audio signals, in either
channel, object or HOA format, are decoded by the core
decoder stage. Channel signals are mapped to the target
reproduction loudspeaker setup using a format
converter. For object-based representations, the audio
signals for each object are rendered to the target
reproduction loudspeaker setup by the object renderer
using the associated object metadata. Alternatively,
signals coded via extended Spatial Audio Object Coding
(SAOC-3D) [3], i.e. parametrically coded channel
signals and audio objects, are rendered to the
Kuech et al. DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio

Channel
Content Format
DRC
Converter
Object
Content Object
DRC
Renderer
MPEG-H
3D Audio SAOC 3D SAOC 3D Peak
Mixer DRC LN
bitstream in Core Content Renderer Limiter audio out
Decoder
DRC

HOA HOA
Content Renderer
DRC

Figure 1 - Top level block diagram of MPEG-H 3D Audio decoder

target reproduction loudspeaker setup using the
associated metadata. HOA content is rendered to the
target reproduction loudspeaker setup using the
associated HOA metadata.
After decoding and rendering in the individual
rendering blocks, the final output signal is created in the
mixing stage. The mixer generates the final output
signal for playback based on the output signals of each
channel-, object-, and HOA-related rendering block.
Note that the mixer is not simply superimposing its
different input signals, but it also takes into account
additional control information on how to create the
output signal of the final audio scene. This control
information can either be transmitted within the MPEG-
H 3DA metadata or may result from user interaction
with the content. This feature is especially useful to
support personalization of broadcast programs, where
different presentations of the same program can be
provided within the same MPEG-H 3DA stream. The
user can then select between different presentations, e.g.
corresponding to different dialog languages in movies
or alternative commentary tracks in sports broadcasts
(e.g. “home vs. away team”). The user can additionally
select optional audio overlays for video description or
other voice-over scenarios. It is also possible to adjust
the level of a dialog object compared to music and
effects in order to, e.g. increase speech intelligibility.
Figure 1 also shows the different processing blocks
related to DRC and loudness control. The first set of
DRC blocks is located directly after the core decoding
of the audio signals in order to allow for DRC
processing of each channel and object individually. In
case of HOA content formats, the DRC processing is
integrated into the HOA renderer. For parametric
representations based on SAOC, the DRC processing of
individual channels and objects is performed in the
corresponding rendering block, too. A second DRC
stage is located directly after the mixer. It is used to
control the dynamic range of the entire audio scene
rendered to the target loudspeaker setup. The post-
mixing DRC block can also be used to apply optimized
processing for specific loudspeaker setups. After
rendering, potential format conversion, mixing and
DRC processing, the loudness normalization block (LN)
ensures that the signal is played out at the pre-defined
loudness level. The processing chain is completed by an
optional peak limiter that prevents the audio signal from
potential clipping that may be caused by signal
amplifications due to downmixing and rendering, user
interaction or loudness normalization to high target
levels.
A more detailed discussion of the MPEG-H 3DA
system can be found in [4][5].
3. FUNCTIONALITY
The dynamic range and loudness control tool included
in the MPEG-H 3D Audio standard supports audio
processing in the following main categories.
• Loudness control of an entire audio program or
presentation.
• Dynamic range control within an audio
program.
• Peak and clipping control.
• Ducking for voice-over applications.

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Kuech et al. DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio

Typically a combination of these different processing

playback without loudness normalization
blocks is required to achieve a desired adaptation of the loudness
audio characteristics. For example, to normalize an
audio asset to a high target loudness level, dynamic
range compression is needed to provide the required commercial
headroom and additional peak limiting should be target loudness
at decoder
performed to avoid clipping distortions.
sports
The specific features provided by MPEG-H 3DA for
each of these functional categories mentioned above are
discussed in this section. Whenever necessary, all movie
functions work together to produce the most suitable
output for a given playback scenario.
playback
3.1. Loudness Control loudness with loudness normalization

The MPEG-H 3DA system can automatically normalize

and control the loudness of the reproduced audio
target loudness
content at the decoder. The system supports mandatory at decoder
loudness information for the program that is included in
commercial
the metadata of the MPEG-H 3DA stream. Various sports
loudness measurement systems (e.g. ITU-R BS.1770-3 movie
[8], EBU R-128 [10], ATSC A/85 [13]) are supported in
order to fulfill applicable broadcast regulations and
recommendations. It is possible to specify whether a
Figure 3 - Example of loudness normalization for three
loudness descriptor relates to the loudness of the full
program items having different loudness.
program or whether it refers to a specific anchor
element of the program such as the dialog or
Figure 3 shows three example items of a broadcast
commentary.
program. The top of Figure 3 illustrates the case of
unprocessed audio assets. None of the three different
The general concept of loudness normalization is
program items matches the target loudness level at the
illustrated in Figure 3, where the meaning of the
decoder, where the commercial and the sports program
different bars is shown in Figure 2. The thick horizontal
are too loud and the movie’s loudness is too low
line in Figure 2 corresponds to the measured loudness of
compared to the desired target level. After loudness
the considered audio asset. The blue bar represents the
normalization has been applied, as illustrated at the
loudness range [11] and the top of the red bar illustrates
bottom of Figure 3, the playback loudness of all three
the peak level [8] of the audio asset. It is important to
program items is the same and matches the desired
note that the loudness range of an audio asset is closely
target level at the decoder. Note that the loudness range
related to its dynamic range, i.e. a large loudness range
and the signal peak relative to the program loudness
indicates high dynamic range audio, and consequently, a
remains unchanged after loudness normalization, since
small loudness range implies a reduced dynamic range
loudness normalization is performed based on a time-
of the audio asset.
invariant normalization gain derived from the difference
of the loudness of the original program item and the
peak
target loudness level for playback at the decoder.

loudness
More advanced loudness related parameters including
loudness [LKFS]
range loudness range, maximum short-term and maximum
momentary loudness (see ITU-R BS.1771-1 [9], EBU
R-128 [10][11]), as well as signal peak information can
Figure 2 - Legend for loudness and DRC related be optionally transmitted in the MPEG-H 3DA metadata
illustrations. Loudness is measured in LKFS according if desired. A detailed overview of supported descriptors
to [8]. is provided in [7].

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Kuech et al.
DRC processing or downmixing for format conversion
may potentially change the loudness of the original
audio content. Loudness information of the program
after applying a specific DRC or performing format
conversion can be additionally included in the metadata
to compensate for any related loudness variation.
In case that the MPEG-H 3DA stream contains multiple
presentations of the same program, loudness
information is provided for each of them separately at
the encoder. This enables immediate and automated
loudness control for interactive and personalized audio
reproduction. For example, when the user switches
between different presentations the loudness
normalization gain is instantaneously adjusted.
As mentioned in Section 2, MPEG-H 3DA allows users
to interact and control the rendering of individual
objects or signal groups. For example, the level of a
dialog or commentary object within the program mix
can be changed if a corresponding control interface is
provided to the user at the receiving device. However,
when increasing the level of the dialog object, the
overall loudness of the resulting mix will also be
increased compared to the original presentation. This
behavior interferes with the requirement of consistent
loudness. Therefore, the loudness control concept in
MPEG-H 3DA includes a tool to compensate for
loudness variations due to user interaction with
rendering gains. The method is based on metadata
included in the audio stream that provides the measured
loudness for each signal group or object that is part of
the program mix. From these individual loudness
values, a compensation gain can be determined after any
gain interaction by the user, which is applied in the
loudness normalization block together with the loudness
normalization gain. The loudness compensation concept
is illustrated in Figure 4 for the example of a program
consisting of a dialog object and a channel bed.
On the left hand side of Figure 4 the loudness of the
original presentation is shown, where the different color
bars correspond to the loudness portion of the dialog
object and the channel bed. In the center, the loudness
distribution is shown if the level of the dialog is
increased and no loudness compensation is applied.
Obviously, increasing the level of a dialog object also
results in an increase of the overall loudness of the full
program mix. The right-hand side depicts the loudness
distribution within the mix after applying the loudness
compensation gain to restore the desired target level. As
can be seen, the relative level of the dialog object to the
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DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio
increased
dialog level
original After loudness
loudness compensation
dialog
channel bed
Figure 4 – Illustration of the loudness compensation
concept for user interaction with the dialog object gain.
channel bed in the mix is increased as desired, where
this effect is partly achieved by boosting the dialog, but
also by attenuating the channel bed signals when
applying the loudness compensation gain.
It should be noted that the loudness compensation
concept described above is not included in [1] but part
of a proposed amendment to [1] that is currently
standardized in the MPEG Audio-Subgroup.
3.2. Dynamic Range Control
Traditionally, dynamic range control is associated with
compression, i.e. reduction of the dynamic range by
means of a dynamic range compressor. This results in
softer segments of an audio asset being louder and/or
loud segments being softer. A simple dynamic range
compressor generates time-varying gain values that are
applied to the audio signal to achieve the desired
compression effect.
Instead of applying the gain values immediately,
MPEG-H 3DA employs a reversible approach: The
DRC gain values are provided as metadata
accompanying the audio content such that they can be
applied at the receiver if desired. If no DRC processing
is required, the audio remains unchanged and is played
back without any modifications. The DRC configuration
data is fully controlled at the encoder and consists of
static information describing the different DRC
configurations included in the DRC metadata and
dynamic data representing encoded DRC gain
sequences. The temporal resolution of the encoded DRC
gains can be chosen to be as low as 1 ms and thus
allows for transmitted DRC sequences meeting
requirements of professional dynamic range control.
The efficient gain coding schemes offered by the DRC
Kuech et al.
tool avoid undesirable high bitrate overhead for the
dynamic DRC metadata.
There are various parameters specified in [1] and [2]
that can be used to control the DRC processing, where
important examples include:
• Compressor configurations (including DRC
characteristics) that are used to compute the
DRC gain sequences.
• The target level range for which the DRC
configuration is optimized. This relates to the
appropriate playback target levels commonly
used for different reproduction devices and
scenarios (e.g. AVR, TV, mobile device).
• The DRC effect types provided by a certain
DRC configuration. They serve a wide range
of scenarios such as Late Night Listening,
Noisy Environment, Limited Playback Range,
Dialog Enhancement, or General
Compression.
• The frequency band configuration for flexible
multiband DRC processing.
• The target loudspeaker configuration: Unique
identifiers define whether a DRC
configuration is designed for processing the
original content format or for playback with a
specific loudspeaker setup (e.g. optimized for
stereo playback).
• Presentation identifiers can be used to indicate
that a DRC configuration is assigned to a
specific presentation of an audio scene.
The configuration and gains of several independent
compressors can be included in the DRC metadata to
achieve optimized compression effects for various
playback scenarios. The DRC system allows specifying
separate DRC configurations for single channels or
groups of channels, individual objects or groups of
objects, HOA content or different pre-defined
presentations of the program. At the decoder, the
appropriate DRC configuration is automatically selected
considering the given target loudness level for playback,
the desired DRC effect type, the reproduction setup, the
selected presentation of a program or other user input.
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DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio
0 dB FS
- 16
Mobile
- 24
- 31 TV
AVR
Figure 5 - Typical relations of target level and dynamic
range for different receiver types.
It is common practice to use different compressors for
different playback target levels. While for low playback
target levels only moderate or even no compression is
desired, high target levels imply the need for a
considerable amount of signal compression. Typical
relations of target level and dynamic range for different
receiver types are illustrated in Figure 5. It shows
practical examples for three different target levels,
representing typical choices as used for playback over
AVRs, TVs, and mobile devices.
Consequently, a specific target level range is defined for
each DRC configuration to identify the most suitable
one for a given playback system. Figure 6 illustrates an
example of three different sets of DRC configurations
that are designed for specific receiver types (AVR, TV,
mobile device) and that declare corresponding target
level ranges.
The DRC effect types supported by MPEG-H 3DA
cover a wide range of use cases and include: Late Night
Listening, Noisy Environment, Limited Playback Range
(as for the internal loudspeakers of mobile devices),
Dialog Enhancement, and General Compression. Figure
7 illustrates a comparison of regular playback on TV
with watching a movie late at night. For the latter case,
loud parts of the movie should be attenuated, e.g. to
avoid disturbance of family members, while soft parts
of the dialog should still be intelligible at low listening
levels. This results in a reduced dynamic range
compared to the audio signal after processing with the
default DRC configuration for a high-quality receiver
type.
Kuech et al.
0 playback loudspeakers during format conversion of
loudness [LKFS]
DRC set 2
target loudness
at decoder
DRC set 1
High-quality playback on AVR
Figure 6 - Illustration of the target level range
information included for different sets of DRCs. The
dashed line indicates the desired target loudness for this
example.
0 dB FS
- 24
TV
Figure 7 - Illustration of dynamic range characteristics
after processing with the default DRC configuration for
TV and a DRC configuration with effect type “Late
Night”.
The user or an application can request DRC effect types
via the control interface of the decoder.
More details and examples for practical DRC system
configurations and decoder side control of DRC
processing are discussed in Section 4.
3.3. Peak and Clipping Control
There are several processing steps within the MPEG-H
3DA decoding that can potentially lead to clipping of
signal peaks. The most important examples for such
processing steps are loudness normalization to high
AES 139th Convention, New York, USA, 2015 October 29–November 1
DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio
target levels, downmixing to a lower number of
channel content and user interaction with rendering
DRC set 3
gains, where the level of certain objects or channel
Mobile playback groups is increased.
To avoid annoying audible distortion due to digital
clipping, the DRC and loudness control tool of MPEG-
Playback on TV speakers H 3DA includes an optional peak limiter at the decoder.
As shown in Figure 1, the limiting is performed at the
very end of the decoder processing chain.
In case of downmixing, rendering, or loudness
normalization, the clipping prevention can also be
controlled at the production side. So-called clipping
prevention gains can be generated by a peak limiter at
the encoder side, transmitted within the DRC metadata
and applied to audio content in the same way as
compressor gain values. Based on the peak information
in the metadata, the DRC tool automatically scales back
and applies the clipping prevention gains according to
the remaining headroom after adjusting the level to the
target loudness level if applicable. If such an adjustment
is not required, the clipping prevention gains can be
merged with the DRC gains to one combined gain
sequence at the encoder side.
- 24
watching TV 3.4. Ducking
late at night
Ducking is useful if an audio signal is overlaid over the
main audio signal, such as narration, director’s
comments, video description, and other related use
cases. In common approaches the main audio signal is
attenuated when the narration is active. The attenuation
and transitions can be precisely controlled and delivered
by the DRC tool of MPEG-H 3DA. The realization of
ducking via encoder generated gains transmitted within
the DRC metadata eliminates the look-ahead needed in
traditional playback systems.
The ducking gain sequences for the main audio program
are coupled to a corresponding audio object or track.
The ducking of the main program is automatically
performed if, e.g. the user activates audio description or
selects a pre-defined presentation including it.
Figure 8 illustrates the signal of a narration object and
the corresponding ducking gain.
Page 7 of 10
Kuech et al.
Narration signal
0
time
Ducking gain [dB]
0 TV
time
Figure 8 - Narration object signal (top) and
corresponding ducking gain (bottom) applied to the
main program.
4. SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND
CONTROL
4.1. Production Side
As already mentioned earlier in this paper, today’s
content providers, e.g. broadcasters, have to expect that
consumers will listen to the delivered program on a
variety of receiving devices. Accordingly, the content
and its associated DRC and loudness related metadata
within the transmitted MPEG-H 3DA stream needs to
be prepared to provide the best user experience for
different playback scenarios.
As a basic step, different compressors should be
configured at the encoder to generate DRC gain
sequences that are suited to adapt the audio content for
playback on high-quality home theater systems/AVRs,
TV sets, and mobile devices such as smart phones or
tablets. While on AVRs the target loudness level should
be rather low and no or only very little dynamic range
compression is required, the small loudspeakers in flat
panel TV sets imply that the reproduced content should
have only moderate dynamic range and the loudness
level at the decoder should also be increased. The
situation is even more challenging on mobile devices,
where miniaturized transducers and potentially noisy
listening environments demand high target loudness
levels and small dynamic range. In Table 1, typical
DRC configurations for three receiver types are
summarized for broadcast or movie streaming service
scenarios.
The compressor configuration at the MPEG-H 3DA
encoder can either be based on default compression
curves as specified in [12] or on additional pre-defined
individual parameter settings. Alternatively, the DRC
gains provided by custom compression tools can be
passed to an encoder interface and included into the
MPEG-H 3DA stream. The range of playback target
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Receiver type Target loudness Dynamic range
AVR -31 LKFS High
-24/-23 LKFS Medium
Mobile -16 LKFS Low
Table 1 - Typical DRC configurations for different
receiver types.
levels for the AVR/TV/mobile DRC configurations
should cover the entire range of playback loudness
levels such as shown in Figure 6. The effect type
description of the DRC sequences for receiver
adaptation may simply be set to “General
Compression”.
In addition to receiver type adaptation of the audio,
special DRC configurations supporting typical listening
conditions can be included in the MPEG-H 3DA stream.
Practical examples are watching a movie on a mobile
device while being in a noisy environment such as
public transport, or watching TV at home late at night as
already discussed in Section 3.2.
While the previously considered configurations for
receiver type adaptation typically apply the same DRC
gains to each audio channel, object and HOA scene, it
can be beneficial to provide different DRC gain
sequences for individual objects or channel groups. For
example, in a noisy environment it is sometimes
difficult to understand the dialog of a movie. In this
case, it is advantageous to use an individual compressor
configuration for the dialog object, or the channels that
dominantly carry the dialog, in order to increase speech
intelligibility. Similarly, for a late night DRC
configuration, the audio of the channel bed can be
compressed more aggressively to reduce high level
peaks in action scenes, while applying more
conservative processing to the dialog parts of the
content.
Let us revisit the case of mobile receiving devices
again: In this scenario, downmixing of immersive sound
for reproduction on stereo loudspeakers has to be
considered in addition to high target loudness levels,
leading to a high risk of clipping of the rendered audio.
The downmix processing of the format converter at the
MPEG-H 3DA decoder is fully defined and therefore
known at the encoder side. Since the DRC processing is
Kuech et al.
also fully controlled at the encoder, the audio signal to
be expected at the output of the decoder can be
evaluated already at the encoder. Potential clipping can
therefore be identified in advance at the encoder and be
anticipated appropriately.
4.2. Receiving Side
In the following we discuss the use cases considered in
the previous section from the perspective of the
receiving side. In general, the DRC tool of the MPEG-H
3DA decoder automatically selects the best-suited DRC
configuration included in the metadata of the audio
stream. For this, it takes into account information on the
reproduction configuration (e.g. target loudness,
loudspeaker configuration) and potential additional user
input (selection of a presentation of a program, special
effect types).
For the case that the user receives the MPEG-H 3DA
stream on a TV, the target loudness at the decoder will,
e.g. be set to -24 LKFS. The selection process of the
DRC tool automatically picks the DRC configuration
from the stream that includes this particular value in its
associated target level range. Some receiving devices
may offer a control interface that allows the user to
select a specific DRC effect, e.g. for listening late at
night or in noisy environments. In this case, the
selection process of the DRC tool will preferably choose
a DRC set that has the corresponding effect type defined
in its configuration data.
When receiving an MPEG-H 3DA stream on a mobile
device, a similar procedure as described above for the
TV happens: The increased playback target loudness of,
e.g. -16 LKFS is taken into account by the selection
process to choose the appropriate DRC configuration.
User input or other control mechanisms on the mobile
device may lead to another DRC configuration that, e.g.
was specially optimized to provide an improved
listening experience in noisy environments.
Additional aspects of controlling DRC and loudness
related processing result from application scenarios, in
which a device only receives the MPEG-H 3DA stream
for decoding, while the actual playback of the rendered
audio content is done on a different device. For
example, a tablet can be used to receive and decode
movie content from a media streaming service. The
HDMI output of the tablet is connected to an AVR such
that the audio is played back over a high-quality multi-
channel loudspeaker system. It is obvious, that in this
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DRC and Loudness Control in MPEG-H 3D Audio
scenario, the tablet should be considered as an AVR
rather than a mobile device when configuring the DRC
and loudness processing in the MPEG-H 3DA decoder.
Such decoding behavior can easily be achieved if the
receiving device is aware of its currently active audio
output channel. Then, different values for the playback
target loudness can be used to perform loudness
normalization and to select the DRC set that is
appropriate for the given output configuration used for
playback. On a tablet a practical approach is to trigger
different configurations when either using the internal
loudspeakers, headphones or the HDMI output.
5. SUMMARY
In this paper a technical overview of the comprehensive
loudness and DRC concept in MPEG-H 3D Audio has
been provided. The different functional blocks and their
integration into the MPEG-H 3D Audio system have
been presented. The practical application of the
loudness and DRC features has been discussed for
relevant use cases together with illustrative examples
for corresponding system configuration and control of
the loudness and DRC tools.
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[9] ITU-R, Recommendation BS1771-1,

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[10] European Broadcasting Union, “Loudness

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AES 139th Convention, New York, USA, 2015 October 29–November 1

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