Audio Requirements

General Technical Requirements

  • Sidecar audio must be delivered as a single Sound field interleaved into a single track (e.g. 5.1 surround would be 1 track with 6 channels: L,R,C, LFE, Ls, Rs) or as discrete audio where a single sound field that includes all necessary tracks (e.g. 5.1 surround would be 6 tracks with 6 channels in ONE file: L,R,C, LFE, Ls, Rs)
  • Sidecar Audio deliverables require the channel count to be 1, 2, or 6 channels interleaved into a single track. (excluding Dolby Atmos deliverables)
  • Sidecar audio delivered as WAV must be RF64 compliant.
  • Sidecar Audio must be within +/- 1 frame in duration with the parent video master its for.
  • All audio channels must be labelled in the file metadata matching the sound field layout.
  • All audio tracks must start at the same time, and conform (be synchronous) with the video essence and have the same duration as the main program content.
  • Where both exist, a near field mix is preferred over a Theatrical mix.
  • For any 5.1 surround track delivered a separate and corresponding 2.0 stereo track must also be supplied.

Sidecar Audio Technical Specification

CodecLinear PCM
ContainerWAV or QuickTime MOV
Bit Depth24 Bit
Sample Rate48 kHZ

Audio Loudness

With the exception of Theatrical mixes, all near field full mix audio must conform to either ITU-R BS.1770-3 (for US content deliveries) or EBU R 128-2020 (for European content).

For ITU-R BS.1770-3 target audio loudness must conform with:

  • Program target loudness must be -24 LKFS +/-2 dB (measured without LFE for 5.1)
  • Program True Peak must not exceed -2 dBTP (dynamics processing should be applied as needed)

Additional guidance can be found in the ATSC Recommended Practice: Techniques for Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness for Digital Television.

For EBU R 128-2020, target audio loudness must conform with:

  • Program Loudness Level must be normalized to a Target Level of −23.0 LUFS +/-1 LU
  • True Peak Level of a program must not exceed −1 dBTP

Dolby ATMOS General Requirements

All content deliveries to Paramount must be compliant with SMPTE ST 2067-201:2019 Immersive Audio
Bitstream (IAB) Level 0 Plug-in. The Dolby Atmos Home mix must meet the following requirements:

  • At a minimum, Atmos must be mixed in a 7.1.4 room.
  • For near-field mixes, the most common monitoring levels are 79dB or 82dB SPL.
  • Target audio loudness must conform to the Audio loudness specification, Paramount reserves the right to reject the content for non-compliance. Specifically, audio loudness must conform to the following using the ITU-R BS.1770-3 or ITU-R BS.1770-4 audio measurement algorithms:
    • Target loudness SHALL be -24.0 LKFS +/-2.0 LU.
    • True Peak (dBTP) target levels for the Atmos mix should not exceed -0.1dBTP. Loudness and True Peak should be measured using the loudness analysis in the Dolby Atmos Renderer software or via a third-party tool measuring the 5.1 re-render from the Dolby Atmos Renderer software. Beds and objects must, at the minimum, be separated by Dialogue, Narration (if present), Music, and Effects.
  • All beds and objects are encoded and will always be audible.
  • Atmos files must be synchronous with, and seamlessly match, video essence. Audio delivered
    as separate reels will be rejected. Leader and sync pop SHALL be removed.
  • For all ATMOS deliveries, a separate and corresponding 5.1 and 2.0 stereo track must also be
    supplied.
  • Adding the First Frame of Action (FFOA) in the Dolby Renderer is optional and not required.

Dolby ATMOS Technical Specification

CodecDolby ATMOS
FormatADM (Audio Definition Model) BWF
Sample Bit Depth24 Bit
Sample Rate48 kHZ

Audio Description

Audio Description is an alternate audio track that includes a spoken description of key visual elements important to comprehend the plot, music, dialogue, and sound effects. Audio Description tracks must meet the following requirements:

  • Audio Description must be mixed with the full mix audio
  • Audio Description must conform to the primary program video.
  • IMPORTANT: Please ensure that narration of the audio description does not bleed into the break points provided in the rundowns. It will provide for a poor viewership experience if the lines of dialogue are interrupted and could result in a QC flag.
  • Audio Description must adhere to Sidecar Audio Technical Specification.
  • For any 5.1 surround Audio Description, a separate and corresponding 2.0 stereo Audio Description track must also be provided.

Audio Description with Control Track

Audio Description with Control Track supports UK Digital Terrestrial Television requirement as defined in the BBC white paper WHP 198.

Audio Description with Control Track must meet the following requirements:

  • Audio Description w/ Control Track must be delivered as 2.0 Stereo PCM WAV where:
    • The right channel contains the control data (aka studio signal) used by the set-top box, or software player, to dip the original full mix to dynamically create an Audio Description

Dubbing Card Requirements

  • Dub Cards must deliver as 24-bit, RGB, 3840 x 2160 (UHD), or 24 bit, RBG, 1920 x 1080 (HD) Portable Network Graphic format (.png)
  • Dub Cards must not include an Alpha Channel
  • Dub Cards’ language, total number of cards and card sequence are required as part of the upload process
  • All Dub card images for a particular language, for a particular title, must be provided in a single upload session

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