DOLBY E CONFIGURATION GUIDELINES

TANDBERG Television
+44 2380 484000

www.tandbergtv.com

Confidentiality Notice
The information contained in this document is proprietary, confidential, and protected by
copyright. Any dissemination, distribution, or reproduction of such information is strictly
prohibited.

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General Information
About this Document
This document provides a description of the configuring an E578x Encoder and
TT1282 or RX1290 IRD for use with Dolby E

Acknowledgements

General
All best endeavours have been made to acknowledge registered trademarks and
trademarks used throughout this document. Any notified omissions will be rectified
in the next issue.
Some trademarks may be registered in some jurisdictions but not in others. In
general, the situation in the UK will prevail throughout TANDBERG Television Ltd
documents.
Registered trademarks and trademarks used are acknowledged below and
marked with their respective symbols. However, they are not marked within the
text of this manual.

Trademarks
EN5780™ is a trademark of TANDBERG Television Ltd.

Registered Trademarks
Dolby E is a registered trademark of Dolby Laboratories

Document Revision
Issue Date Comments
1 2007 Initial issue
2 May 2008 Changes regarding 16 bit Dolby E and “video alignment” explanation

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CONTENTS

GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................. 2

About this Document ..................................................................................2
Acknowledgements.....................................................................................2
General.....................................................................................................2
Trademarks...............................................................................................2
Registered Trademarks ...............................................................................2
Document Revision.....................................................................................2
SCOPE.......................................................................................................... 4
OVERVIEW OF DOLBY E ......................................................................................4
CLOCKING THE RECEIVER .................................................................................. 10
IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS .................................................................................... 11
OBTAINING HELP FROM TANDBERG..................................................................... 12
CONFIGURING AN E578X FOR DOLBY E ..................................................... 14
1. Set the encoder clock source............................................................. 14
2. Select HDSDI as the input video source .............................................. 14
3. Select the correct input format. ......................................................... 14
4. Configure the audio deembedder ....................................................... 14
5. Select the groups to deembed. .......................................................... 14
6. Configure each audio channel coding mode. ........................................ 16
CONFIGURING A TT1280 FOR DOLBY E...................................................... 18
1. Adjust the audio delay...................................................................... 18
2. Set the output format to ‘AC3 – Compressed’...................................... 18
3. Set the desired embedded output DIDs. ............................................. 18
4. Do not frame sync the receiver.......................................................... 18
CONFIGURING A RX1290 FOR DOLBY E ..................................................... 19
1. Adjust the audio delay...................................................................... 19
2. Set the output format to ‘AC3 – Compressed’...................................... 19
3. Set the desired embedded output Groups. .......................................... 19
4. Do not frame sync the receiver.......................................................... 19
APPENDIX A .............................................................................................. 20
Standard Audio DIDs ................................................................................ 20

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Scope
Transmitting Dolby E through a DSNG encoder requires care to be taken to ensure
error-free performance. The best way to ensure that this is done correctly is to
understand what Dolby E is, and what must be achieved in order to transmit it
successfully.

Before proceeding to the sections of this document that specifically help you to
configure your equipment, please read the following sections to understand what it
is necessary to achieve. This will make it clear why the settings need to be made
and what they are doing within the system.

It is this greater understanding that will help if you do encounter a problem, and will
put you in a much better position to locate and resolve it quickly and easily.

Overview of Dolby E

Dolby® E is a professional digital audio coding system intended for the distribution
of up to 8 channels of audio and metadata in professional audio/video environments.
Dolby E is a data signal but is designed to be carried using standard digital
interfaces such as AES3 or SDI. Carrying data within these interfaces places a few
additional requirements onto products that use such interfaces. (for further
information see SMPTE 337M, 338M, 272M, 259M, 299M, 292M, 302M)

The Dolby E frames are embedded into the AES3 interface by mapping the Dolby E
data into the audio sample word bits of the AES frames. Both channels within the
signal are utilised. The data can be packed to utilise 16, 20, or 24 bits in each AES3
subframe (currently only 20 bit Dolby E is available in Dolby E mode in the
TANDBERG encoder, 16 bit Dolby E can be passed in Linear PCM mode this
document applies only to the Dolby E mode). Dolby E data is designed to be
synchronous with an accompanying video signal and encoders are designed to
produce Dolby E bitstreams that are synchronous in this way. Each Dolby E frame
includes the audio that accompanies one video frame, i.e. 40 ms of audio in 25 Hz
territories and 33 ms of audio in 29.97 Hz territories. Every time Dolby E is encoded
or decoded there is a latency equivalent to one video frame.

Dolby E has a feature known as the “guard band”. This is an area within the 48 kHz
AES3 formatted signal where no data is actually stored. This is located around the
video switching line and is designed to allow Dolby E to be switched and routed
without any corruption to the data. To ensure that this corruption does not occur,
this guard band has to remain around the video switching line. Achieving correct
alignment between video and Dolby E requires a central clock source to be used so
that the production of Dolby E stream is done in perfect synchronization to the
video. The upper section of Figure 2 shows how these Guard Bands are placed within
the Dolby E stream.

As Dolby E is a data stream, any process that alters the data stream will result in a
corrupted Dolby E stream. Sample rate conversion, gain adjustment, EQ or bit-depth

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truncation will all likely cause corruption of Dolby E. Essentially the transmission of
Dolby E has to be bit transparent “bit-for-bit”.

Dolby E can be carried within (HD)SDI. When carrying Dolby E in (HD)SDI there are
a couple of issues to consider. The first thing to consider is the embedding/de-
embedding delay. The Dolby E guard band can still be effective if there is a delay in
the audio w.r.t. video, within defined limits.

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 Figure 1 – Diagrams showing how the video source, audio source
(PCM or Dolby E), and Dolby E encoder must be locked to the same
source.
In Figure 1, the TANDBERG E57xx series encoder is also shown clocked to the
master reference. This is essential for the operation of Dolby E, since otherwise the
encoder would sample the incoming video and data according to its own internal
clock. Since this would not be locked to the incoming data rates, the input buffer
would eventually under or over flow. This is what normally happens with the
configuration of most encoders not carrying Dolby E, and the encoder will therefore
either drop occasional video frames or repeat them to make good the difference and
maintain buffer occupancy at a constant level. In video this is done with a frame
resynchroniser built in to the input stage of the TANDBERG encoder, in audio this is
usually done by a SRC (sample rate converter) on the audio input stage, however
this cannot be used for a recompressed audio format as it will corrupt the data. This
process of repeating or dropping frames to make up for the difference in clock
frequencies is not acceptable with Dolby E and so it is essential that the encoder is
locked precisely to the incoming rate of the video and audio data streams. This
means locking the encoders clock to the same clock that the video source and Dolby
E is using as a reference.

The best way of locking the TANDBERG E57xx encoder to the source material is to
lock the E57xx to the incoming video (HD)SDI. This is the method recommended by
TANDBERG for all Dolby E configurations. An alternative method of locking is
available and that is to use a black and burst reference in the same way as used to
lock the other equipment. This however requires a separate cable to carry the clock
reference to the encoder and is less practicable, especially if the encoder is not co-
sited with the production suite.
Locking to the incoming video clock simply makes it very difficult for the encoder
clock to be wrong.

In using Dolby E there are 2 separate issues regarding lip sync.

 Associating the correct Dolby E frame with the correct video frame.
 Making sure the start of the Dolby E frame occurs in the correct position with
respect to the start of the video frame.

Associating the correct Dolby E frame with the correct video frame is the more
traditional concept of lip sync, which will give an audible lip sync error when the
Dolby E frame is decoded back to uncompressed audio.
Making the Dolby E frame begin at the correct point with respect to the video frame
is one of the benefits of Dolby E so this alignment needs to be preserved. It is this
property that allows it to be edited without causing audio glitches.

As long as the encoder is clocked to the same reference as the Dolby E encoder and
the video source, the encoder will automatically align the start of a video frame with
the start of the related Dolby E frame as shown in Figure 2. This means that in the
MPEG transport stream the Dolby E frame will have the same timestamp as the
video frame that the audio is associated with.

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Figure 2 – Dolby E encoding latency and video re-alignment in E 57XX.
The top scenario shows how the Dolby E encoder introduces 1 frame of
delay to the audio path.
The bottom scenario shows the E 57XX encoder compensating for this delay
by introducing 1 frame of video delay internally. This ensures “lip sync” of
the encoded transport stream.

The alignment of Dolby E (and hence guard band) with the video signal is critically
important. When passing the signal through a frame resynchroniser (as is often the
case post IRD), it is essential to maintain correct alignment otherwise excessive
Dolby E frame loss will occur. This can be avoided by ensuring the Dolby E encoder
(or source) is locked to the same reference as the video source, that are being input
to the E 57XX encoder. For example, if a frame resynchroniser needs to drop an
occasional video frame, then if the Dolby E frames are correctly aligned, only one
Dolby E frame will be dropped also. However, if the alignment is not correct, then 2
Dolby E frames will be affected, causing an occasional audio disturbance. This result
would also be the case for routing switchers. Figure 3 shows how both aligned and
misaligned Dolby E are affected by frame synchronizers.

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Figure 3 – aligned and misaligned Dolby E.
The top scenario is CORRECT, If a down-stream frame resynchroniser at the
receiver end discards one video frame, discarding one video frame will only
result in one Dolby E frame being discarded which will not be audible from a
Dolby E decoder .
The bottom scenario is INCORRECT, If a down-stream frame resynchroniser
at the IRD end drops one video frame, it will always have to discard two
Dolby E audio frames, which will cause audio artifacts (mute, or
corruption).

Some users may remember that on the TANDBERG encoder there was a setting in
the audio menu called “video alignment” which was by default set to ON. This
setting should be on for all applications and so in latter software it has been
removed and set to ON by default. The “video alignment” will ensure that the
transport steam that is produced will contain PES packets that contain a single Dolby
E frame and it will be aligned to a video frame. This means the PES packet which
starts at the same time as a video frame will start with some guard band data to
protect the video switching period. See Figure 4.

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 Video frame

Video frame
PTS = t

Line 7 Line 7 is the switching period in HDSDI

Dolby E PES packet data

Dolby E PES Packet

Dolby E Frame
PTS = t

Dolby E Guard Bands

Figure 4. A Dolby E PES packet will have the same time stamp (PTS) as a
video frame, when the Video frame and the Dolby E PES packet are decoded
they will be played out at the same time. In video alignment mode the start
of the Dolby E PES packet will always contain the same amount of guard
band to make sure the Dolby E frame does not cross the HDSDI switching
line.

With the video alignment mode both streams in Figure 3 could be presented to the
TANDBERG E57xx encoder and providing the misalignment was small (~ less than ¼
frame early to ½ frame late) then the E57xx will correct this and the stream will be
realigned. This means that the alignment in the transport stream will always be the
same. If the misalignment at the input to the encoder is too great then the Dolby E
frame will be associated with the next or previous video frame depending on the
direction of the misalignment. This will cause 1 frame of lip sync error, the phase
alignment between Dolby E frames and the video frames will however be correct and
frame dropping or repeating by a downstream frame resynchroniser should still
work.

In Dolby E mode all PES packets from the TANDBERG Encoder will always be aligned
this way it cannot place the Dolby E frame in a different position within the Dolby E
packet.

As long as the Dolby E encoder, Video source, and E 57XX encoder is clocked
correctly, it will ensure;

 That the video and Dolby E frames are aligned. The alignment to video
will always be the same within the MPEG transport stream.
 That the 1 frame of encoding delay caused by the Dolby E encoder is
compensated for automatically by retarding video by exactly 1 frame
as shown in the diagram above.

Please note that the encoder clock source is set within the MUX menu of the set-up
screen. The use of INTERNAL clock is prohibited with Dolby E and can never be
correct. EXTERNAL can be used as long as you present the encoder with a valid

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black and burst reference on the H-sync port. VIDEO is also viable and is the
recommended option for all applications involving Dolby E.

The above information is correct regardless of whether the Dolby E is presented in

embedded form, or separately as AES.

It is necessary to pay particular attention to the system design and ensure that the
components within the system are synchronized correctly in terms of clock source.

Clocking the receiver

Clocking the receiver is as important as clocking the encoder for exactly the same
reasons.
It is therefore important that the same clock used to clock the encoder is also used
to clock the receiver.

The first question concerning this is therefore one of practicality, since the encoder
and receiver may be separated my many hundreds or thousands of miles.
In general terms, there are three ways in which a receiver can obtain its clock
reference, so which can and cannot be used?

The three ways of clocking a receiver are as follows;

1. Use an internal oscillator

2. Use an external H-sync reference
3. Use PCR in the incoming transport stream to recover the original encoder
clock.

Of these three methods, the first (using the internal oscillator) is obviously incorrect,
since it would allow the receiver to “free run” and cannot be used.
This leaves methods 2 and 3 as possibilities.
Using an external clock source is usually not feasible because of the geographical
distance between the encoder and the receiver. However, using the PCR from the
transport stream should always work and be very easy to implement.

Recovering the clock from PCR is the method recommended by TANDBERG. By

default, TANDBERG receivers are configured to use this method, and the PID being
used to carry the PCR is normally visible in the front panel video menu as
confirmation that this method is being used.

This deals with the clocking of the receiver, but how about the Dolby E decoder. This
also needs to be clocked correctly.

In very simple systems, it is possible to use the receiver as the clock source for the
Dolby E decoder. This means that everything in the system is locked to the same
clock reference used at the transmission end. However, there are some important
considerations to be taken into account. The most fundamental concerns how the
black and burst reference needed to clock the Dolby E decoder is obtained. Some HD
receivers do not have down-conversion to SD, and hence have no SD output.

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However, even those that do can provide significant phase shifts in the clock timing
which can create problems when using the source as a clock reference. For this
reason, TANDBERG recommends using a simple external HD to SD down-converter
that creates minimal phase shift been proven to work reliably with Dolby E.
TANDBERG does not recommend using the down-converted output of a receiver
directly, since the majority do cause phase shifts which are unsuitable for use as a
reference. This includes the RX1290 receiver.

Although this simple approach is usually fine for test systems, most broadcast
applications will require the output to be re-synchronized to the local station clock.
For this reason, an alternative approach is needed to clock the Dolby E decoder.

The operation of this second method, which is very commonly used, depends upon
something that was explained earlier. It was stated that if the receiver was locked
correctly (using PCR to recover the original encoder’s clock) then the output would
contain Dolby E frames that are aligned with the video. It was also stated that this
would allow a frame re-synchronizer to work without causing corruption to the Dolby
E signal, since with aligned frames, if a video frame is dropped during re-
synchronization then only one Dolby E frame will be dropped with it. Since this is the
case, the output of the receiver can be passed through a frame re-synchronizer
(which drop entire frames worth of Dolby E at the point of dropping a video frame),
which is locked to the local station clock reference. The output can be fed to the
Dolby E decoder which is also locked to the local station clock reference.
This is the practice used in the majority of studio systems.

Identifying problems
The following guide is designed to help you if you encounter problems.
Please work through the guide in logical order. If using an audio option card in the
TANDBERG encoder it is advisable to use the motherboard audio channels for the
Dolby E. All channels will pass Dolby E in the same way however the following
diagnostic menu options only work on the motherboard audio and will not work on
an audio option card.

Step 1: In the audio menu, please find the two counters that are provided for
diagnostics. These are the “Frame Count” and “sync Pos.error” counters.
Please reset the counters by changing the audio format from Dolby E Passthrough to
any other source, and then back to Dolby E Passthrough again. Then, examine the
counters.

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During normal operation when a Dolby E feed is present, the top “frame count”
indicator should constantly increment with each Dolby E frame successfully
transmitted. The bottom “sync pos. error” indicator should NOT increment at all,
since it will only increment if there was an error.
If this does increment then it strongly suggests that the problem is at or before the
encoder (i.e. The clocking of the video source, Dolby E encoder or encoder is wrong
or there is another problem with one of these devices).

If there is no Dolby E source, then the Sync pos Error counter will rapidly advance
and the Frame Count will remain static.

If the counter is not showing correct operation (i.e. Sync Pos error increments whilst
Frame Count stays exactly the same) then please check;

1. That the master clock source is present and stable

2. The video source is locked to this source.
3. The Dolby E encoder is locked to this source
4. The TANDBERG encoder has the clock source set to VIDEO (within the MUX
menu of the SETUP screen.)
5. Check the embedded audio settings are correct, especially if the Sync Pos
Error is advancing rapidly showing that there is no Dolby E being recovered
at all.
6. Check that the frame rate for the Tandberg Encoder and the Dolby E encoder
match and are correct to the base frame rate i.e. 720p59.94 video matches
29.97fps Dolby E, 720p50 matches 25fps Dolby E, 1080i 29.97/59.94
matches 29.97fps Dolby E and 1080i 25/50 matches 25fps Dolby E.
7. Use a Dolby DM100 test analyzer to test for a valid input. Put the encoder
input into the analyzer and look for errors. If present, the fault is before the
encoder, either with the clock source, video source, Dolby E encoder or the
HD-SDI / SDI embedder (if used).

Step 2: If the counters are as expected (Frame count is advancing but sync pos err
is completely static) then the problem could be down-stream of the encoder. This
could be a problem with the encoder, decoder, or Dolby E decoder. To verify this,
please place the Dolby E DM100 test set at the output of the receiver to see whether
the problem exists before or after the Dolby E decoder.
The Dolby DM 100 can also be used to check the video / Dolby E alignment. For
information, the 25fps Dolby E data is normally inserted around VBI line 11.

In all cases, please work through the equipment settings provided on the
subsequent pages of this guide and verify that these are correct.
It is also strongly recommended that you work with the latest versions of software in
all devices. This can be provided by TANDBERG customer services.

Obtaining help from TANDBERG

There may be occasions where some customers need extra help resolving system
issues with Dolby E.

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To ensure that our customer services department can assist you, please gather the
following information before calling;

1. Please draw the Dolby E system quickly on a piece of A4 paper, so that it can
be faxed to us quickly if required. The drawing should capture the equipment
being used and how it is connected at both the encode and decode end.
Additionally, it should include the software versions of the equipment.
2. Please connect to the encoder and decoder via the web interface and
download the configuration files (XML file). Please be ready to e-mail this to
the TANDBERG engineer assigned to help you, since this will allow your
precise configuration to be reproduced in our lab.
3. Please record any other information that is relevant and will help the
investigation, such as the nature of the problem (What does the disturbance
sound like? How long does it last? How often does it occur?)
4. Please let us know if you have a Dolby DM100 test set, and if so, have you
been able to localize the region of the problem yourself?

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 Configuring an E578x for Dolby E
This section provides specific instructions to enable you to set your TANDBERG
encoding equipment correctly for Dolby E.

Recommended software version as at 13/11/07:

E57xx: Any version later than 3.10.3

The following assumes an HDSDI source with embedded Dolby E.

1. Set the encoder clock source. The encoder needs to be set to use the
video input as the clock source. On the front panel from the Setup->Mux
menu select the Clock option and choose Video.

2. Select HDSDI as the input video source.

This is on the Setup->Video->Video Source menu. Select HD-SDI.

3. Select the correct input format. From the same video input menu
select the correct input format i.e. 1080i/25. If the wrong format is selected
then the encoder will pass video but the output will not be correct and Dolby
E will not work.

4. Configure the audio deembedder. In an E578x encoder there are 2

audio deembedders, one for HDSDI and a second for SD SDI. Only one of
these deembedders can be used at any one time. This is selected from any
of the audio menus and when changed from one audio menu it will be
changed on all audio menus.

5. Select the groups to deembed. The deembedder can deembed from 2

groups. Using the definitions in table 1 and table 2:

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 Group 1 AES 1 (Stereo) AES 2
Left Right
channel 1 channel 2 channel 3 channel 4

Group 2 AES 3 AES 4

channel 5 channel 6 channel 7 channel 8

Group 3 AES 5 AES 6

channel 9 channel 10 channel 11 channel 12

Group 4 AES 7 AES 8

channel 13 channel 14 channel 15 channel 16

table 1.

Embedded audio
The four embedded audio channels available at the encoder depend on the SDI input
having the correct audio groups and channel defined in it. ‘SDI Embedded 1’ will be
the first stereo pair of the group defined by Embedded 1-2 DID. ‘SDI Embedded 2’
will be the second stereo pair of the group defined by Embedded 1-2 DID and similarly
for ‘SDI Embedded 3’ and ‘SDI Embedded 4’

Embedded 1-2 DID: Embedded 3-4 DID:

Channel 1 L Channel 1 L
Embedded 1 Embedded 3
Channel 2 R Channel 2 R

Channel 3 L Channel 3 L
Embedded 2 Embedded 4
Channel 4 R Channel 4 R
table 2.
e.g.

Menu option
Embedded 1-2 DID = 1E5 This is the default DID for Group 3 in HDSDI

Embedded 3-4 DID = 1E6 This is the default DID for Group 2 in HDSDI

Audio A Source = SDI Embedded 1
This is picking out the first stereo pair from
Group 3 and would correspond to channel 9
and 10 from table 1. ‘SDI Embedded 2’
would then correspond to the second stereo
pair from Group 3 – channel 11 and 12

Audio B Source = SDI Embedded 4 This is using the second stereo pair from
Group 2 and would correspond to channel 7
and 8 from table 1.

The default DID mappings for HD and SD can be found in Appendix A.

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 6. Configure each audio channel coding mode. From each
corresponding audio menu choose the audio source to encode with that
channel. If the Audio Alignment option is present (Older software only)
select ‘Aligned to PES Header’. Configure the following settings:

Coding Standard – Dolby E Pass-Thru

Audio Alignment – Aligned to PES Header (only available on older software)
Auto Lip Sync – On
Use Minimum Delay – Off
PCR on Audio PID – Off

The TANDBERG encoder is set up to expect the situation where you have lip synced
video and audio and then the audio is passed through a Dolby E encoder, the video
and Dolby E audio (now 1 frame delayed) are the inputs to the TANDBERG encoder.
The default lip sync frame delays through the TANDBERG encoder are configured as
follows.

In SD the encoder with it’s default lip sync offset will compensate for a 1 frame
encoding delay on the input to the encoder and it will also compensate for a 1 frame
decoding delay at the receive end. In the transport stream the Dolby E frame leads
the corresponding video frame by 1 frame.

In HD the encoder compensates for the 1 frame Dolby E encoding delay. It does not
compensate for the decoding delay, in HD the receiver is expected to cope with this
delay adjustment. In the transport stream the Dolby E frame is aligned to the
corresponding video frame.

In the encoder 1 or 2 frame adjustments can be made to this line up, there is no
way to set a specific delay for audio. The specification states that the audio PES
packet must be stamped with a timestamp from a video packet so this can only be
adjusted relative to the video and only with video frame amounts of adjustment.

720p Maximum video bitrate limitation.

The specification for carrying Dolby E / LPCM in an MPEG transport stream (SMPTE
302M) requires an audio PES packet to be stamped with the PTS from the
corresponding video frame. The audio encoder must wait for this information to
become available from the video encoder. This delay in passing the PTS from the
video encoder to the audio encoder varies with video mode, this dictates the
minimum audio encoding delay. When encoding video in general the higher the
video bitrate the lower the encoding delay. This produces a problem in 720p when a
high video bitrate is selected the video encoding delay becomes less than the
minimum audio delay (the audio packet would need to be placed in the transport
stream before it receives the PTS from the video encoder). This is what causes the
limitation of the video bitrate in 720p. Limiting the maximum bitrate in 720p
actually limits the minimum video encoding delay so that the audio always has time
to encode.
When a lip sync adjustment is made to the audio this changes the minimum audio
delay as the PTS from the video encoder has to be placed on a different packet in
the audio pipeline.

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It is advisable to use Audio A or Audio B for Dolby E instead of Audio 1A or 1B. The
main reason is that for Dolby E passthrough there is extra feedback at the bottom of
the first two audio menus to show if there are any problems with the incoming
source. The additional menu displays are

Frame Count This shows the number of frames of Dolby E found,

this should just keep incrementing.

Sync pos. error This will increment at the start when the encoder
locks onto the incoming Dolby E, once locked this
value should not increment and would possibly
indicate an issue with the source.

During normal operation when a Dolby E feed is present, the top “frame count”
indicator should constantly increment with each Dolby E frame successfully
transmitted. The bottom “sync pos. error” indicator should NOT increment at all,
since it will only increment if there was an error.
If this does increment then it strongly suggests that the problem is at or before the
encoder (i.e. The clocking of the video source, Dolby E encoder or encoder is wrong
or there is another problem with one of these devices).

If there is no Dolby E source, then the Sync pos Error counter will rapidly advance
and the Frame Count will remain static.

The best way of checking the validity of a Dolby E embedded source is to check it
with a Dolby 100 hand-held Dolby E analyzer.

If the counters on the encoder do not increment as expected, then they may have
reached their maximum values. In this case, they can be reset by placing the
encoder in normal stereo encoding mode, and then switching back to Dolby E
Passthrough again. This action will reset the counters.

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Configuring a TT1280 for Dolby E
Recommended software version as at 12/11/07:

TT128x Version 2.4.1 or later

The recommended output format is embedded HDSDI.

1. Adjust the audio delay. Configure the audio channel on the TT1280 that
is to be used for Dolby E to have a lip sync adjustment. When the audio is
played out of the TT1280 the Dolby E frame should match the video frame
played at the same time, if this is then passed through a Dolby E decoder this
will add 1 frame of delay to the audio channel in relation to the video. This
delay can be compensated for in the TT1280 by setting lip sync adjustments
of -40 ms for 25 fps and 50 fps formats or to -33.5 ms for 29.97 fps and
59.94 fps formats. This option is available under the service->audio menu of
the required audio channel.

To put the Dolby Frame in the optimal position with respect to the start of the
video frame an additional lip sync adjustment must be made. Make an
adjustment by bringing the audio forward by 0.5 ms.
e.g.
If the audio adjustment was already at -40ms for the above reason then
change this delay to -40.5ms. If the value was 0 ms then make it -0.5ms.

2. Set the output format to ‘AC3 – Compressed’. From the audio menu
for the desired channel set the digital output format to compressed. This
must be done after making any audio delay adjustments.

3. Set the desired embedded output DIDs. From the service->video

menu select the DIDs that you wish the embedded output to appear on.

4. Do not frame sync the receiver. The receiver cannot be locked to an

SD video signal when passing compressed audio as this could cause the
receiver to drop audio samples in the middle of the compressed audio frame
causing corruption.

Known issues:

The Dolby E line position will move forward over time (the line number will
decrease) the rate of this movement is approximately 1 HD video line every 6 hours.
If the receiver output is being put into a frame resynchroniser then this could cause
a problem after about 3 days as the Dolby E frame could have crossed the frame
switching line. One method of resolving this problem is by using a frame
synchronizer post IRD that includes Dolby E re-alignment.

Page 18 of 20

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© 2007 TANDBERG Television
Configuring a Rx1290 for Dolby E
Recommended software version 12/11/07:

Rx1290 Version 2.5 or later

The recommended output format is embedded (Either HDSDI or SD-SDI).

1. Adjust the audio delay. If necessary configure the audio channel on the
Rx1290 that is to be used for Dolby E to have a lip sync adjustment. When
the audio is played out of the Rx1290 the Dolby E frame should match the
video frame played at the same time. When using SD video from the
TANDBERG encoder it is set up by default to compensate for the 1 frame
decoding delay in the Dolby E decoder and the Dolby E frame is played out 1
frame ahead of the corresponding video frame.
When HD encoding is used the Dolby E frame should be played out aligned to
the corresponding video frame, When this is then passed through a Dolby E
decoder this will add 1 frame of delay to the audio channel in relation to the
video. This delay can be compensated for in the Rx1290 by setting lip sync
adjustments of -40 ms for 25 fps and 50 fps formats or to -33.5 ms for 29.97
fps and 59.94 fps formats. This option is available under the service->audio
menu of the required audio channel.

2. Set the output format to ‘AC3 – Compressed’. From the audio menu
for the desired channel set the digital output format to compressed. This
must be done after making any audio delay adjustments.

3. Set the desired embedded output Groups. From the service->video

menu select the Embedded Groups that you wish the embedded output to
appear on (see Appendix A for more details).

4. Do not frame sync the receiver. The receiver cannot be locked to an

SD video signal when passing compressed audio as this could cause the
receiver to drop audio samples in the middle of the compressed audio frames
causing corruption.

Page 19 of 20

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© 2007 TANDBERG Television
Appendix A

Standard Audio DIDs

The standard DIDs for the audio groups are:

DIDs
Audio Group Hex Decimal
Group 1 SD 2FF 0767
HD 2E7 0743
Group 2 SD 1FD 0509
HD 1E6 0486
Group 3 SD 1FB 0507
HD 1E5 0485
Group 4 SD 2F9 0761
HD 2E4 0740

By setting Embedded 1-2 DID to 1024 will make it use the default Group 1
DIDs and be setting Embedded 3-4 DID to 1024 will make it use the default
Group 2 DIDs.

Page 20 of 20

Not to be distributed without written permission from TANDBERG Television.

© 2007 TANDBERG Television