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Peak programme meter
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Peak programme meter
A peak programme meter (PPM) is an instrument used in professional audio that indicates the level of an audio signal.
Different kinds of PPM fall into broad categories:
In professional use, which requires consistent level measurements across an industry, audio level meters often comply with a formal standard. This ensures that all compliant meters indicate the same level for a given audio signal. The principal standard for PPMs is IEC 60268-10. It describes two different quasi-PPM designs that have roots in meters originally developed in the 1930s for the AM radio broadcasting networks of Germany (Type I) and the United Kingdom (Type II). The term Peak Programme Meter usually refers to these IEC-specified types and similar designs. Though originally designed for monitoring analogue audio signals, these PPMs are now also used with digital audio.
PPMs do not provide effective loudness monitoring. Newer types of meters do, and there is now a push within the broadcasting industry to move away from the traditional level meters described in this article to two new types: loudness meters based on EBU Tech. 3341 and oversampling true PPMs. The former would be used to standardise broadcast loudness to −23 LUFS and the latter to prevent digital clipping.
In common with many other types of audio level meter, PPMs originally used electro-mechanical displays. These took the form of moving-coil panel meters or mirror galvanometers with demanding 'ballistics': the key requirement being that the indicated level should rise as quickly as possible with negligible overshoot. These displays require active driver electronics.
Nowadays, PPMs are often implemented as 'bargraph' incremental displays using solid-state illuminated segments in a vertical or horizontal array. For these, IEC 60268-10 requires a minimum of 100 segments and a resolution better than 0.5 dB at the higher levels.
Many operators prefer the moving-coil meter type of display, in which a needle moves in an arc, because they feel the angular movement is easier for the human eye to monitor than the linear movement of a bar graph.
PPMs can also be implemented in software, in a general-purpose computer or by a dedicated device that inserts a PPM image into a picture signal for display on a picture monitor.
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Peak programme meter
A peak programme meter (PPM) is an instrument used in professional audio that indicates the level of an audio signal.
Different kinds of PPM fall into broad categories:
In professional use, which requires consistent level measurements across an industry, audio level meters often comply with a formal standard. This ensures that all compliant meters indicate the same level for a given audio signal. The principal standard for PPMs is IEC 60268-10. It describes two different quasi-PPM designs that have roots in meters originally developed in the 1930s for the AM radio broadcasting networks of Germany (Type I) and the United Kingdom (Type II). The term Peak Programme Meter usually refers to these IEC-specified types and similar designs. Though originally designed for monitoring analogue audio signals, these PPMs are now also used with digital audio.
PPMs do not provide effective loudness monitoring. Newer types of meters do, and there is now a push within the broadcasting industry to move away from the traditional level meters described in this article to two new types: loudness meters based on EBU Tech. 3341 and oversampling true PPMs. The former would be used to standardise broadcast loudness to −23 LUFS and the latter to prevent digital clipping.
In common with many other types of audio level meter, PPMs originally used electro-mechanical displays. These took the form of moving-coil panel meters or mirror galvanometers with demanding 'ballistics': the key requirement being that the indicated level should rise as quickly as possible with negligible overshoot. These displays require active driver electronics.
Nowadays, PPMs are often implemented as 'bargraph' incremental displays using solid-state illuminated segments in a vertical or horizontal array. For these, IEC 60268-10 requires a minimum of 100 segments and a resolution better than 0.5 dB at the higher levels.
Many operators prefer the moving-coil meter type of display, in which a needle moves in an arc, because they feel the angular movement is easier for the human eye to monitor than the linear movement of a bar graph.
PPMs can also be implemented in software, in a general-purpose computer or by a dedicated device that inserts a PPM image into a picture signal for display on a picture monitor.
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