TLS TVC-15 User manual

Broadcast Watermark Analyzer
& Monitor
Installation and Users Guide
For product P/N: 2001-00367
Soware Version 2.0
Manual V2.0 • January 2018
p/n 1490-00170-002

TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
TVC-15 Installation and Users Guide
© 2018 TLS Corp. All rights reserved.
About 25-Seven Systems®
25-Seven Systems specializes in audio technologies and products that address the unique
problems of radio broadcasters, networks and content providers. The company was launched
in 2004 by a group of veteran broadcasters with extensive audio experience and a significant
portfolio of intellectual property. 25-Seven joined The Telos Alliance® in 2012. Its products are
designed and built in the United States.
NOTICES AND CAUTIONS
The installation and service instructions in this manual are for use by qualified personnel only.
To avoid electric shock, do not perform any servicing other than that contained in the operating
instructions unless you are qualified to do so. Refer all servicing to qualified personnel
This instrument has an autoranging line voltage input. Ensure the power voltage is within the
specified range of 100-240v. The ~ symbol, if used, indicates an alternating current supply.
This symbol, wherever it appears, alerts you to the presence of uninsulated, dangerous
voltage inside the enclosure – voltage which may be sufficient to constitute a risk of
shock.
This symbol, wherever it appears, alerts you to important operating and maintenance
instructions.
CAUTION: HAZARDOUS VOLTAGES
The instrument power supply incorporates an internal fuse. Hazardous voltages may still be
present on some of the primary parts even when the fuse has blown. If fuse replacement is
required, replace fuse only with same type and value for continued protection against fire.

TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
WARNING:
The product’s power cord is the primary disconnect device. The socket outlet should be
located near the device and easily accessible. The unit should not be located such that
access to the power cord is impaired. If the unit is incorporated into an equipment rack, an
easily accessible safety disconnect device should be included in the rack design.
To reduce the risk of electrical shock, do not expose this product to rain or moisture. This
unit is for indoor use only.
This equipment requires the free flow of air for adequate cooling. Do not block the
ventilation openings on the rear and sides of the unit. Failure to allow proper ventilation
could damage the unit or create a fire hazard. Do not place the units on a carpet, bedding, or
other materials that could interfere with any panel ventilation openings.
If the equipment is used in a manner not specified by the manufacturer, the protection
provided by the equipment may be impaired.
“USA CLASS A COMPUTING DEVICE”INFORMATION TO USER WARNING:
This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio-frequency energy. If it is not installed
and used as directed by this manual, it may cause interference to radio communication.
This equipment complies with the limits for a Class A computing device, as specified by
FCC rules, part 15, subpart j, which are designed to provide reasonable protection against
such interference when this type of equipment is operated in a commercial environment.
Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause interference. If it
does, the user will be required to eliminate the interference at the user’s expense. Note:
objectionable interference to TV or radio reception can occur if other devices are connected
to this device without the use of shielded interconnect cables. FCC rules require the use of
shielded cables.
CANADA WARNING:
“This digital apparatus does not exceed the Class A limits for radio noise emissions set out
in the radio interference regulations of the Canadian department of communications.”
“Le présent appareil numérique n’émet pas de bruits radioélectriques dépassant les limites
applicables aux appareils numériques (de Class A) prescrites dans le règlement sur le
brouillage radioélectrique édicté par le ministère des communications du Canada.”
CE CONFORMANCE INFORMATION:
This device complies with the requirements of the EEC council directives:
n93/68/EEC (CE MARKING)
n73/23/EEC (SAFETY – LOW VOLTAGE DIRECTIVE)
n89/336/EEC (ELECTROMAGNETIC COMPATIBILITY)
Conformity is declared to those standards: EN50081-1, EN50082-1.

TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Trademarks and Licenses
TVC-15, Voltair, and 25-Seven are trademarks of TLS Corp. All other trademarks are the
property of their respective holders.
All versions, claims of compatibility, trademarks, etc. of hardware and soware products
not made by 25-Seven which are mentioned in this manual or accompanying material are
informational only. 25-Seven makes no endorsement of any particular product for any
purpose, nor claims any responsibility for operation or accuracy. We reserve the right to
make improvements or changes in the products described in this manual which may affect
the product specifications, or to revise the manual without notice.
This document and its content are copyrighted by 25-Seven and TLS Corporation and
may not be copied, reproduced, or distributed in any form without expressed wrien
permission.
Certain libraries are licensed to You under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
Version 2 (“GNU GPL”). Telos is not allowed to sub-license these libraries to You as You are
deemed to have Your own direct license from the original licensee. Telos does not modify
these libraries in any way. Telos hereby offers to You, upon Your request and for the actual
costs of materials and shipping, all source code and object code files for all such GNU
libraries contained in the Soware. Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Soware Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA. Everyone is permied to copy and
distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Updates
Features and operations of TVC-15 are determined largely by soware. 25-Seven Systems
strives to provide the most stable and feature-rich soware available. We encourage you to
check for soware updates from time to time by visiting our website or by contacting us
directly.
Feedback
We welcome feedback on any aspect of our products or this manual. In the past, many
good ideas from users have made their way into soware revisions or new products. Please
contact us with your comments or suggestions.

TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
We support you…
By Phone/Fax
You may reach our 24/7 Support Team in emergencies by calling [phone]. For billing
questions or other non-emergency technical questions, call [phone] between 9:00 AM
to 5:00 PM USA Eastern Time, Monday through Friday.
By Email
Non-emergency technical support is available at [e-mail].
By Web
The 25-Seven Web site has a variety of information that may be useful for product selection
and support. The URL is hp://www.Telosalliance.com/25-Seven
SERVICE
You must contact Telos Alliance before returning any equipment for factory service. We
will need your unit’s serial number, located on the back of the unit. We will issue a return
authorization number, which must be wrien on the exterior of your shipping container.
Please do not include cables or accessories unless specifically requested by the Technical
Support Engineer. Be sure to adequately insure your shipment for its replacement value.
Packages without proper authorization may be refused. US customers, please contact
25-Seven Technical Support at [phone]. All other customers should contact local
representative to make arrangements for service.
WARRANTY
REGISTER YOUR PRODUCT
Telos Alliance Radio Division has an industry-leading five-year warranty.
As a company, we are commited to our products and the pursuit of
providing beer quality to our customers.
Find the Warranty online at www.telosalliance.com/warranty.
25-Seven Systems | The Telos Alliance
1241 Superior Ave. Cleveland, OH 44114 USA
[phone] | [e-mail]
[phone] (24/7 technical support)

VI | TABLE OF CONTENTS
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Table of Contents
Background and Overview ....................................................................1
Electronic Measurement and Your Ratings...................................................................... 1
How Watermarking works................................................................................................. 1
TVC-15 Benefits.................................................................................................................... 3
About 25-Seven, Watermarking, and You.........................................................................6
Benefiting From TVC-15...................................................................................................... 7
Monitoring & Analysis of Station Encoding ....................................................................7
Controlling Voltair Enhancement in Real-time ...............................................................9
TVC-15 Operator Features ................................................................................................ 10
INSTANT GRATIFICATION .....................................................................17
TVC-15 Quick Hookup Guide .............................................................................................17
TVC-15 Operation................................................................................21
Front Panel Controls..........................................................................................................21
LCD Screen ......................................................................................................................... 22
Jog wheel and Escape buon ........................................................................................... 23
TVC’s Function Screens .................................................................................................... 23
Main Screen ....................................................................................................................... 24
System Screen.................................................................................................................... 24
Network Screen ................................................................................................................ 27

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TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Clock Screen ...................................................................................................................... 29
Adaptive Enhancement screen........................................................................................30
Status Screen ......................................................................................................................31
Adaptive Enhancement [AE] ...............................................................33
Use TVC-15 with your Voltair for optimum watermark enhancement....................... 33
How Adaptive Enhancement “thinks” ............................................................................ 35
AE Signal Path ................................................................................................................... 36
TVC-15’s Adaptive Enhancement Screen........................................................................ 38
Browser-Based Remote Control...........................................................46
Logging in .......................................................................................................................... 47
Functions and Access Levels............................................................................................48
Additional Control Functions..........................................................................................49
Installation .........................................................................................53
Rear panel connections..................................................................................................... 53
Troubleshooting and Updates .............................................................55
Technical Specications.......................................................................56
Warranty.............................................................................................57

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 1
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Background and Overview
Electronic Measurement and Your Ratings
Broadcasting is a numbers business. Your success depends on what kind of audience you
aract and hold. Audience size and composition is measured primarily by reports from
private ratings agencies, and for most broadcasters, there’s a direct link between those
reports and a station’s revenue.
How Watermarking works
Ratings agencies base these reports on listener panels, where each panelist represents
many people in a market. In electronically measured markets such as the top 48 markets in
the USA, panelists wear portable devices called meters. These meters register unique digital
codes broadcast by each cooperating station. Thousands of these codes can be created in
the course of an hour. In theory, whenever a panelist hears a station—on their car or home
receivers, in a store or restaurant, or even from the next cubicle—the meter hears the
station’s code, and the ratings system registers the listening.
The codes themselves sound something like a fax signal, and aren’t pleasant to the ear… so
they’re deliberately ‘masked’ under louder sounds in the programming, in a process called
watermarking. Masking is a psychoacoustic phenomenon that keeps us from hearing
certain combinations of sounds, even though electronic meters can still detect them. But
there are more than a hundred possible digital code symbols used by the meter based
system, and each requires slightly different characteristics in the masking sound.
A proprietary watermarking encoder provided by the ratings agency sits in your air chain,
and looks for masking opportunities where it can embed hidden codes. When it hears a
potential mask for a current digital code symbol, it generates the symbol and mixes it with
the programming. Unfortunately, masks are evanescent, appearing and disappearing as
your content changes… sometimes, many times per second. So the number of codes you can
broadcast is also constantly changing, depending on your programming. Some content is a
lot beer at supporting watermarks than others. Silence doesn’t support them at all.
nGot a talk show with a musical introduction? Chances are the intro will have more
encoding opportunities than the talk.
nRunning a sports show or drama? Scenes with just play-by-play or dialog probably
won’t be encoded as well as those with crowds or other busy backgrounds.
nPlaying a commercial or promo? Our research indicates a sung jingle usually encodes
beer than a dry voice-over… even though the spoken words might be more important
to the selling message.

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TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Furthermore, masking requires the code symbol to be significantly soer than the masking
audio. As your content gets soer, the encoding hardware has to make the codes soer.
Environmental noise around the listener can interfere with those soer codes, even if
your listeners don’t mind the noise: Humans are very good at tracking meaningful voice
or music in a noisy environment. Meters, unfortunately, aren’t as smart: It’s possible that
a watermark signal, sent by the encoder at levels where it wouldn’t be annoying in a quiet
environment, doesn’t get detected by panelists’ meters in the real, noisy world.
Bottom line
The viability of your station’s watermarks is constantly varying, depending on your
programming, the panelists’ environments, and other variables. Changes can happen as
quickly as individual syllables in an announcer’s voice, or traffic noises on the highway.
Having good tools—ones that help you understand the entire electronic measurement
ecosystem—is essential to your station’s competitive picture.
What can be done?
25-Seven put years of research and testing into the technical issues with watermarking,
and our groundbreaking Voltair processor works with your station’s encoder to enhance
watermarking codes as they’re being generated. Voltair’s enhancement can be varied
by the station to accommodate different programming styles, and controlled by station
automation for different dayparts.
Many stations have found Voltair effective to help make their electronically derived ratings
a beer match for the audiences they know they’ve got, and more reliable during hard-to-
encode programming.
But to really manage this kind of problem, you have to be able to quantify it.
Both Voltair and hardware provided by ratings agencies include ways to measure how
encodable a program stream is. Voltair’s can be particularly helpful, with a minute-by-
minute front panel display of code reliability, techniques to reduce randomness when
calibrating Enhancement seings against ratings reports, and optional downloadable
history reports and Excel graphs of a station’s coding activity.
But neither system can give you moment-by-moment measurements of how well each
element in your programming supports watermarks.
And neither system takes this information to the next level, actually adjusting
enhancement levels in real-time to compensate for the wide variety of sounds that keep a
radio station interesting.
You need to understand the entire electronic rating system. You need tools that can quickly
and precisely measure how it works. And you need efficient ways to apply this knowledge
so it can optimize your station’s product.
That’s why we developed TVC-15.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 3
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
TVC-15 Benets
TVC-15’s tone verication codec constantly analyzes actual code symbols encoded
in any audio you feed it1.
nRaw symbol amplitude is displayed on a constantly changing bar.
The symbols that make up a complete station identification message are then processed
through our proprietary algorithms.
nEvery 400 milliseconds—150 times per minute—TVC updates a graph of your station’s
watermark reliability. You can read this graph from the front panel, or as a password-
protected page on any networked computer.
n400 milliseconds is fast enough to track individual program elements, or style
changes in a song, or even the difference between a host and a call-in guest.
It takes 4.8 seconds for the ratings watermark system to assemble enough code symbols
into a complete station identification message. So under ideal circumstances2, TVC will
decode a complete message every 4.8 seconds.
Each time TVC sees a complete message:
nAppropriate message details are displayed on its screen
nA front panel timer resets, and starts counting the seconds until the next complete
watermark message.
nSome programming (such as silence, spoken word, or music formats that don’t have
enough energy in the critical watermarking band) doesn’t contain a continuous
4.8 seconds of masking material. When this happens, complete messages can’t be
encoded… lowering the likelihood that a station will be properly identified. TVC’s
timer changes color if there’s been a long time between messages, to alert you to the
lower reliability.
TVC-15 doesn’t pair to a specic encoder. It doesn’t even need to be connected to
the encoder. All it needs is a signal that’s had watermarks applied.
nYou can connect TVC to an air monitor. Or to an Internet radio, an HD receiver, or any
other way listeners are geing a signal with watermarking codes. Or to recordings
made from any of those sources. Analyze any convenient analog source, and get an
instant reading of how strong its codes are.
nTVC can be switched to read different encoding formats: Layer 1 (used in US radio and
some non-US regions) or Layer 2 (used in other regions).
1 This can be your signal or any other station’s, o-air or by direct connection. TVC can analyze the reliability of
standard ratings service watermarks in any audio signal.
2 Ideal circumstances depend on programming with lots of watermark-masking opportunities, low levels of
environmental and transmission noise, and possibly a bit of Voltair enhancement. Our users have been able to
reach this ideal frequently.

4| BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
nYou can equalize or distort the signal going to TVC, to simulate low-quality radios. Or
you can feed TVC from a microphone pointed to any radio or loudspeaker, in a quiet
test room or noisy public space3.
nYou can bias TVC’s measurements using our statistically constant noise simulation,
to simulate challenging listening conditions while providing a level playing field for
comparing signals. Or you can record actual environmental noise and other possible
interference, and mix it with the signal you’re feeding TVC.
nYou can feed it other stations’ signals, to assure consistent code reliability across a
broadcast group… or even see how your competition is encoding. Analysis happens
in the privacy of your own local network: nobody else can see how you’re using TVC
to make programming decisions.
nTVC’s front panel and reports will even identify different encoders, using nicknames
you’ve set, so you can scan multiple signal sources and sort them out later.
TVC-15 works from any encoded audio source, real-time or recorded.
nYou can feed TVC with your own or other stations’ audio, whether it’s from your
program line, off-air monitors, an Internet stream, or recordings from public spaces.
nMaster Control operators can use TVC to detect source audio material (for example:
elements or music recorded off-air or from an internet stream) that may have
already been encoded. This can help broadcasters detect potential “double encoding”.
nYou can use it offline with a spare encoder, to analyze program segments or
production elements. TVC’s fast response lets you compare different sub-elements
within a program stream.
nYou can use it with an automated switcher to cycle among various stations and
program streams in your group, to verify that encoders are working.
nOperation is completely flexible: Input can be switched between program sources or
among different encoders, with no need to recalibrate or reboot.
nYou can use TVC to verify that STLs aren’t corrupting codes on the way to your
transmier.
nYou can use TVC to help tune on-air processing for optimal watermarking
performance4.
3 You’ll need a mic and preamp, but probably have plenty of those.
4 In fact, we use TVC-15 in our own labs while developing Omnia processing algorithms and evaluating presets.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 5
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
TVC-15 gives you downloadable reports and remote readouts.
nYou can access TVC’s real-time display from any computer or smart phone, via LAN
or over the Web. You’ll know in an instant how well your programming is supporting
watermark codes.
nTVC’s internal server is password protected, with different passwords for different
access levels. Nobody else can see how you’re using TVC, or the information it
generates to help with your programming decisions.
nYou can download csv5-formaed daily history reports of minute-by-minute actual
code reliability, for custom analysis or for display in a program like Excel. Reports are
private and you control who sees them.
And if you want, there’s a big benet for Voltair users:
TVC-15 can control your Voltair in real-time!
TVC-15’s Intelligent Adaptive Enhancement [AE] closes the feedback loop. It lets TVC
automatically and dynamically control how Voltair is processing your signal in real-time,
based on moment-by-moment analysis of your actual air signal.
AE is tunable and customizable. You can set:
nhow much the connected Voltair will enhance your watermarks during hard-to-
encode passages;
nhow much it can lower enhancement during easy-to-encode segments, to reduce
code artifacts and distortion;
nhow much it averages results from rapidly changing program elements, to reduce
radical shis that may be too abrupt for listeners or meters.
AE reports what it’s doing.
nA front-panel display shows actual enhancement commands being sent to your
Voltair, updating more than twice a second.
nA graph traces how much TVC’s AE is boosting or reducing Voltair enhancement,
giving you a fine-grained picture of what the system needs to do to assure optimal
watermark reliability.
nYou can look at the past two minutes’ worth of commands on a single screen, to see
how much enhancement each different element of your programming needed to
meet desired confidence levels.
5 The CSV [Comma Separated Values] text format is readable in any word processor, and can be imported into
most spreadsheet and graphing programs.

6| BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
TVC’s AE can work with your existing Voltair. You don’t even have to change the signal
path. All it needs is a network connection to Voltair, and a real-time audio feed from
Voltair’s output6. You can put Voltair in a rack room while TVC is in the PD’s office. Or keep
both at the transmier, with full control over both via password-protected Web access.
AE takes coding enhancement beyond simplistic “set and forget” or daypart-seing
strategies. It reacts to your air signal while you’re on the air! TVC and Voltair
work together like a continuous, intelligent automatic gain control on your hidden
watermarks!
nHave male and female hosts in a conversation?
nGot a call-in guest on a very compressed cell phone?
nAiring a stopset with jingles, dry announce, and produced sweepers?
Just feed TVC-15 your encoded air signal, and give it your Voltair’s network address.
The two units will form a closed loop that continuously adjusts for real-world program
conditions.
TVC-15 and Voltair work together to give you just the right amount of
enhancement for watermark condence, while reducing listener annoyance
from code artifacts, based on custom settings you make for your station. You
get the best combination of watermark enhancement and a quality on-air
sound.
About 25-Seven, Watermarking, and You
25-Seven has been following electronic audience measurement since its introduction. We’ve
spoken with program directors and engineers around the world, geing their perspectives
on the overall system architecture, and on the results of their optimization efforts. In 2014
we introduced Voltair, which revolutionized how stations optimized their airchains.
To develop Voltair, we also relied on the collective expertise of our colleagues in the Telos
Alliance. Their knowledge of audio processing, coding technology, and ancillary data
streams relates directly to audio watermarking.
But our experience goes deeper than Voltair. The head of our research and development
team, Dr. Barry Blesser, is considered one of the founders of digital audio technology.
Blesser, a former President of the AES and professor at M.I.T., invented the first commercial
digital reverb product for EMT in 1976. He has been a technical and management consultant
for more than 40 years, and is recognized for contributions to a wide range of professional
disciplines, including audio signal processing, auditory perception, paern recognition, and
architectural acoustic analysis.7
6 Adaptive enhancement provides constant control based on real-time analysis of your encoded programming.
Delays between the audio Voltair is processing, and what’s applied to TVC’s input, can produce unpredictable
results. If your station’s signal incorporates a delay, TVC should be fed directly from Voltair or the low-latency
monitor output of any processor that follows Voltair. (Short delays—say, less than a few dozen milliseconds—
don’t cause problems. So TVC is fully compatible with low-latency STLs or AoIP systems.)
7 In 2006, MIT Press published Blesser’s bookSpaces Speak, Are You Listening? Experiencing Aural Architecture.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 7
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Beneting From TVC-15
Monitoring & Analysis of Station Encoding
It’s vital to know that your watermarking system is working properly. It’s almost axiomatic
that “If you aren’t encoding, you might as well be off the air.”
The monitoring facility in Voltair is powerful. Its front panel and optional downloadable
reports give a minute-by-minute analysis of coding confidence, and lets you simulate how
various forms of environmental noise will affect it8. Voltair will send initial warnings when
15 seconds have gone by without a valid message, and adds more warnings as the condition
gets longer.
But Voltair can look at codes only at the point of generation or enhancement. Before
those codes get to a listener, they’ll oen pass through a composite clipper or some
data compression. Then they can be hit with transmier issues or RF interference. In
some installations, watermarking is also affected by airchain equalization or multiband
compression.
You wouldn’t consider your audio setup complete without a tuner, internet
receiver, or some other form of real-world monitoring.
TVC-15 lets you do the same thing for your encoding.
TVC-15 doesn’t need an encoder. It can analyze any audio signal from a monitor receiver, or
to a consumer radio tuned to your station—or to any other station using electronic ratings.
You can even analyze a signal from a microphone that’s picking up a station in an office
or public space. TVC doesn’t need a real-time signal: it can analyze a field recording or an
internet stream. All it needs is a source of analog audio, from a router or patchbay or AoIP
node, or hardwired into your airchain.
On top of that, our sophisticated algorithms bring confidence analysis to levels that were
never before possible with any system.
nTVC gives you near-instantaneous response:
nTVC-15’s signal strength bar continuously shows you how much power is in the
tones used by watermarking.
nIt takes 400 ms for the encoder to create a valid code symbol, so TVC’s front-panel
graph updates that quickly: 150 times per minute. That’s fast enough to indicate
encoding differences when two on-air hosts have a conversation, or distinguish a
sung jingle from a donut voice-over. The most recent two minutes of confidence
measurements are displayed on a scrolling graph.
8 Of course, most stations also use Voltair’s primary function: Enhancing the watermarks even during marginal
programming, to give their signal a better chance of being recognized by real-world panelists’meters.
But even when you’re using Voltair for enhancement, it still can be a valuable analysis tool.

8| BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
nA complete identification message requires 12 valid code symbols, carried on a
combination of 10 different frequency channels. TVC’s Decode Interval display
times how long it’s been since the last valid message. If it takes too long for a new
identification message to be broadcast—whether it’s because the programming
isn’t supporting sufficient codes, or because watermarks are being damaged
downstream—the display changes color as a warning.
nTVC gives you detailed information:
nA bar graph shows a precise, 0 – 100% display of the likelihood each of the last 300
potential symbols will be received. Bars are color-coded, to make it easy to spot
encoding issues.
nThe display identifies the encoder currently being received. You can tell at a glance
which of your streams—or your competitors’—is being analyzed9.
nThe display shows the timestamp of the current message. You can tell at a glance if
your encoder’s clock isn’t accurate.
nA line graph shows each Adaptive Enhancement command TVC has sent to your
Voltair over the past two minutes. You can see which program elements required
extra enhancement because they’re hard to encode, and which ones stayed reliable
while leing TVC reduce enhancement to avoid listener annoyance. Even if you’re not
using AE at the moment, TVC can report the command that would have been sent.
nThe Decode Interval timer shows how many seconds have gone by since the last
successfully received message. Continuous low numbers mean your station has a
beer chance of being successfully identified.
nComplete remote access:
nTVC has a built-in, password-protected web server, with two distinct levels of
access: full control, or monitor-only. You can assign different access depending on
what users need, leing engineers control TVC seings, while program staff can’t
make changes but can see actual on-air watermark confidence during different
segments.
nTVC’s server uses HTML5. It’s compatible with any modern browser on any
computer, tablet, or phone. Flash or other plug-ins are not required.
nDownloadable full reports:
nTVC’s internal web server also lets you download a complete analysis of every
signal TVC has received, available for any day it’s been turned on.
nTVC reports are available as detailed files of each 4.8 second complete message
analyzed over the course of a day, or as one-minute averages. They’re in csv
format, so you can analyze them with your own soware, display them as an Excel
spreadsheet, or compare them with station ratings reports.
nReports are available only by password-protected log-in. You control who sees the data.
9 The watermark system uses arbitrary IDs that don’t include station call or frequency. So TVC assigns a simple
letter code to each new Encoder it recognizes, and then displays that code whenever it sees watermarks from
that Encoder. You can rename any encoder for convenience: Main, HD2, 103.5, or whatever else makes sense.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 9
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
ControllingVoltair Enhancement in Real-time
Voltair caused a revolution in station processing. For the first time, it let users enhance
watermarks, so their station would have a beer chance of being recognized by panelists’
meters… even when a signal didn’t support watermarking perfectly, or when a panelist was
in a noisy environment. Voltair processing doesn’t create ‘phantom panelists’ in the ratings
system, but it does help make sure you get credit for the listeners you really have.
Unfortunately, too much enhancement can override the psychoacoustic masking
phenomenon that normally hides watermark codes. When this happens, the digital
messages may become audible in the program stream. Listeners can hear this as extra noise
or distortion. In extreme situations, they can be chased away.
It’s a question of balance: You need enough enhancement to make codes reliable even
during hard-to-encode program segments, or when there’s a lot of environmental noise. But
you don’t want to annoy listeners.
How much enhancement is “too much”? It depends on the program material, the listening
situation, and even listener expectations…
nVoices are oen harder to encode than music. Enough enhancement for a news
show could be too much for a high-quality music set. Listeners might hear this extra
enhancement as distortion during the music.
nBut the right enhancement for the music might be too lile enhancement during air
talent’s talk around the music or interviews with artists. Even though these features
can set your station apart, your ratings may suffer during them… because watermarks
aren’t being encoded optimally!
Voltair includes tools to approach the right level of enhancement. One diagnostic function
automatically rotates through different enhancement levels at preset times, giving you a
log that can be compared with actual numbers when you get the ratings service report.
You can preset three different Enhancement levels under GPIO control, so you can have
an “emergency watermark boost” buon in master control, change enhancement when
the host turns on his microphone, or have your station’s automation system change
enhancement for different dayparts.
But these schemes are limited by the granularity of daypart or even “mic-on” control and
preset enhancement levels, and hampered by the delay waiting for a ratings report to
arrive.
For the highest level of control you’d need an ideal trained operator:
nOne who can constantly monitor every watermark message in your actual broadcast
signal, and continuously adjust Voltair’s enhancement for different air talents, audio
sources, noise levels, and quality requirements.
nAn operator who knows the personality and sound you want to present.
nAn operator who’s subtle enough to constantly control watermark enhancement,
while avoiding abrupt or annoying shis because of transitory audio changes.
nAn operator who’ll follow your instructions and pay perfect aention, 24 hours a day,
7 days a week…

10 | BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
TVC-15’s Intelligent Adaptive Enhancement can be that skilled, always-aentive operator,
fine-tuning your enhancement every moment you’re on the air!
TVC-15, together with Voltair, closes the feedback loop around your watermarking
ecosystem. It acts as a “smart AGC” for Voltair enhancement, monitoring actual encoding,
and adjusting the amount of enhancement as quickly as twice per second. Just like a good
transmier processor, you can fine-tune TVC’s behavior to preserve your station’s unique
sound. You can set minimum desirable confidence levels, maximum enhancement to avoid
annoying artifacts, how quickly enhancement changes, and more.
Finally: complete, full-time control over watermark enhancement levels!
TVC-15 Operator Features
TVC-15 gives you a live, highly detailed display of actual watermark symbols, evaluated
every 400 ms. for confidence, completeness and reliability.
V2MainScreen.pdf
Our proprietary algorithms constantly analyze the input signal, looking for valid code
symbols that the system combines to build meaningful station identifications. The input
can be any real-world source: your off-air signal (or a competitor’s), a test file from a
production studio, an Internet stream, or even a live mic listening to a sample radio or a
public space10. If there are symbols hidden in the audio, TVC-15 will report their details.
The front panel LCD11 is arranged for maximum usability:
10 If you’re using a remote rig to put a live mic in a distant space, particularly one that uses cellphone con-
nections, be careful. The compression used in these systems may distort or destroy code symbols. Run some
controlled tests to compare remote versus wired connections rst.
11 Or remote version in a connected Web browser.

BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW | 11
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Decode Interval
This reports minutes and seconds since the last successfully decoded message. It flashes
green and restarts from 00:00 whenever a complete and coherent message is received.
nContinuously short timings are good. They mean the program includes a lot of
reliable messages. The display will be green.
nLonger times between restarts mean the programming doesn’t support codes well.
If ten seconds go by with no complete messages, the display changes to yellow as a
warning. It turns red aer thirty seconds of “no message” have gone by. While there
may be exceptions, chances are a station won’t be identified during those times.
nThe Interval Display is constantly updating, and gives you a quick go/no-go
indication of the current signal.
Intelligent Adaptive Enhancement [AE] status
25-Seven’s Voltair is a powerful tool for making the most of the audience measurement
watermark your station broadcasts. But don’t just dial up the maximum and walk away.
Some program sources, like talk segments, require a lot of watermark enhancement to
be reliably read. Others, like properly processed contemporary music, already support
the watermarks; adding too much enhancement to them may be heard as an annoying
distortion and be overkill.
TVC can analyze the codes in your off-air signal. AE then computes the most appropriate
enhancement level based on parameters you’ve specified. Then it directs a network-
connected Voltair to apply this enhancement.
AE requires low-latency monitoring of Voltair’s or your processor’s output,
so it can make timely adjustments. A few dozen milliseconds’ delay is
acceptable. But several seconds for HD compensation or Internet streaming
will cause problems. If your signal chain includes a delay, feed TVC from an
undelayed monitoring output rather than an o-air receiver.
The AE status window shows the name of the connected Voltair, the current Adaptive
enhancement level, and the network connection status. Additional AE seings are
described in the AE Chapter of this manual.

12 | BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW
TVC-15 Installation and User’s Guide Version 2.0 • January 2018
Last Complete Message Received
This is based on the actual Encoder ID that accompanied the last valid message, along with
an optional display of the time stamp that accompanied it12. Encoder IDs are arbitrary and
set by the ratings agency, and don’t include a station’s call leers or frequency. So TVC-15
identifies them simply as Encoder A, Encoder B, and so on. You can rename them with call
leers, frequency, HD stream, or any other useful tag by using a page on the Web interface.
TVC will then use that name every subsequent time it sees that specific encoder.
You can use TVC’s ability to identify encoders as a sanity check, to make sure you’re
analyzing the audio stream you want! First, connect TVC directly to an encoder or
Voltair output. Once TVC begins recognizing the watermarks, give that encoder a specific
name based on its stream13. From then on, anytime TVC sees watermarks from that
encoder—whether received off the air, via router from your airchain, or even played from a
recording—it’ll display that name.
Simulated Environmental “Noise Loading”
If everyone listened to broadcasts using headphones, the signal would go straight from
the receiver into human ears. If they also used an adapter cable, it could go straight into a
panelist’s portable meter as well. But most listening is done with speakers, and in a variety
of acoustic environments. Whether a panelist is driving their car, aending a sports event,
or in a bar that has radio or TV for background, ambient noise is a factor that can affect
how portable meters receive your code. So, to help gauge the impact of different noisy
environments, we let you apply various levels of simulated noise.
Don’t confuse the statistically stable Noise Loading in TVC with the simulated
environments available in our Voltair watermark enhancer. Voltair’s environment system
applies actual recordings of typical listener surroundings (such as traffic with car honks,
households with baby cries, dishes claering in restaurant) to its real-time, minute-by-
minute measurements of your watermark confidence. It’s a statistically valid way to
evaluate ongoing encoding during different dayparts or programs. But because the sounds
themselves contain random honks, cries, and other noises, you can’t use them for direct
comparisons between encoded programs or even short elements within a single program.
Instead, TVC generates an artificial signal that simulates environmental noise in a
repeatable way, without the second-by-second changes of real-world recordings. This lets
it act as a constant “load” on the watermark energy, so you can compare different programs
under noisy circumstances, without worrying about the noise having different effects on
individual readings.
12 The timestamp, in HH:MM format, is based on a code broadcast by the Encoder. For real-time signals, it
should be within a minute of real-world time. If this isn’t accurate, check your Encoder.
13 You can name encoders through TVC’s Web remote control, as described in a later chapter of this manual.