Tournament of Roses Parade Telecast Comes Up Sounding Like Roses Thanks to Linear Acoustic

On January 1st, this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA, viewers were treated to 41 flower-filled floats, 24 vivid marching bands, and 21 colorful equestrian units. KTLA’s Chief Engineer, Dave Cox, specified the Linear Acoustic AERO.air as the loudness manager and upmixer of choice, marking the fifth consecutive year for the ongoing partnership between the station and Linear Acoustic.

Senior Engineers Murray Clawson and Micky Chan in front of KTLA’s main and backup AERO.air Transmission Audio Loudness Managers. A Linear Acoustic LAMBDA Digital Audio and Metadata Monitor is used to measure and monitor the station’s audio.

KTLA produces the telecast for air on their own station, but the production is distributed to other US stations and internationally. “We produce the program in stereo and rely upon the AERO.air to handle the upmixing to 5.1,” says Cox. “It does a great job of that.”

Cox says that most of the audience listened through their TV’s internal speakers, which means a good 2-channel downmix is critical. “The challenge is to create a mix that sounds good to those viewers while still providing a great 5.1 listening experience for the audience listening in that mode. AERO.air makes that possible.”

Linear Acoustic Founder and President Tim Carroll adds: “The Tournament of Roses Parade is an iconic broadcast that viewers really look forward to each year,” he says. “We are honored to help Dave and KTLA deliver the highest quality audio to their many viewers.”

In addition, KTLA used AERO.air to send two-channel audio from Pasadena back to its studios in Los Angeles where the signal was split into two paths. One fed KTLA’s own main and backup AERO.air units for local transmission, and one fed main and backup AERO.air units on loan from Linear Acoustic for the network and international feed, which was sent to over 200 countries. AERO.air. also handled insertion of SAP audio.

“Linear Acoustic provides excellent support if needed,” says Cox. “They maintain a high-quality staff who know their products. “Our viewers expect a quality audio experience to match the spectacular HD video experience, and the Linear Acoustic AERO.air delivers.”