iZotope ANR-B brings adaptive noise reduction to The World

WGBH Boston's new state of the art production facility has recently been host to a "quiet" new arrival. iZotope chose WGBH, home of Public Radio International/BBC co-production The World, as a test station for its new ANR-B realtime adaptive noise reduction unit. ANR-B is designed to intelligently identify and reduce background noise from less-than-perfect audio sources like ISDN phone lines, recordings made in the field and interviews originating from noisy studios in remote locations.

Robert O'Connell and Robin Moore in WGBH's radio studio

While other noise reduction products exist in the broadcast world, ANR-B stands apart because it can identify noise automatically and separate it from dialog without user interaction. Also, ANR-B incorporates new signal processing techniques that yield extremely transparent broadband noise reduction. In an application where sound quality can be the deciding factor between an interview airing or not, ANR-B is a welcome addition to WGBH's studio and The World.

"At WGBH Radio our reporters and guests are often interviewed in war zones and some of the most remote locations on Earth," says Ray Fallon, Engineer at WGBH. "These places are only accessible by phone line, ISDN and satellite phone, leading to audio quality that is far below the standard for our award winning news radio programs. iZotope ANR-B reliably and quickly removes ambient and path noise automatically, allowing us to focus on getting the interview completed instead of fiddling with controls to get usable audio."

One of iZotope's first ANR-B prototypes in use at the station

WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup including Nova, Frontline and Masterpiece and many public radio favorites including The World, a co-production with Public Radio International and the BBC. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors: Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. The station's $85 million new headquarters in Brighton, MA opened its doors in September of 2007. For more information visit www.wgbh.org.

Visit www.izotope.com/broadcast to learn more about ANR-B.
Visit WGBH.org to learn about WGBH Radio, and visit PRI's web site to read more about The World.