Broadcast Safe Audio
Broadcast engineers in North America usually line up their audio gear to nominal reference level of 0 dB on a VU meter aligned to +4dBu or -20dBFs, in Europe equating to roughly +4 dBm or -18 dBFS. Peak signal levels must not exceed the nominal level by more than +10 dB.
Broadcast audio as a rule must be as free as possible of Gaussian noise, that is to say, it must be as close to the noise floor, as is reasonably possible, considering the storage or transmission medium.
Broadcast audio must have a good signal-to-noise ratio, where speech or music is a bare minimum of 16db above the noise of the recording or transmission system. For audio that has a much poorer signal-to-noise ratio (like cockpit voice recorders), sonic enhancement is recommended.
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