COLOGNE, JULY 11, 2013 – RTW, a leading vendor of visual audio meters and monitoring devices for professional broadcast, production, post production and quality control, has introduced a new BLITS instrument option for its line of TM7 and TM9 TouchMonitors. Part of the SW20013 software license recently issued by the company, the BLITS instrument is designed to generate and analyze BLITS test signals. The new software license with this option is now shipping.

BLITS (Black & Lane’s Ident Tones for Surround) enables testing for channel allocation, level and phase of 5.1 surround signals. Developed in 2004 by Martin Black and Keith Lane at London’s Sky TV, this sequence has gained widespread adoption in international broadcasting.

RTW created a special instrument not only to generate a BLITS test signal, but also to use the BLITS sequence for a user-friendly and comprehensive analysis and display of level, channel allocation, phase, delay and polarity of incoming digital audio signals in 5.1 mode. Adjustable limits complement the analyzer, and the sequence can be accessed from any digital input of the TouchMonitor.

In addition to the analyzer, the BLITS instrument features a signal generator. This feature is capable of generating not only the 5.1 sequence, but also a stereo ident sequence either in EBU 3304 format or as the widely known GLITS tone. A user can choose to place an identification header, similar to a station ident, in front of the test sequence. The signal will then be output through the AES 3 or AES3id output feeds.

The BLITS license option for TM7 and TM9 uses the order code SW20013, and requires users to install the current firmware, version 3.10, first. Users can download the firmware for free by logging in to RTW’s website: http://www.rtw.de/en/sales-support/manuals-software.html.