Nielsen On Voltair: It’s A Lot Of Noise.

Story by Inside Radio

Breaking its silence on the biggest controversy it has faced since re-entering the U.S radio industry in 2013, Nielsen yesterday unveiled plans to update its PPM watermarking technology in the fourth quarter to make the inaudible codes easier for its ratings meters to pick up.

It also revealed long-awaited test results of the Voltair unit, concluding that the controversial audio processor “interferes with the encoding process” by altering Nielsen’s watermarks in such a way that makes them audible in some cases when they shouldn’t be.

Responding to industry heat brought by the widespread adoption of the Voltair unit, Nielsen’s plans include a pair of technical improvements. First is an increase in the density of the watermarks or codes that are inserted into radio broadcasts. Raising the density of the inaudible codes will “help improve code pick-up in challenging environments and allow for a higher code amplification level,” Jennifer Huston, Nielsen’s senior VP of product leadership, told Inside Radio. But Huston stressed that increasing the code amplification level would be contingent on industry acceptance, and wouldn’t result in any of the codes being audible to listeners.

Nielsen said it will issue a “full communication plan” in September, including a timeline, detailing how the updated encoders will be rolled out, along with attendant station responsibilities.

Also in the works, but not until 2016, is a prototype of a new encoding monitor. Nielsen said the new box would do more than just verify whether a radio station’s encoder was working properly. “It would also allow our customers at the stations to understand the quality of the encoding indicator,” Nielsen executive VP of local media client solutions, Matt O’Grady, said. The company says the work is part of its “continuous improvement” initiative and that clients won’t incur any additional costs.