EBU R128 says negative 23 LUFS for broadcast. Does anyone on the panel deliver to that anymore? Or has streaming made negative 14 LUFS the new normal even for TV clients?
ASKED BY · Paul Valhus · AUSTIN, TEXAS · 25 SEP 2026 · ▶ 00:09:06
Alex clarifies that negative 14 is not a standard but a recommendation from some streaming platforms like YouTube and Spotify. He notes Netflix requires negative 27 LUFS and that broadcast TV standards still apply—these are not streaming standards.
Bill describes the confusion caused by multiple loudness standards, noting he used to export at negative 16, negative 24, and negative 23. He recommends calling engineers at stations to ask what they really need and suggests negative 15–16 for web and negative 24 for broadcast.
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From the transcript.
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9:00or has streaming made negative 14 the new normal even for TV clients? Alex Knight. No, it's not true at all. So the negative 14 thing is not a standard. It is a recommendation by some streaming platforms. Streaming, and I'm not talking about broadcast. I am talking about YouTube and I'm talking about Spotify, which suggests targeting loudness to negative 14. And then, you know, streaming music platforms like Spotify do optionally have their own audio processing you can apply.
9:36You know, Apple has their own thing. I think they call it sound check, which will reprocess audio to negative 16 to try to make it consistent. But these are not broadcast TV standards. So there are standards in the broadcast television world which are still absolutely applicable. And you pointed to a document there that is an actual standard. And, of course, there are other standards for platforms that are streaming television like Netflix, for example.
10:04And they will have their own targets. So they have, you can find the documentation on Netflix's website. It's very, very clear that they recommend negative 27. It's actually not recommend. If you distribute stuff that doesn't hit that target, they're going to send it back to you and tell you to fix it. So they do have very, very strict requirements. Bill Davis. The great thing about standards is there are so many of them.
10:28This used to drive me crazy. I used to have to do at least four separate exports of everything I sent out to broadcast. Some at negative 16, some at negative 24, some at negative 23. It's just nuts out there. So particularly in old line broadcast stations, one of the biggest problems that I went through in my entire career is when they distributed the distribution away from the individual stations.
10:57And they often, in many TV stations, even large like kind of high-level Los Angeles or San Diego or New York or Chicago type operations, they closed down master control and they out-exported it to someplace else. I'll never forget. I was sending a spot from Phoenix to San Diego, and I had to distribute it first to Chicago. And then that's where they wanted it hubbed before they sent it out to everybody.
11:24And along the way, you're going to have transcoding and all these processes happening. It's just nuts. So all you can do is ask if the media buyer who's helping you place this stuff on the station can get you a media guide that tells you what they want. And then 50% of the time after you get that media guide, if you call back to anybody who
11:48knows what they're doing at the station, they'll tell you, ignore that, we don't do it anymore. more. So it's just a nightmare trying to figure out these quote standards. I think you're pretty safe at negative 15, negative 16, somewhere in there for a web distribution and negative 24-ish for a broadcast thing. If they push back and don't want to take the file, I try to make some phone
12:12calls and see who in their network actually has some engineering chops and can tell you what they they do inside. I've had to do that at least half a dozen times. Call an engineer somewhere on site and say, what do you really need? Next question. All right, next up is from Tommy Shantz in St. Paul, Minnesota. How do you implement NDI into your workflow? Jason Baish.
12:35It's been a while since I've done this, but using virtual outputs, I would output not just every screen, but every desktop in a tiny little grid and would put it up on a large screen. And it was It was the easiest way to not get lost between which desktop is it on and which computer is it on. And it turned out to be pretty handy.
12:55All you need is a capable switch and a little grid so you don't lose your place. Yeah, I like it when I'm doing presentations and I need to have – I'm doing presentations in a space that isn't set up for – like there's no video router there's no distribution um in a in a traditional sense like i don't have copper but i know that if i can get like a hotel to bring like a conference room
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