Loudness normalisation has fundamentally changed how film and OTT audio is mixed. Understanding LUFS, LRA, and True Peak is no longer optional knowledge for audio professionals — it is the baseline requirement for delivering work that passes QC on every major platform and sounds as intended on every playback system.

What LUFS Actually Measures

LUFS (Loudness Units relative to Full Scale) is a psychoacoustic loudness measurement that accounts for frequency weighting and temporal integration — in other words, it approximates how humans perceive loudness over time rather than measuring simple signal level. The ITU-R BS.1770 standard defines the K-weighting filter and the integration windows used in LUFS measurement.

There are three LUFS measurements you need to understand: Integrated LUFS (the average loudness of the entire programme), Short-term LUFS (loudness over a 3-second window, used for real-time monitoring), and Momentary LUFS (loudness over a 400ms window, used to catch brief loud events). Platform specs reference integrated LUFS for delivery compliance.

Platform-Specific Loudness Targets

Each major platform has its own loudness specification. These are the current targets as of 2026:

• Netflix — –27 LKFS ±2 dB integrated, –2 dBTP True Peak maximum (Atmos); –24 LKFS ±2 dB (stereo)
• Amazon Prime Video — –24 LUFS integrated, –2 dBTP True Peak
• Apple TV+ — –27 LKFS integrated, –2 dBTP (Atmos content)
• Disney+ — –24 LUFS integrated, –2 dBTP
• EBU R128 (broadcast) — –23 LUFS ±1 dB integrated, –1 dBTP
• ATSC A/85 (US broadcast) — –24 LUFS integrated

Always verify against the current platform delivery specification document — these targets are updated periodically and your delivery specification may differ from the general guidance above.

True Peak and Inter-Sample Peaks

True Peak differs from digital peak in that it measures the maximum signal level after digital-to-analogue conversion, accounting for inter-sample peaks that exceed the digital maximum. A digital signal that reads –1 dBFS on a standard meter can produce inter-sample peaks of +3 dBFS or more during DAC reconstruction. These create distortion in streaming codecs and consumer playback systems.

The professional standard is a True Peak maximum of –2 dBTP for all content. Use a True Peak-compliant limiter on your master output chain and verify with a True Peak meter (available in Pro Tools, Nuendo, and as a standalone plugin from Waves, iZotope, and Fabfilter) before delivery.

Loudness Range (LRA)

LRA measures the statistical spread between the soft and loud parts of your programme. A film with high dynamic range has a high LRA; a commercial with aggressive limiting has a low LRA. OTT platforms don't specify LRA in their delivery requirements, but understanding it helps you diagnose mixes that will sound wrong after normalisation — a very compressed mix (LRA < 5 LU) will be turned down by normalisation and lose all sense of dynamics; a very wide mix (LRA > 20 LU) may have its quieter passages become inaudible on mobile devices.