End of Deafening TV Adverts in the US

"The Federal Communications Commission today is expected to pass regulations requiring broadcasters and cable and satellite TV systems to maintain constant volume levels. The order, which goes into effect one year from today, "says commercials must have the same average volume as the programs they accompany," says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

Last year, President Obama signed into law a measure that Congress passed giving the FCC authority to address the problem. A Harris poll taken around that time found that 86% of people surveyed said TV commercials were louder than the shows themselves =97 and, in many cases, much louder. "It is a problem that thousands of viewers have complained about, and we are doing something about it," Genachowski says."

Next...the UK commercials ?

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Reply to
therustyone
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Does anyone watch UK commercials anymore ? What little TV we watch is either BBC output, or on the V+ box, which means skipping past at 32x.

Reply to
Jethro

I hope so. And while on the subject, I wish we could have a lot less of the so-called 'mood music' that is thought to be a necessary accompaniment to so many documentary programs these days. It is invariably banal, and often gets to the point of drowning out the commentary. I think sound controllers must be feeling upstaged by the computer graphics brigade and their (equally dreadful and entirely unnecessary) contributions to otherwise good documentaries. And why do news items have to be accompanied by incessant drum beating ? End of rant !

Jim Hawkins

Reply to
Jim Hawkins

Now all they need to agree on is a device which can measure this perceived average loudness accurately. The holy grail. But I'll not hold my breath.

Of course there is a pretty easy answer - you just squash everything up to maximum. Like you hear on many foreign satellite channels. Usually religious. That would satisfy those who haven't thought it through.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It's to some degree a matter of taste. Many documentaries are shot mute - especially wildlife ones. If all they contained was a commentary, many would find them quite boring.

I do like well written background music as it sets the mood. Sadly, much is very badly done so it detracts, rather than adds.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

That is how documentaries used to be done and I preferred it.

The main problem is that it is usually far too loud, particularly in films. It is very refreshing to watch an old movie and to discover you can understand everything being said because it is not being mumbled and it is not being drowned out by music.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

I know this may not seem to make sense, but it's often down to the very poor quality of the speakers fitted to most TVs. Hear it on decent speakers - like via your Hi-Fi - and the balance comes good.

Old movies have a very restricted audio bandwidth which even TV speakers can't f*ok up that much. They also peak that response for maximum clarity. Academy Curve, anyone?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

...and not being filmed in near-darkness - which they do these days to avoid spending money on realistic backgrounds...

Reply to
Jim Hawkins

Not to my ears, even using a home cinema system with a dedicated 5+1 speaker sound system.

The point I was making was that many of them simply don't have any music to begin with and, to my mind, are a lot better for it.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

In the recent documentary about trams the background music was "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" when it got to the foggy scenes. Whose witty idea was that I wonder. Shame because the footage was amazing

Reply to
stuart noble

Documentary mood music is most likely these days some hip modern track pinched from a Pop album (or cynically specially put out by the artists for possible 'bed' use), dynamic range compressed (sounds very loud) and bass amplified for the pleasure of the 'drum and bass' dance fraternity. There are a lot of folks that are going to find it unnecessarily distracting, in the same way that rap music goes down a bomb....

Meanwhile, there is a large back catalogue of some rather more generally liked tunes, in piano and acoustic guitar, that the young media studies students that make these shows haven't been exposed to (unless someone hip does a remix), or they excessively have their blinkers on.

Reply to
Adrian C

Yes! Yes! Those NatGeo docos with their snazzy visual and sound effects make me change the channel. It's like web pages full of bright colours and animations.

Reply to
Gib Bogle

the BBC's restrictions on ITV networks that that never happens in Britain.

Yes, right.

Reply to
Weatherlawyer

Just boost the centre speaker and cut the effects and front speakers a few DB.

Reply to
dennis

You still get blasted by the ads if you're not quick enough to grab the remote though - or the kids have hidden it again!

We watch most channels at a volume of "20" on our TV, but a couple of old repeats on particular channels need "30" to reach the same level - the ads are then deafening!

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Another thought. Is anyone else annoyed like myself when Radio 4 has interviewees on and the presenter is way louder than the interviewee? It's passable when listening at home, but when driving it is impossible to have them loud enough so as not to miss part of the interviewee's response without your eardrums being blasted by the presenter's questions.

SteveW

Reply to
Steve Walker

Dave Plowman (News) was thinking very hard :

Sometimes they can be just too good....

I hear the rumble of traffic and the over loud car stereos passing by YTV's studio when they do the live from the studio local news broadcasts after the main news at 18:00, sometimes I can even hear the noise from their air conditioning systems.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Yes.

Or the bizarre way traffic information tends to be broadcast overlaying an music with an incessant beat. The cut over from, e.g. R4, to the traffic announcement courtesy of RDS-EON can come as a real shock.

Reply to
polygonum

I would rather they omitted the music in the first place, or had it on a separate channel, with its own volume control, so I could turn it off.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Home cinema systems are often designed to impress - not reproduce accurately.

Eh? Background music was near universal in old movies. Even the silent ones. ;-)

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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