Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> For Those Of Sound Mind >> New Loudness standard kcks in http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1412272721 Message started by Dickie Mint on Oct 2^nd, 2014, 5:59pm

Title: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Dickie Mint on Oct 2^nd, 2014, 5:59pm

Reading through the link supplied in "Quality? Spot-Check only..." I stumbled upon a treatise on Loudness. Buried in this was the phrase
" And as of October of 2014 the UK’s Digital Production Partnership requires all UK TV productions to comply with the R.128 recommendations."

Skimming through the paper they sort of own up to trails and presentation junctions being recorded with compression.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Roundabout on Oct 3^rd, 2014, 10:33am

But do they 'sort of' discuss solutions? Some of the digital channels give the impression they are a person, a mic. and a PC with no audio balance at all . Often voice overs at the end of programmes are read with the programme sig not even dipped at all!

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Bill_M on Jan 20^th, 2015, 7:10pm

Well the new standards seem to have been ignored tonight just before the One Show. I don't know if the culprits were BBC Scotland or Network presentation, but whoever it was was up to their old tricks, broadcasting a trail at deafening levels compared to the previous and following material.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kicks in
Post by Dickie Mint on Apr 10^th, 2015, 1:04pm

And now something that really takes the biscuit!

Last week BBC2 continuity announcements didn't just shout, they bellowed. So I gave them plenty of time to find an engineer to fix it, which they didn't. So, on 3rd April I filled in the complaint form.

Got a reply today:
" Thanks for contacting us regarding continuity announcements on BBC TV that were broadcast on 3 April.

We understand you felt the continuity announcements on BBC TV were too loud.

We’re sorry to hear you were unhappy with the volume. We raised your concerns with the relevant teams who explained that this is a result of a change in a series of technical processes. We are trying to fix this as soon as possible and hope to have the issue rectified by Monday 13 April. Thanks for your continuing patience and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

You couldn't make it up! No tweakables, pads, even a fader?

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Amigo on Apr 10^th, 2015, 2:38pm

Dickie, would it be an "Apple and Biscuit"?

Why will it take them more than five minutes to correct the levels?

Perhaps the announcer should whisper until that date?

(STC 4021)

http://www.orbem.co.uk/mics/4021.htm
http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk/expand.php?key=841

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Dickie Mint on Apr 10^th, 2015, 4:23pm

Proper microphone?! It's probably a headset! Surely even the meedja student types now running theshow would have the sense to sit back from the mic.

There's no check downstream of the continuity announcer. In the days of regional Switching Centres someone would buzz CAR and alert them. Though CAR would have noticed anyway. There's only the Central Coding and Mux centres now, and they're dealing with lots of channels. When I retired the Digital Operations Centre (DOC) had a contract to handle a few of the commercial channels too.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Dickie Mint on Jul 31^st, 2021, 9:26am

Responding to a post on poor TV programme sound on a social forum, I found this, related to the thread title. Quietly the Beeb have introduced a
Best Practice Guide to Sound Mixing

Well written and apt.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by JohnW on Aug 1^st, 2021, 8:09am

Dickie Mint,

The link to that article doesn't appear to be working - Error 410.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Administrator on Aug 1^st, 2021, 8:14am

I think this is the correct one.

Title: Re: New Loudness standard kcks in
Post by Dickie Mint on Aug 1^st, 2021, 7:03pm

Thanks Admin. Sorry about that. A gremlin got in somewhere!