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Where's the 'mute' button? (Read 156074 times)
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #45 - Aug 3rd, 2011, 9:34pm
 
This is from "The Guardian". By Mark Lawson.

TV matters: Orchestral overkill

A new series about urban history and architecture seems likely to encourage many viewers to join in on one of the most common topics of complaint on the Radio Times letters page and audience feedback programmes. Nicholas Crane's Town (BBC2), which reaches its second episode tonight, is another intelligent series from the presenter of Coast and Great British Journeys, but my enjoyment was lessened by the nagging feeling that the transmission was suffering interference from the Proms on BBC4.

As Crane enters Scarborough, there's a burst of Scarborough Fair in the background; when he goes into a church, sacred choral music soars. Every piece to camera and voiceover has its instrumental underlining. The programme is almost underscored. An aerial shot brings leaping strings, startling anecdotes from the past get banging brass.

The technical term for this is "giving it a bit of a lift". But Crane's sentences don't need such patronising help and it interferes with the sense of what he is saying, either because the viewer is distracted or is trying to identify the tune or – an extra irritation in over-composed programmes – trying to predict when the producer will dip the music under the words.

When I talked to Crane for Radio 4's Front Row, he was diplomatic, but expressed regret that the audience doesn't get to hear more of the natural noises of the towns, which are captured by highly skilled recordists and could be used to create a more imaginative and surprising soundtrack.

Perhaps this experiment should be attempted in Crane's next series. It is possible this debate has been hijacked by the (appropriately) noisy minority who object to documentary's orchestral trappings and that the rest of the audience finds the music a useful tool in accessing the right emotion at the right point. But, so far, the background tinklers have not made their case that factual viewing is improved by such music, so it's only right to try a few series without to see if ratings and appreciation levels plummet.

Source:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2011/aug/03/tv-matters-orchestral-overkil...
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #46 - Sep 7th, 2011, 3:51pm
 
If you can hear me, I'd say that there is a post in the news section regarding sound levels and new computer systems.

"Pardon?".

I said...
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #47 - Oct 21st, 2011, 8:41am
 
This is from the latest 'on-line' version of "Prospero", reporting on the recent "Annual visitors’ conference".

Sounds like…

........Thereafter followed one of the liveliest sessions of the conference, when Clare Sillery, Executive Producer, BBC Vision, explained what the BBC had been doing about the contentious (as recent letters pages in Prospero can attest) problem of sound levels.

She reported back on the Vision audibility project, which has been 18 months in the making and involved a number of internal and external bodies, including the RNID. The study aimed to looked at the variety of issues that give rise to viewer complaints about TV sound.

The survey comprised three elements:
• the BBC Pulse Panel (20,000 people surveyed in February and August 2010, who noted problems with audibility over a week)
• A parallel study of 500 viewers aged 65+ by VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer)
• An RNID study of 500 people
Clare said: ‘Twelve thousand viewers in the Pulse Panel completed the survey, giving us 290,000 responses to programmes.
‘Ninety per cent of respondents had no problems, but around eight per cent reported some level of difficulty with audibility. This
level of difficulty was repeated in the VLV survey. Most of the complaints related to background noise and accents.’

In the RNID survey, the main issue causing problems was background music, followed by noise, diction and tone.
One of the actions arising from the project has been to make executive producers responsible for the audio mix. They have to sign off the audio, and if the programme generates complaints they [the producers] have to pay for the remix out of their own budgets. Clare hoped that this would be enough of an incentive for audio to be afforded greater importance in the editing suite.


Source:-
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/mypension/en/prospero_oct_2011.pdf
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #48 - Dec 13th, 2011, 10:43pm
 
Reuters report here that  
"U.S. communications regulators cracked down on excessively loud TV commercials on Tuesday, implementing a bill passed last year to quiet commercials to the same volume as the programs they accompany."

"Commissioner Mignon Clyburn added that the agency's [FCC] latest rulemaking will put an end to the "frightening decibel levels that resulted in considerable alarm, anger and spilt popcorn.""


Admin.

By Jasmin Melvin.
Reuters.

WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 13, 2011 3:58pm EST
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #49 - Dec 19th, 2011, 9:36pm
 
It still amazes me that after all this BBC bluster about 'looking into it' and publishing 'guidelines' there are still so many complaints about intrusive music in quite recently made programmes (see last weeks Sunday Times Culture managzine). Perhaps those of us who still find all this b/g music so infuriating are supposed to take the DG's advice in another place and 'go elsewhere'?
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #50 - May 15th, 2012, 9:38am
 
This article here includes a most apposite link here which should be made compulsory reading for all editors no matter what type of programme they work on.



Amigo

10 tips for using audio more effectively in multimedia stories
(by Casey Frechette)

Music in Multimedia: Add Sparingly, Not as a Crutch
(by Regina McCombs)
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #51 - Jun 24th, 2012, 10:03am
 
Er, are we missing the salient point? The bright young things who put so many of these capers together are products of so-called 'universities' offering 'media studies' courses, run by people who've never been in the business and never learned the grammar of television let alone sound!
DISCUSS!!
Regards to all. David Shute
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #52 - Jun 24th, 2012, 10:26am
 
Perhaps the "Great British Public" are now getting the service for which they are prepared to pay.

With more responsibility, zero increase in licence fee, inability to keep staff, required to sell off facilities and dispose of staff with skills and talents.... what chance does "The BBC" have?

Not what they (The GBP)  "want", just that they are more prepared to pay 'subscriptions' and / or nothing for TV.
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #53 - Aug 23rd, 2012, 7:52am
 
From The EBU:-

In August 2010, the EBU published its Loudness Recommendation EBU R128.

It tells how broadcasters can measure and normalise audio using Loudness meters instead of Peak Meters (PPMs) only, as is common practice nowadays.

More here.




An EBU Newsletter today (23rd August) says:-


As of this week the programmes of all French-speaking national broadcasters in Belgium (RTBF, RTL-TVI and BeTV) are normalized according to EBU R 128 , the world-class Loudness Recommendation created by the EBU PLOUD Group.

RTBF is a pioneer on the loudness subject  and has been closely following the work of the EBU PLOUD group. Early tests with R 128 in mid 2011 had already convinced the broadcaster that viewer complaints could be reduced to zero.


From end of this month the main German and Austrian broadccasters will switch to R 128 too; the launch is planned during the IFA in Berlin.


The whole newsletter may be found here
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #54 - Sep 3rd, 2012, 12:10pm
 
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #55 - Sep 12th, 2012, 12:28pm
 
Canada acts:-

http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/info_sht/g3.htm


"........Effective September 1, 2012, Canadian broadcasters and television service providers (e.g., cable, satellite, and IPTV providers) must follow international standards[1] for measuring and controlling digital television signals, and must ensure that TV commercials are broadcast at a similar volume to programs. .........."
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #56 - Jan 3rd, 2013, 8:33pm
 
From:-
"Broadcast Engineering"

"Today, (December 13th 2012) a new law requiring television volume be at a consistent level across programming and commercials officially went into effect, although broadcasters have known about and prepared for the mandate, and potential fines, for years. The main culprit to date has been the level of locally produced commercials."  (1)



(December 19th 2012) from an American viewpoint.

"Now that the FCC is enforcing the CALM Act, which protects against excessive loudness levels of commercials and other content, broadcasters are being careful to comply or risk getting fined. There’s a sense of nervousness in the air. The Commission appears to be deadly serious about ensuring compliance, due in part to the fact that the No. 1 complaint members of congress get from their constituents regards loud commercials. It’s also worth remembering that this bill passed the Senate with unanimous approval....

Loudness measurement cannot be done with conventional meters, such as VU meters or PPM meters. It requires a proper loudness meter that is compliant to U.S. standards — not the European variants. This is a little tricky because some large vendors have mistakenly thought that the European versions are more advanced and thus better. But buyer beware." (2)




Source:- (1)  http://broadcastengineering.com/regulation/loudness-law-goes-effect
Source:- (2)  http://broadcastengineering.com/audio/calming-loudness-concerns
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #57 - Jan 3rd, 2013, 10:00pm
 
Whatever the law, and the accountants say, the only way pf properly controlling 'loudness' is using the human ear! Unfortunately they were removed from Central control areas years ago!
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #58 - Jan 4th, 2013, 12:05am
 
"What was that you said? Sorry - I couldn't hear you!" http://www.ex-bbc.net/yabbfiles/Templates/Forum/default/wink.gif
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Re: Where's the 'mute' button?
Reply #59 - Feb 27th, 2013, 10:44am
 
According to "PSN Europe".


Quantel is the latest in a growing list of video system manufacturer to integrate loudness technology into its products, supporting Nugen Audio metering on its broadcast editors

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