Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Too Noisy!
Posted by David Winkler-Schmit on Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 9:31 PM
Did you ever notice that the volume on your remote control has two settings? One for the show you’re watching and another, with a much higher range, for airing commercials. In the case of the latter, legendary guitarist Nigel Tufnel put it best: “These go to 11.”
Turn it down. That’s what Congresswoman Anna Eshoo wants to do. Eshoo has proposed the “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act" (CALM — what some people will do to get a decent acronym). In the bill,
Eshoo requests the FCC develop a regulation that would require advertisements be played at the same volume levels as the programs and not “excessively loud or noisy.”
What? Doesn’t the FCC already regulate the volume of television commercials? Turns out they don’t and that’s because, as the FCC puts it, “Whether or not something is “too loud” is a judgment that varies with each listener.” In other words, according to the FCC, there are people out there who prefer the volume bumped up when they see this.
Is the FCC where future FEMA directors are trained?
Comments (1)
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It might not be just a matter of volume. I have almost no knowledge on this topic, but I found this recent Rolling Stone article to be fascinating. It seems to indicate that commercials apply "dynamic range compression", not just added "volume": "The idea that engineers make albums louder might seem strange: Isn't volume controlled by that knob on the stereo? Yes, but every setting on that dial delivers a range of loudness, from a hushed vocal to a kick drum — and pushing sounds toward the top of that range makes music seem louder. It's the same technique used to make television commercials stand out from shows."
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