quote:

---

TV viewers, rejoice: You'll no longer get blown out of your seat by the difference in volume between the television program you're watching and the commercials that air during it.

On Wednesday President Obama signed into law the "Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation" or "CALM Act." A press release from the White House states the law "requires the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a regulation limiting the volume of audio on commercials transmitted by television broadcast stations, cable operators, and other multichannel video programming distributors."

The House passed the bill by a voice vote on Dec. 2. It was passed the Senate unanimously in September. The FCC will start enforcing the new rules within a year.

Consumers have complained to the FCC about loud commercials for decades, and Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) told the Wall Street Journal in December that the CALM Act is the most popular piece of legislation she's sponsored in her 18 years in Congress. "If I'd saved 50 million children from some malady, people would not have the interest that they have in this," she said.

For now, the FCC has a webpage on the subject, which advises consumers, "Manually controlling volume levels with the remote control remains the simplest approach to reducing excessive volume levels."

---

I just wonder how does this discrepancy originate in the first place. It is nowhere near that bad on broadcast TV, only cable seems to have the affliction. I contend that this is no accident; those super loud commercials are made loud because someone somewhere is doing it on PURPOSE. My cynical mind is thinking it could be as sinister as broadcasters and cable operators getting paid under the table to purposely boost commercial volume. You don't pay, your commercial gets the same level as the program. You slip us a couple a smooth 10Gs for every 2db we boost and you get your ad that much hotter than the program audio.

I mean, we used to have reference levels - what happened to zero db? In audio every medium seems to have very uniform reference levels. When I was mastering programs for FM syndication, you never had to worry about LP levels, for example, being all over the map, and we spent serious alignment time making sure all our Ampex master recorders and dubbers all were aligned to Ampex reference. When we sent them out to the stations, tapes couldn't be have varying levels all over the place if we wanted to stay in business.

You can't tell me that when a commercial comes on twice as hot as the program that some deliberate effing around is being done. The guys in the control room can certainly hear that the commercial is blasting over the program level. And even if there is no one monitoring anything at all and it's all automated, then whatever happened to limiters and compressors and the even more sophisticated computer programs that can do every conceivable type of audio manipulation that the mind can conceive?

The SMPTE in NYC is holding this month's meeting specifically about the CALM Act. I will attend to see what they have to say, especially what the explanation is for why we are at this state of affairs to begin with because it wasn't always like this. Maybe all the CLAM Act needs to do is say, "Do whatever you were doing in 1980."

Now all we have to do is wait to see how they fix it and then whatever piece of equipment they come up with to smash down the commercial audio, we stick that in the projection booths for the damn trailers!
 

---

Posted by Louis Bornwasser (Member # 3063) on 01-07-2011, 12:40 PM:
 
Frank: I don't think there is a volume conspiracy.

I do think that incompetence/not caring is real.

My personal problem is CBS Sunday Morning. Commercials are loud/program is sedate. Limiters don't help. Louis
 

---

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 01-07-2011, 02:52 PM:
 
This is just an observation from a Broadcast Audio tragic, but isn't it usually the case where loud commercials also have a lower dynamic range? I can understand why they do this as a high ratio between the soft/loud parts aren't really what the advertisers want. They want "cut-through".

I remember reading Broadcast Audio magazine in the 80's where the latest and greatest 'must-have' buggary box was the Audio Exiter. My interpretation of it then was it is just an A.V.C/Compressor set to 11 and compressed the hell out of the program material.

So my question is are these types of things still in use, or are there other boxes doing the same type of thing, and can these be blamed for the problem CALM is supposed to fix?
 

---

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-07-2011, 02:56 PM:
 
I believe the problem is deliberate, just like overly loud movie trailers and popular music CDs being mastered way the hell too loud.

I don't think people running the master control boards at cable companies or TV stations are actively cranking the volume during the commercials and lowering it when the program resumes. I think the way too hot volume is being cooked into the TV commercials.

Infomercials are bad about cranked volume too. For example, some nights I'll watch shows on Comedy Central before going to bed. The TV is running at a reasonable volume. When I turn on the TV in the morning "paid programming" is usually running on Comedy Central at a LOUD volume. Sometimes I'll think ahead late at night and either turn the TV volume way down low or switch the channel to something without TV commercials (like HBO). That way I don't get an unpleasant jolt of TV volume when I'm halfway awake.

It will be interesting to see how this law is enforced. Frankly I'm skeptical it will be enforced at all.
 

---

Posted by Hillary Charles (Member # 769) on 01-07-2011, 02:59 PM:
 
Years ago, I recall reading that when one of Barbra Streisand's movies ("Yentl" maybe) was getting a network showing, she supposedly contacted someone at the network to make sure the commercials were no louder than her movie.

It does seem they want us to pay attention to the commercials by making them louder, but that ploy backfires with us---if the commercials are too loud, we mute them!
 

---

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-07-2011, 03:31 PM:
 
The commercials seem louder usually because there isn't a bunch of fast-talking and cheesy music in the program you were watching, so the program seems quieter than it is. Plus, the commercials are very abrupt and sudden with lots of sound packed in a short time frame. It's the same thing with movie trailers. What they need to do is just record that shit at -3db compared to everything else (-6db would be preferred.) Commercials/trailers should not be allowed to approach the loudness of the program/feature.
 

---

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 01-07-2011, 03:54 PM:
 
Technically, I would assume everything is recorded and played back at 100% tone but there's more to it than that and human intervention is needed. Unfortunately, seeing as it's all automated now that's not going to happen.

When I was switching shows on-air, I played the programs at 100% and had to pull the ad content down to around 40% to have it 'seem' to play at the same level. The limiter did not take into account the clarity of locally made ads compared to the 16mm print audio quality we just came out of. Even normal shows off tape had differing quality levels that the limiter could not possibly take into account. Also the limiter would 'see' that I'd pulled the level down and try to compensate.

I used to get phone calls at the station thanking me for keeping the ads at a decent level.

At the theatre, every ad...every trailer...every tag has its own cue attached to it so if need be the level can be set in the automation to keep it all at a constant level. Trailers are not recorded all the same (anyone playing Black Swan should know by now it's VERY loud). It's never loud at my theatre.
 

---

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 01-07-2011, 03:56 PM:
 
Technically, I would assume (hope) everything is recorded and played back at 100% tone but there's more to it than that and human intervention is needed. Unfortunately, seeing as it's all automated now that's not going to happen.

When I was switching shows on-air, I played the programs at 100% and had to pull the ad content down to around 40% to have it 'seem' to play at the same level. The limiter did not take into account the clarity of locally made ads compared to the 16mm print audio quality we just came out of. Even normal shows off tape had differing quality levels that the limiter could not possibly take into account. Also the limiter would 'see' that I'd pulled the level don and try to compensate.

I used to get phone calls at the station thanking me for keeping the ads at a decent level.

At the theatre, every ad...every trailer...every tag has its own cue attached to it so if need be the level can be set in the automation to keep it all at a constant level. Trailers are not recorded all the same (anyone playing Black Swan should know by now it's VERY loud). It's never loud at my theatre.
 

---

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 01-07-2011, 05:50 PM:
 
John.

Heard you the first time.
 

---

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 01-07-2011, 06:29 PM:
 
Cool...now they need to apply it to trailers and ads in theatres. They also need to give the RIAA what for and end the LOUD CDs that have ZERO dynamic range.

-Steve
 

---

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 01-07-2011, 08:45 PM:
 

quote: Joe Redifer

---

there isn't a bunch of fast-talking and cheesy music in the program you were watching

---