Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Audio description

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Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 01-24-2017, 06:06 AM:

Is anyone here playing audio description tracks yet?

We used to get a very occasional film with them, but this is now up to about one in three or four. They show up on channel 8 on the DMA8Plus, but do not normally go any further. I tried changing the channel mappings to put this onto one of the main channels, and I can then hear the description on that channel. I have just made up two cables to break out channels 7 and 8 from the DMA output to two XLR connectors so I can actually send these channels somewhere. Channel 7 seems to be a digital hearing impaired channel, but very few few films seem to have it yet, and we are just using the 25%,50%,25% mix of the three front channels provided by the CP-65 for this at the moment.

The AD channel seems to provide only the description; it is not mixed with the main film sound. How is this used? You wouldn't want to play it through a loudspeaker in the auditorium, as it would then be heard by the entire audience. Playing it through an induction loop probably wouldn't help as a visually impaired person probably wouldn't have a hearing aid, unless they had impaired hearing as well.

playing it on headphones would be a possibility, but if they were of the open back type the person sitting in the next seat would probably be able to hear it to some extent. If they were closed back headphones would the user be able to hear the main sound from the loudspeakers properly while wearing them. Is the description channel intended to be mixed with the main film sound and then sent to headphones?

For hearing impaired problems there's a place about ten minutes walk away which can provide advice, but I don't know of anywhere similar for visually impaired systems, and there seems to be little on-line other than a brief explanation of what the description is for.

Have now had inquiries from two people as to whether we can provide audio description. The answer is probably 'yes', at least for some films, but I don't know how.

Posted by Marco Giustini (Member # 4544) on 01-24-2017, 06:55 AM:

as you say, they usually go through headphones (open ones). I never thought of the downside of using open headphones, good point. I guess anybody using audio description will probably be visually impaired and hopefully their hearing will be good - so no need to blast the headphones at maximum level.

Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 01-24-2017, 07:37 AM:

Harold pointed this out to me recently - the audio description is usually placed into dialog pauses where the main sound is silent. This means, people sitting close to the person wearing the headphones may become irritated. They may even think the person is listening to an MP3 player or attending a phone call. So, for the VI application, a closed headphone seems to be more suitable, whereas for HI, an open or earplug type may be useful, allowing to hear the theatre sound through them.

- Carsten

Posted by Harold Hallikainen (Member # 5405) on 01-24-2017, 08:08 AM:

I agree, a closed type headphone, or earplugs, would be most appropriate. The most recent headphones from USL, the IRH-281 lets the user mix the received HI and the received VI. Otherwise, the user could just be hearing VI (audio description) with no main sound. Audio description is described some in my recent paper on new US regulations. See http://ftp.uslinc.com/ftp/MultiProduct/Accessibility/NewAccessibilityRequirements_170119.pdf .

Thanks!

Harold

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 01-24-2017, 06:41 PM:

We have been using the audio descriptions since we installed the USL system about 4 years ago. I would say about 99% of the movies we get have the VI-N track. The majority of what we play is first run wide releases. The ones which don't have the track tend to be smaller releases from smaller studios. Weinstein has been the worst offender for not having the AD track among the more well known art house studios.