The Sound of...Less Loudness.

[foxglovehp.livejournal.com]

My audiologist posted something recently about a new law being signed to limit the volume of television commercials.  I wear hearing aids, so I am not interested in debating with anyone here whether or not TV commercials are too loud.  I have to turn my HAs down whenever commercials come on, so I know they are.  Everyone knows they are too loud.  Mad Magazine even knew they were too loud in the '70's when I used to read it as a kid.  I know this because they made jokes about it even back then.

Titled CALM (Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation), the law requires the FCC to tell broadcasters to turn the fraking volume down on commercials.  Really?  no shit?  Couldn't someone in the Federal government, which controls the Federal Communications Commission just tell them to do it?  Did we really need congressional action for this?  It offends my delicate libertarian sensibilities to know that this was really required.  Also, is this the best acronym our tax dollars can buy?

Comments

[foxglovehp.livejournal.com]

"objectively speaking their maximum volume is already the same as other stuff on TV."

Really? It sure seems louder! That's really interesting. Do they punch up the high end or something? Because I really have to turn down my HAs when the commercials come on most of the time.

"We have legislation here in the UK to mitigate against overly-loud adverts and it has zero effect for this reason."

So you are telling me that this was a COMPLETE waste of taxpayer money? Nice.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

It's not about punching up the high end, it's about punching up ALL ends :P

It doesn't have zero effect, it's just that it still won't make ads sound the same as the show.

[adcott.livejournal.com]

Oh it definitely will seem louder and turning H/As down is a natural reaction to it. But if you were to get a sound level monitor, it would peak at the same level.

Think of it like this: if normal sounds are on a scale of 0-100 with 100 being the loudest, literally turning the volume up would give a scale of 0-150 (or more often 50-150), whereas a compression algorithm would squeeze the input into a range of 50-100 - the loudest sounds are still just as a loud and a sound level monitor would peak at the same level, but the sounds that are usually quiet are much more noticeable.

"So you are telling me that this was a COMPLETE waste of taxpayer money? Nice."

Pretty much, but that's true of most regulation ;)

[blorky.livejournal.com]

Thanks for weighing in. This is useful and interesting information.

[roofless.livejournal.com]

Very insightful. Thanks for the input.