[Tech1] BBC trials technology that turns down background noise and boosts voices

[Roger E Long]

Preposterous idea
Why not get it right in the bleeding dub ?
The trailer is embarrassing , the programme duff as ever
The image is all wrong, not centred dialog and stereo fx and I could not control the level on the player LH slider
The dialog is out of sync
Dialog and music and fx can be separated by the slider, but it renders a lop sided version
Why not let the dubbing mixer decide, he has the most experience , not the production.
Bewildering attitude to drama presentation
Common sense unknown now in the Corp

Roger

> On 26 Jul 2019, at 21:49, Mike Jordan via Tech1 <tech1 at tech-ops.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> Sorry about the source of this item but it is quite interesting!”
>  
> https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7289139/BBC-trials-technology-make-dialogue-easier-follow.html <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7289139/BBC-trials-technology-make-dialogue-easier-follow.html>
>  
> The BBC forum has this post from one JohnW:-
>  
>  <>A 'solution' to background music being too loud?
> Today at 11:44am  
> I've just come across this 'snippet' (from TVBEurope!) and felt that given the amount of criticism that is often directed at the sound balance of various programmes it might be of interest to the assembled multitude.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> The BBC is testing a new technology that allows hearing impaired viewers to change the levels of the audio on a programme.
> 
> The technology is available via the BBC’s Taster website where drama 'Casualty' is available for viewers to set their own levels in the audio mix.
> 
> Viewers can use a slider (button) in addition to the volume control which can be moved to reduce any background noise - including music - thus making the dialogue crisper.
> 
> According to Lauren Ward, project lead on the A&E Audio Project Team, work on the special episode of Casualty began in post production, during the audio mix, when each sound, or group of sounds, was given an importance level (stored in metadata) by the dubbing mixer or producer.
> 
> The slider - or Narrative Balancer as the BBC is calling it - is then added to the online media player. “At one end of the slider all the objects are the same level as the original broadcast mix. At the other end is a simplified mix with louder speech and only the most important sounds to the narrative. The viewer is then able to adjust between these two mixes to find the balance of dialogue and other sounds that they prefer,” Ward told the BBC Taster website.
> 
> Behind the scenes, the player is looking at where the viewer sets the slider and for every group of sounds, either turns their volume up or down based on its importance.
>  
> and the BBC “taster” page is here:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/casualty-ae-audio <https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/casualty-ae-audio> for only another 4 days!
>  
>  
> Mike
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