US Bans Loud Commercials

bs0d3 writes "On Tuesday, the FCC passed the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM. It's a law that states all commercials must run at the same volume as network newscasts. The same applies to network promos. The responsibility falls on cable providers like Comcast or charter. The law will not take effect until next year which leaves it plenty of time to be challenged in court by cable providers or advertisers."

Comments

Pretty late for this, don't you think?

[bonch]

Great. If only it was 20 years ago and the Internet didn't exist.

Re:Pretty late for this, don't you think?

[artor3]

What does the internet have to do with it? Last time I checked, hundreds of millions of people still watched TV. I agree this law should have come sooner, but it's not as though it's too late to be a good thing. Just like the Do Not Call list was a good thing even though cell phones were already invented.

Re:Washington's got nothing better to do?

[Baloroth]

Because sometimes, especially while listening to a quiet movie, you PREFER NOT TO BE SUDDENLY BLASTED WITH NOISE!!

It's annoying as hell. I do kind of agree with you though that it doesn't seem like something the government needs to regulate. But, hey, at least it isn't something actually evil (*ahem* SOPA). And yes, it's a bit sad that I'm glad just because something the government does isn't completely wrong.

Re:Washington's got nothing better to do?

[artor3]

Because if I have to mute or change the channel at every commercial:

1) It's highly obnoxious
2) I'm likely to miss parts of what I was trying to watch
3) It defeats the purpose of advertising

It's not like they're spending a trillion dollars to do this. It's just a nice simple curb on the advertisers' bad behavior. I know some people think the government should be basically comatose, and complain whenever they do anything. But most of us like when our representatives represent us.

Re:about freakin time

[smpoole7]

Sorry to wax so eloquent about this, but audio processing is one of my loves. :)

> a "smart" detector that not only examines peak amplitude, but also the AVERAGE.

A professional broadcast audio processor divides the audio into several different bands, then uses all sorts of proprietary algorithms to "decide" where and when to apply compression. The peak limiters are even more sophisticated: our Vorsis AirAura processor, for example, splits the audio into 31 different bands(!) and uses psychoacoustic masking to hide any generated artifacts. (For the curious: http://vorsis.com/audio-processors/airaura-digital-audio-processor.html) It is, without exception, one of the most amazing audio processors I've ever heard. When it's adjusted properly, it's a transparent as a piece of wire.

In radio, our product IS the audio. The sound. We want it ALL to be loud and clean, but we cannot overmodulate (i.e., "overdrive" the transmitter input).

The key, of course, is to ADJUST it properly. It takes a lot of work and patience. I consider it a specialty, and there are others (the corporate chief for Cumulus, Gary Klein, is considered something of a processing "guru" amongst my brethren). A small, unattended TV operation isn't going to devote the time and attention needed. A cable operator has neither the skill nor the personnel.

(Shoot, I've complained to some of our satellite network providers about widely varying audio levels. Some have admitted to me that they don't even have processing on the audio: it's straight from the mike into the uplink. With hundreds of channels, it would cost millions of dollars to put truly effective compression and limiting on each one, so they don't even bother.)