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Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/3/2010 4:39:45 PM

rulemylife

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Now hear this! Loud TV commercials about to get shushed

Congress has finally approved the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act, a.k.a. the "CALM" Act, and the bill is on its way to President Obama's desk for his almost-certain signature. (Let's face it — the President would have a real insurrection on his hands if he didn't sign off on this thing.)

The House approved a final version of the CALM Act, sponsored by its longtime champion, Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., on Thursday night, just a couple of months after the Senate passed its own version of the bill. The latest vote hammered out some slight differences between the two bills before sending a unified version to the Oval Office.

Thanks to the CALM Act, the Federal Communications Commission will mandate that advertisers limit the volume of their commercials according to a new set of uniform standards for TV sound levels.

Once the act is signed into law, advertisers (who'll have to pony up for the gear necessary to keep their commercials in compliance) will have a year to meet the new requirements, or face the consequences — including, I'm hoping, having to sit through their own bone-rattlingly loud ads.

In the past, advertisers had only been required to ensure that their commercials were no louder than the TV programming into which they'd been spliced.

Sounds reasonable, right? The only problem was that some advertisers were only too happy to crank up the volume on their ads to match the absolute peak levels of their companion shows.

That means if you happened to be watching an episode of "CSI: Toledo" with an exploding oil tanker, the accompanying commercial for a BRAND NEW CAR could be just as loud as the ba-BOOM of the tanker blast.

Indeed, as the Wall Street Journal notes, complaints about loud commercials skyrocketed after last year's changeover from analog to digital TV, with one of the inherent benefits of digital TV broadcasting — namely, a far greater dynamic range for audio — exacerbating the problem of too-loud commercial breaks.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/3/2010 10:07:04 PM

Termyn8or

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Been done. This debate was on way back, I think I was still on my first mustache.

It's unenforcable because what they do is to "upcompress" the sound. The FCC actually mandates that radio stations keep the peak level within so many percent of the maximum modulation. It also mandates that they can't overmodulate because the sidebands would violate another station's licensed bandwidth. While digital changed that, the mandate most likely remains.

You would have to talk to an audio engineer at length to really understand it, as it relates to the difference between not only the difference between peak and "RMS" levels, but also to the "space" in the dynamic range most frequently occupied by the audio portion of the program and commercial.

Actually in a digital transmission you are hearing the real dynamic range of the program. In the older days it was upcompressed to cover the inherent noise "floor", later for better intelligibility. Radio stations do it just to be heard, as people spin the dial.

T

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/3/2010 10:13:01 PM

servantforuse

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This is the problem our Federal government has to focus on now ? Did anyone out there ever hear of a remote control ? Maybe they should concentrate on reducing the trillion dollar deficite instead ??

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/3/2010 11:28:48 PM

MrRodgers

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Termyn8or
Been done. This debate was on way back, I think I was still on my first mustache.

It's unenforcable because what they do is to "upcompress" the sound. The FCC actually mandates that radio stations keep the peak level within so many percent of the maximum modulation. It also mandates that they can't overmodulate because the sidebands would violate another station's licensed bandwidth. While digital changed that, the mandate most likely remains.

You would have to talk to an audio engineer at length to really understand it, as it relates to the difference between not only the difference between peak and "RMS" levels, but also to the "space" in the dynamic range most frequently occupied by the audio portion of the program and commercial.

Actually in a digital transmission you are hearing the real dynamic range of the program. In the older days it was upcompressed to cover the inherent noise "floor", later for better intelligibility. Radio stations do it just to be heard, as people spin the dial.
T

T8, I don't think so. First you have radio not TV and second, what you refer to is signal sensitive not audio sensitive. Then for audio once received that you are referring to is acoustics and dynamic headroom available to the listener in his own environment not the broadcast signals.

What is very enforceable is this law. It requires that the volume of commercials be held to the same level as the program interrupted. Simple enough. Oh and BTW, digital is just cleaner, free of radiations and line noise, sounding to the ear as if louder then combined with advertisers shoot'n for the moon (maxing it out)...it finally became too much.

< Message edited by MrRodgers -- 12/3/2010 11:34:14 PM >

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/3/2010 11:38:56 PM

MrRodgers

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quote:

ORIGINAL: servantforuse

This is the problem our Federal government has to focus on now ? Did anyone out there ever hear of a remote control ? Maybe they should concentrate on reducing the trillion dollar deficite instead ??

Hey now, this is real democracy at work. Stop a $trillion wall street swindle...no, stop taxpayers paying their bonuses...no, stop torture and bring our troops home...no. But give us loud commercials ? That's just going too far.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 2:29:24 AM

hertz

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Why is it that some people want to limit the power of government to intrude into our lives, but when it comes to limiting the power of commercial interests to intrude into our lives, they all go very, very quiet?

Where does the balance sit? Or is it just a case of government = bad, business = good?

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 3:22:40 AM

pahunkboy

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I have not heard a loud commercial in 36 years.

JK

These people can all suck my dick. They are too late. I have canceled cable- and until there is value for the money it stays canceled.

Also even when signed it is 2 additional years to kick in.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:20:05 PM

cuckoldmepls

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Obvously some of you people are deaf then. I use my remote control 5 times an hr just to avoid loud commercials. I shouldn't have to do that. If anything, the commercials should be too low, and if we want to hear them then we should have to turn the voume up.

That's common sense.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:26:31 PM

barelynangel

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THANK GOODNESS!!!! YEAHH!!!! Hell i am even going to use a smiley dance for this

I am so fed up with watching a show at one volume then having to find the remote to turn the damn sound down when commercials come on and then turn it up again when the show is back on. I saw a show the other day like some news show and they were saying that yes they do have the commericials higher because they want to catch the attention of the people who may be talking to each other during the commerical or running to the kitchen or bathroom. I think that is just wrong.

I am very glad they are requiring this now. Thank goodness the government did something right.

angel

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:28:34 PM

wittynamehere

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quote:

ORIGINAL: barelynangel

THANK GOODNESS!!!! YEAHH!!!! Hell i am even going to use a smiley dance for this

I am so fed up with watching a show at one volume then having to find the remote to turn the damn sound down when commercials come on and then turn it up again when the show is back on. I saw a show the other day like some news show and they were saying that yes they do have the commericials higher because they want to catch the attention of the people who may be talking to each other during the commerical or running to the kitchen or bathroom. I think that is just wrong.

I am very glad they are requiring this now. Thank goodness the government did something right.

angel

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:31:27 PM

pahunkboy

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-chuckles... yeah- they are a bit late...

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:31:38 PM

wittynamehere

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quote:

ORIGINAL: cuckoldmepls
I use my remote control 5 times an hr just to avoid loud commercials. I shouldn't have to do that.

No, you should just push the "mute" button and save yourself some time and brainwashing.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 1:41:43 PM

pahunkboy

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I had the TIVO- type DVR- and it got silly skipping thru the crap- watching it fast shows how much noise is in it. it got too bothersome to even skip thru the stuff. so delete.

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RE: Loud TV commercials about to get shushed - 12/4/2010 3:30:48 PM

AquaticSub

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~Fast Reply~

Unless I've missed something, wouldn't it be more effective to complain to the stations who allow the loud commercials and simply not watch and not pay for stations that have these commercials? Evidently they aren't on the channels I watch.

I really don't see why I need the government to do something that consumer spending dollars could accomplish if people cared enough.

< Message edited by AquaticSub -- 12/4/2010 3:32:43 PM >

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