海角乱伦 improves audio on BBC Casualty
British television took a technological leap forward in June thanks to engineers at the 海角乱伦.
For the first time, a programme 鈥 Casualty 鈥 was sound mixed with a technique called object-based audio meaning all the elements you hear onscreen are mixed in separate streams 鈥 dialogue, sound effects, music. Viewers using iPlayer could control these elements themselves making it easier to enjoy the drama and follow the dialogue.
鈥淥ur hearing is very personal and we know that not everyone wants the same thing out of TV audio. The perfect cinematic mix for one viewer might be too loud or too busy for another,鈥 explained project lead and PhD researcher Lauren Ward.
Hearing impairment
鈥淔or many people the level of background sound in a TV programme can make understanding the dialogue difficult, particularly for viewers who have a hearing impairment.
The advance is called 鈥楢ccessible & Enhanced鈥 (A&E) audio, and follows well-publicised controversies over the ability of viewers to follow dialogue on shows like SS-Great Britain and Taboo.
The BBC R&D unit aims to make it easier for people with hearing impairment to enjoy their dramas and follow all the details.
So they teamed up with Lauren (pictured right) and Dr Ben Shirley in Acoustic Engineering to put to the test some of their research.
The result was this weekend鈥檚 trial in which viewers, for the first time on the BBC can customise the sound of their favourite programme and then supply feedback to the experts.
Dr Matt Paradis, of BBC R&D said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e asking Casualty fans to where you can set the audio mix to suit your needs and preferences.鈥
Lauren explained: 鈥淎t the right-hand side of the slider, you get the same mix as heard on TV. At the left, the dialogue is enhanced and some of the other sounds are quieter. You can adjust between these two extremes to get the right balances of dialogue, important sounds and atmosphere for you.鈥
And she added: 鈥淐urrently programmes are transmitted as a single pre-mixed stream. This includes vision, speech, sound-effects, background music and everything in between. However, this makes trying to change the volume of the individual elements, like dialogue, virtually impossible. It鈥檚 like trying to take the eggs out of an already baked cake.
鈥淥bject-based audio sends all the sounds separately with instructions 鈥 known as metadata - on how to play the elements separately.鈥