[April 11, 2011]

ATSC Brings 'CALM' to TV Commercial Storm

In the cacophony of a major broadcasting trade show in Las Vegas this week, a sense of "CALM" will prevail as technology companies demonstrate the latest method of addressing a persistent viewer complaint: the commercials are too loud.

The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is offering the "CALM Place" at the 2011 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show for attendees to see how broadcasters can best comply with a new federal regulation that addresses the issue. The ATSC's CALM Place is the centerpiece of the "ATSC TechZone" in North Hall N4334, open from Monday, April 11 through the close of the show on Thursday, April 14.

Responding to consumer complaints about the relative loudness of TV commercials, Congress in December passed the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act that requires the Federal Communications Commission to adopt the relevant portions of the ATSC A/85 "Recommended Practice" developed by ATSC to deal with the issue.

"ATSC has built industry consensus on the methodology to deal effectively with the annoyance of commercials that sound louder than the programs they surround. ATSC is hosting the CALM Place during the NAB Show to allow for member companies to show implementations of the ATSC's A/85 Recommended Practice" said Mark Richer, President of the ATSC.

Representative Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), who introduced the CALM Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, said at the time of the bill's introduction that "a TV program has a mix of audio levels. There are loud and soft parts. Nuance (News - Alert) is used to build the dramatic effect. Most advertisers don't want nuance. They want to grab our attention, and to do this, they record every part of it as loud as possible. My legislationwill reduce the volume of commercials in order to bring them to same level as the programs they accompany."

The TV broadcasting industry is prepared to fully meet the requirements of the new law, which is expected to be incorporated into new FCC regulations later this year.

"Even before being required to follow the new FCC rules, many local broadcasters have already started to implement the ATSC's A/85 Recommended Practice. There are already tools available for broadcasters to use. In some cases, it's as easy as a software upgrade," Richer explains. "Government and industry agree: ATSC A/85 is the way to deal with the commercial loudness issue so that there's 'homeland harmony.'"

The A/85 ATSC Recommended Practice provides guidelines and technical parameters for the transmission of commercial advertisements by a television broadcast station, cable operator, or other multi-channel video programming distributor as required by the CALM Act. First approved in late 2009, the Recommended Practice provides technical recommendations and information concerning:

• Loudness measurement;
• Target (News - Alert) loudness for content exchange without metadata;
• Setting up reference monitoring environments;
• Methods to effectively control program-to-interstitial loudness;
• Effective uses of audio metadata; and
• Dynamic range control recommendations for loudness management at the boundaries of programs and interstitial content.

Demonstrations from ATSC member CALM Place sponsors include:

• NBC Universal working with FOX on a demonstration of audio mixing, loudness monitoring and transmission/splicing systems;
• DaySequerra/DTS (News - Alert), showing the new NLC5.1ST Loudness Control, iLM8 Intelligent Loudness Meter and M2DTV Mobile Media Loudness Processor;
• IneoQuest (News - Alert), which plans to show the Expedus DVA;
• Linear Acoustics demonstrating multiband audio processing, Aero.qr, Aero.air (S.1), LAMDA -II, and HDX/A5A/Lilliput; and
• Dolby, showcasing its DP600 Program Optimizer, which provides a range of tools for helping operators comply with the CALM act regulations.

Reflecting the widespread industry support for the ATSC's important work related to the CALM Act, other sponsors of the ATSC CALM Place include the ABC, NAB, NCTA (News - Alert) and Univision.

For more information on A/85 and ATSC audio loudness and other standardization activities, visit www.atsc.org

About the ATSC

The Advanced Television Systems Committee is an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television. The ATSC member organizations represent the broadcast, broadcast equipment, motion picture, consumer electronics, computer, cable, satellite and semiconductor industries. For more information, visit www.atsc.org.

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