by Lauren Ward, doctoral researcher in Audio Engineering Salford University
http://www.salford.ac.uk/news/articl...ME=news-portalWithin 24 hours of the first episode of wartime drama SS-GB being broadcast the BBC received 100 complaints. Viewers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations with the sound. Many highlighted their annoyance that SS-GB was just the latest drama to be plagued with audibility problems. The debate has stretched to the House of Lords, with peers asking whether consultation with broadcasters is needed to address the issue. The Conversation
So is making television sound understandable as simple as asking actors to speak up? The short answer is: no. Clean recordings and well enunciated speech will always make dialogue easier to understand. However, the relationship between the audio from our television and what we understand as speech is much more complex.
Many news sources and some of the Lords blamed “modern flat televisions which place more emphasis on picture quality” than sound quality.
There is some evidence to support this idea. A recent study investigating how television sets effect speech intelligibility showed the ......