I picked up via good old usenet this story from the US that says that the FCC are going to limit the volume that TV adverts are played at in the us, so that the average volume of the programmes and adverts are the same.

A great idea. let’s hope it comes here- but….

It’s not quite that simple.

It may well be the adverts aren’t actually louder. In fact, the ASA already regulate volume here in the UK, but clearly, it doesn’t sound like it. The US, it would seem, didn’t even have that.

Just like with music, compression gets used. Not lossy/lossless digital compression like MP3 or FLAC, but dynamic range compression: making the quieter bits louder, so whilst the loudest bit is only as loud, the overall sound is louder. You might have heard the reverse, a wide dynamic range, with a DVD movie- you generally turn the volume up a little to bring the quiet sections up.

The upshot of this is that, if measured in one way (with a peak-level meter, for example), the adverts are still only as loud as the programmes, but they may sound appreciably louder (and if the station is showing a movie without DRC, they almost certainly will) so lets hope those legislating talk to someone who actually knows about the subject if UK law is reviewed, and we can all avoid hitting mute in the ad breaks…