Preferred Levels for Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech

Torcoli, Matteo; Freke-Morin, Alex; Paulus, Jouni; Simon, Christian; Shirley, Ben

doi:10.17743/jaes.2019.0052

Cited by 12 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…However, typically this audio will be downmixed to 2.1 and rendered on a soundbar or TV, with much of this spatial information lost in the process. A case could be made that this spatial sound could be individually personally rendered if the viewer is wearing an acoustically transparent auditory headset, providing a degree of spatial immersion whilst still allowing for social interactions, as well as enabling clear speech through the inverse of background ducking [60].…”

Section: Augmenting Tv Audiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Layered on top of this audio mix are augmentations which semantically modify or re-present the auditory stream, optionally presented Voice-over-Voice with the intention of masking/replacing the existing information being conveyed [58,60]. Audio Description [15,44,49] has become a commonly supported feature for assisting those with visual impairments, having been provided by the BBC for example since 2000, verbalising "changes of location, actions, facial expressions, gestures and so on [to] give the context and set the scene" [2].…”

Section: Augmenting Tv Audiomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…through subtitles or audio description) unnecessarily for other viewers. As Torcoli et al concluded "only the personalization offered by object-base audio technologies" can meet the aural preferences of viewers [60], however delivery of this personalized audio remains an open question.…”

Section: Augmenting Tv Audiomentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

McGill

Mathis

Khamis

et al. 2020

ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences

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This paper explores how acoustically transparent auditory headsets can improve TV viewing by intermixing headset and TV audio, facilitating personal, private auditory enhancements and augmentations of TV content whilst minimizing occlusion of the sounds of reality. We evaluate the impact of synchronously mirroring select audio channels from the 5.1 mix (dialogue, environmental sounds, and the full mix), and selectively augmenting TV viewing with additional speech (e.g. Audio Description, Directors Commentary, and Alternate Language). For TV content, auditory headsets enable better spatialization and more immersive, enjoyable viewing; the intermixing of TV and headset audio creates unique listening experiences; and private augmentations offer new ways to (re)watch content with others. Finally, we reflect on how these headsets might facilitate more immersive augmented TV viewing experiences within reach of consumers.

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Section: Augmenting Tv Audiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Augmenting Tv Audiomentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

McGill

Mathis

Khamis

et al. 2020

ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is a complex issue and current evidence suggests that the appropriate relative levels between foreground and background are variable and depend on a number of factors including personal taste, listening environment (including playback system), program genre and content language [7,17,6]. Furthermore, different types of background sound (e.g., music, ambience, speech) may require different treatments [26,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…VoV has been explored to only a limited extent in contrast to work covering Voice-over-Music and Voiceover-Ambience [26,25].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Loudness Differences for Voice-Over-Voice Audio in TV and Streaming

Geary¹,

Torcoli²,

Paulus³

et al. 2020

J. Audio Eng. Soc.

Self Cite

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Voice-over-Voice (VoV) is a common mixing practice observed in news reports and documentaries, where a foreground voice is mixed on top of a background voice, e.g., to translate an interview. This is achieved by ducking the background voice so that the foreground voice is more intelligible, while still allowing the listener to perceive the presence and tone of the background voice. Currently, there is little published research on ducking practices for VoV and on technical details such as the Loudness Difference (LD) between foreground and background speech. This paper investigates the ducking practices of 9 expert audio engineers and the preferred LDs of 13 non-expert listeners of ages 57 years and older. Results highlight a clear difference between the LDs used by the experts and those preferred by the non-expert listeners. Experts tended towards LDs of 11.5-17 LU, while non-expert preferred a range of 20-30 LU. Based on these results, a minimum LD of 20 LU is recommended for VoV. High inter-subject variance due to personal preference was observed. This variance makes a substantial case for the introduction of personalization in broadcast and streaming.

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Pattern analysis based acoustic signal processing: a survey of the state-of-art

Chaki

2020

Int J Speech Technol

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Preferred Levels for Background Ducking to Produce Esthetically Pleasing Audio for TV with Clear Speech

Cited by 12 publications

References 11 publications

Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

Loudness Differences for Voice-Over-Voice Audio in TV and Streaming

Pattern analysis based acoustic signal processing: a survey of the state-of-art

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