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The University of Southampton
Engineering

Cinema Sound and the Loudness Issue: Its Origins and Implications Seminar

Time:
16:00
Date:
8 November 2016
Venue:
Highfield Campus Room 13/3017

Event details

Following the widespread introduction of digital cinema soundtracks in the early 1990s, the sound levels in cinemas began to creep upwards in a somewhat unexpected manner. Complaints from audience members gradually increased in number, and eventually reached a point where cinema operators felt obliged to reduce the pre-­‐calibrated levels. As this trend spread, some cinema directors began to demand higher recorded levels, to compensate for the reduced playback settings, but this led to the undesirable result of a 'loudness war'. Cinemas with reduced level could suffer from intelligibility problems during the quiet passages of films that had been mixed at higher levels, and cinemas which continued to screen films at the standard level risked provoking not only complaints, but also political pressure to curb the levels. Concurrently, the advent of full digital cinema has enabled some 'less-­‐professional' operations to produce films, and compliance with industry SPL standards has, indeed, been eroded. However, political, legislative interference in an artistic process tends to be a very blunt weapon. This paper looks at the origins of film sound, the development of standard playback levels, the technical changes which led to the unforeseen increases, and the ways in which the consequences may be dealt with by artistically-­‐sensitive means.

Speaker information

Philip Newell , Institute of Acoustics. Philip Newell is an independent acoustics consultant who has been designing sound control rooms and performance spaces for over 45 years. He has also written nine books on the subject of recording systems, acoustics and electro-­‐acoustics, along with over 40 conference and journal papers. Philip was, for 11 years (1972-­‐82) the technical director of the Virgin Recording Studios division, and was a co-­‐founder of the acoustics division of Reflexion Arts in 1984. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics, a Member of the Audio Engineering Society, and is currently participating in the Cinema Sound Systems Technology Committee (25CSS) of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), of which he is also a Member.

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