Hardware
Streaming pushes TV to turn down the volume
A long-standing TV annoyance is spilling into the streaming era as broadcast standards catch up with the way people now watch video.
One of television’s oldest irritations is hopefully about to fade away.
The sudden blast of sound when an advert interrupts a programme has frustrated viewers for decades. Traditional broadcasters have largely brought it under control, but streaming services have followed different technical practices, leaving audiences with varying sound levels between programmes, adverts and platforms. In South Africa, all the streamers seem to have difficulty in this department.
Now, the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC), the body behind many of the world’s television standards, has updated its A/85 recommended practice for the first time since 2013. While the standard was originally developed for digital television broadcasters, the latest revision extends its guidance to streaming services and hybrid broadcast-streaming platforms.
The move reflects a simple reality: viewers increasingly move between terrestrial television, internet streaming and on-demand video without expecting to adjust the volume every few minutes.
“As audiences increasingly consume content across both over-the-air and streaming platforms, maintaining a consistent listening experience has become more important than ever,” says ATSC president Madeleine Noland.
The updated guidance includes recommendations for streaming services using both metadata-based and non-metadata audio formats, alongside a simplified technical reference for broadcasters, engineers and content providers.
Although the standard was developed in the United States, its influence reaches far beyond American television.
South Africa’s broadcasters use the DVB-T2 television transmission standard rather than ATSC for digital terrestrial broadcasting. However, audio production increasingly follows international practices, particularly when programmes are produced for global streaming platforms or distributed across multiple countries.
Many of the software tools, broadcast systems and production workflows used locally already support the same loudness measurement techniques that underpin the revised recommendations.
The update also comes as regulation begins extending beyond conventional television. The United States introduced the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act more than a decade ago to curb excessively loud commercials on broadcast television. California has now passed legislation applying similar principles to internet streaming services.
That points to a broader trend. As streaming becomes television’s dominant delivery platform, regulators are beginning to expect it to meet many of the same technical and consumer standards as traditional broadcasting.
For viewers, the change will probably go unnoticed, except in one welcome respect. Fewer frantic grabs for the remote every time an advert interrupts a programme would represent progress in anyone’s living room.
