Big Picture Big Sound

One of the side "benefits" of being a journalist in the Consumer Electronics industry is that everyone and their mother seeks me out for advice on home theater gear and HDTVs. Just as my wife the nurse is asked to look at all manner of boils, sores and other mystery growths, so do I get an earful whenever a friend or family member is in the market for, or having a problem with, a piece of consumer electronics gear.

And one of the TV-related questions I get most often is, "what can I do about those damn commercials that are so much louder than the TV shows?" And frankly I've never had a great answer to that question. But now Dolby Labs does.

Dolby has developed a new technology, aptly enough called "Dolby Volume," which monitors and dynamically adjusts volume levels of any audio signal, eliminating the jarring volume level differences that can occur when a commercial comes on or when changing channels or sources on a television. With Dolby Volume, you may never have to dive for your remote again.

Not just a simple dynamic range compressor, Dolby Volume takes into consideration sophisticated models of how the human ear experiences sound to create a frequency-specific equalization and dynamic range levelling system that not only equalizes sound level, but also allows the listener to hear a punchy, dynamic sonic presentation at any volume level. So essentially it's a "smart" volume and loudness control, which requires no tweaking or intervention on the part of the listener - just turn on Dolby Volume and it takes care of the rest.

At CES earlier this month, Dolby demonstrated the technology on a couple of real-world, but seemingly worst case scenarios: a quiet film on Bravo, interrupted by an annoyingly loud local commercial, followed by a channel change from a channel with "normal" volume level to a super-saturated, off-the-VU-meters Spanish channel. Each of these examples featured a volume change of nearly 30 decibels (in other words, from very quiet to VERY LOUD).

Listening to the signal before and after Dolby Volume was applied proved to be a very effective demonstration of the technology. Without being intimately familiar with the source material, I can't say whether there were any artifacts introduced by the process, but the sound (post-processing) was crisp and dialog was easy to discern, and there were virtually no jumps in the sound level when the commercial or channel change took place. Just a steady transition from TV show to commercial, or channel to channel. In any event, for the average TV watcher, a system like this is a god-send. I can't tell you how many times my wife and I have been watching TV on the couch late in the evening, and my wife drifts off to well-deserved slumberland only to be jarred awake at the first commercial break.

Dolby expects to commence delivery of Dolby Volume code to integrated circuit manufacturers in Q1 of 2007. Once it's in a chip, then a manufacturer could choose to include it in their product. And this could mean that the feature finds its way into consumer devices (most likely, flat panel HDTVs) some time in the second half of the year.

And although integrated telesivions are the initial target market, Dolby Volume would be useful in virtually any device that has a volume control - Home-Theater-in-a-Box systems, home theater receivers and preamp/processors, even cable and satellite set-top boxes. So stay tuned, Dolby Volume will be coming soon, to a TV or home theater component near you.