Convention Paper
Intelligibility of Cinema & TV Sound Dialogue
AES Convention 141 · Paper 9632 · September 2016
Abstract
In recent years there has been a significant increase in the number of complaints concerning the dialogue intelligibility of both movie sound tracks and TV productions—both in Europe and the USA. The paper reviews the background to dialogue intelligibility and looks at a number of mechanisms that may be responsible for the growing trend of dissatisfaction. The transmission chain is reviewed and new measurements and data concerning domestic listening conditions are presented. The results of a pilot measurement program show that in-situ frequency response of the TV systems, operated by many domestic listeners, is far from ideal with response variations of 10–15 dB being common. Unique Speech Transmission Index (STI) and Clarity data are presented that suggest that the room acoustic conditions of the listening environment should not, in themselves, significantly degrade the received signal.
