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HDTV Almanac - Be CALM: House Bill Passes Sub-Committee
By Alfred Poor
HDTV Professor
Posted on October 13, 2009
Category: General Interest
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The closing scene of your favorite TV drama ends with a quiet emotional moment between the protagonist and the love interest. Fade to black. Cue the pickup truck ad with the blaring soundtrack. Cue the viewers diving frantically for their remotes, trying to turn down the volume.

Some sets have automatic volume control, which can help moderate this problem, but apparently not enough. The subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet of the House Energy and Commerce Committee has forwarded House Bill 1084 to the full committee for a vote. H.R. 1084 is titled “Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act“, which makes more sense when you realize that the Congressional love of acronyms turns this into the “CALM Act“. The goal of the legislation is to “require the Federal Communications Commission to prescribe a standard to preclude commercials from being broadcast at louder volumes than the program material they accompany.”

If the bill is made into law, the FCC will have one year to come up with provisions for video programming so that

(1) advertisements accompanying such video programming shall not be excessively noisy or strident;

(2) such advertisements shall not be presented at modulation levels substantially higher than the program material that such advertisements accompany; and

(3) the average maximum loudness of such advertisements shall not be substantially higher than the average maximum loudness of the program material that such advertisements accompany.

Passing the subcommittee is just the first hurdle, and the even if the full committee and the House pass it, it will still need approval in the Senate before it can become law. Similar laws have failed to pass in recent years, so don’t get your hopes up.

For now, the best you can hope for is a television set that has good automatic volume control, and knowing how to set it.

[Due to technical difficulties, this entry was posted late.]

Sphere: Related Content

Posted by Alfred Poor, October 13, 2009 6:00 AM

Reader Commentary

See Forum Topic: HDTV Almanac - Be CALM: House Bill Passes Sub-Committee (12 replies)
Oct 14, 2:24pm
On the subject of volume levels going up and down depending on a commercial or a show: I notice while we watch several channels, the shows and the commercial varie a lot. Even news broadcast vary their volume. I have my TV, etc going through a A/V receive
Oct 14, 10:11pm
I have some doubt about this...Although all commercials could be set to the same volume there are some pretty large variables in station playback equipment, media, and broadcast audio. Keeping the audio the same from the program if it's live to the com
Oct 15, 5:34am
That's a curious observation about the SciFi channel, Roger. Could it be a subtle way to combat DVRs? I think it would be a short-sighted strategy, but an interesting one. On a similar vein, I like the "Start Here" screen that ABC puts after its networ
Oct 15, 6:09am
Well, if you want to practice your "quick draw - McGraw" technique then try it on CBS's CSI Miami on an over the air signal. If you have any "young-uns", sick family members good luck. It isn't just the commercials either. I called the station, and sen
Oct 15, 7:36am
So who is jacking up the volume - the station or the commercial provider?
Oct 15, 8:19am
There are two points of control. The advertisement producers set the levels for their segments, and the program producers set them for theirs. The point of an ad is to get your attention, so it's natural that the ad producer will choose to set it at or
Oct 15, 8:51am
This all very interesting comments. I am glad to see that everyone has the problem with variable volume levels. I have 9 neighbors that have the same issue. It was terrible on Comcast and worst or Dish and Directv. Fios seems to be better with now big iss
Oct 15, 9:25am
I was told that the feed that they get is all over the place for lack of better terminology; so I would guess CBS in this case.
Oct 15, 2:54pm
Programs have relatively high dynamic range audio and there fore the loud bits are loud and the quiet bits are, you guessed it, quiet. Commercials on the other hand are usually heavily compressed. This means that the loud bits are as loud as they are
Oct 15, 3:17pm
"SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY! AT NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY! SEE THE NATIONAL NITRO FUNNY CAR CHAMPIONSHIPS! ..." It's a wonder that our generation can hear at all. (And I saw Hendrix at Boston Garden!) As for dynamic range, I agree;
Showing only excerpts from 10 out of 13, Read More

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About Alfred Poor

Alfred Poor is a well-known display industry expert, who writes the daily HDTV Almanac. He wrote for PC Magazine for more than 20 years, and now is focusing on the home entertainment and home networking markets.