CES NEWS: Cirrus Logic chip promises an end to shouting adverts
This chip could signal the end of those adverts that shake you out of you seat by being SO MUCH LOUDER than the TV programme you've just been watching.
The CS48DV2, from Cirrus Logic, is the first audio processor to feature Dolby Laboratories' Dolby Volume technology, which is designed to normalise levels in digital TV systems.
Dolby Volume is designed to deliver consistent volume levels even with blaring commercials or when switching channels. The technology lets the user set a preferred volume level and have everything delivered that way, whatever the source or content.
And while this kind of technology isn't new, the Dolby system claims to offer a more consistent solution to the problem, being based on research into the way people hear sound. It uses a two-stage system, the first part of which, the Leveler, measures the perceptual loudness of content and applies multiband gain modifications.
The Volume Modeler, meanwhile, analyses content and playback level, restoring it to the way it would be heard at the reference volume level. For example, it compensates for the inablity of human hearing to perceive some of the subtleties of sound at low levels, and thus enhances imaging, intelligibility and audibility.
At the moment this is a two-channel processor, but Cirrus Logic says it's working on other versions suitable for use in home cinema receivers and all-in-one systems.
Technorati Tags: Dolby Volume, Cirrus Logic, TV
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At last - i've been hearing demos of Dolby Volume for a year now, and was wondering when we'd see an implementation of it.
It's a system that works well - both as a way of stopping advert/channel-hopping ear-blasts, plus as a more sophisticated 'night-mode' setting for late-night movie listening.
Get it into the next-generation Sky box, please!
Brilliant. Though I can't see why the processing can't be done before transmission, then everyone would benefit.
I guess because the processing depends on the level at which you choose to listen - if everything was pre-processed, then listening at higher volumes might be like having a permanent loudness setting applied to the sound.
The processing isn't done before transmission because the channels purposly make the adverts LOUDER!