AES Updates Loudness Resource With Dialogue-Intelligibility Guidance

The society’s Broadcast and Online Delivery committee has added TD1009-based guidance, document summaries and a glossary to its loudness website.

The Audio Engineering Society’s Committee on Broadcast and Online Delivery has updated its loudness website to put dialogue intelligibility alongside loudness-management reference material for broadcast and online delivery.

The resource is based on AES Technical Document TD1009, Improving Dialogue Intelligibility in Media, and now summarizes TD1006, TD1008 and TD1009, along with the AES71 and AES77 recommendations for broadcast and online audio and video content. It also adds a glossary of loudness and intelligibility terms, including hearing-science terminology that may be less familiar in audio-production work.

TD1009 was publicly released in January, so the October update does not introduce a new technical document. Instead, it creates a consolidated entry point for guidance that frames intelligibility as a concern across acquisition, post-production, distribution, playback and listener comprehension. The report’s primary focus is sound for picture delivered through broadcast and streaming, though its proposed solutions also apply to audio-only media.

AES describes the updated site as an introduction to why dialogue can be difficult to understand and ways to improve it. Jim Starzynski, co-chair of the committee and chair of the TD1009 study group, said the resource addresses how dialogue problems arise and can be solved through the stages from capture to consumption.