Unsound vision

These days, television is a substantial part of our lives.

That is a big change from those earlier times when we got our visual entertainment through live stage performances, or movies. For news, most of us relied on the daily morning and afternoon newspapers, radio news broadcasts, and the occasional film newsreel at the cinema.

An important component of both entertainment and news TV genres is sound. It is the attention given to it, or not given, by some broadcasters in Sydney where I live that I wish to discuss.

Since television commenced in Australia on the 16^th.September,1956 with Bruce Gyngell's memorable announcement "Good evening, and welcome to television", the station he pioneered, and now run by his son, David, became a licence to print money for its owner, Sir Frank Packer.

Commercial advertising was a brand new mode of marketing to mass audiences at the inception of TV broadcasting, and this new medium was the magic bullet for selling to millions of individuals who consumed every image that was presented.

I guess that Bruce's welcome was a signal to me to change from my radio drama and news production career, and be part of this exciting new medium. Even though I had joined the station as an audio production specialist, I was delighted when, in those days of in-house development of all the job skills needed to operate a station, Bruce offered me a career change as a director of live TV programming.

It was a rewarding buzz to be able to blend a creative outlook with a commercial radio background which gave a keen awareness of the revenue value of satisfied audiences.

We had a superb overall boss in Sir Frank, that magnanimous martinet who would sometimes back well-reasoned arguments for expenditure on a new method, a new idea, or a new programme, with the funding. He had the power and ability to make instant financial decisions.

He also had a uniquely whimsical style in meetings. I recall when Bruce, then the station's general manager and head programmer, proposed radical changes to programming policy which would attract more "average viewers', by disagreeing strongly with some suggestions, stating: 'I am an average viewer!', or on one occasion when the manager of the telecine department, the area where film was run in those days before videotape, requested approval for staffing level increases because 'somebody was on leave every month of the year', and who jumped when Sir Frank quickly retorted: "Then f***n sack him!" (with a wry grin).

Funding and return on investment were a critical factor in his approach to business, and when a procedure was proven to be worthwhile for increased viewer satisfaction thus revenue, he spent - often enormously. Perhaps this may have been the result of his mighty successful press empire when scooping the competitor was paramount.

This had one positive outcome in the station's expensive decision to roster quality control operators to make subtle minor adjustments to sound and vision quality during peak viewing times, a move which left the other commercial stations sounding and looking a bit inferior to ours.

He also agreed with his chief engineer's proposal to purchase a very expensive electronic audio level controller, the Return-to-Zero Audimax, which would flatten out the large difference in dynamic levels of movies and commercials over adjustable periods of time.

Another aspect of presenting the audience with a more 'even' quality of sound loudness was the presentation technique we developed for transitioning from quiet, intimate segments of a movie to commercial breaks, by using slide and playoff music at the top of those breaks. This was necessary because most TV commercials are produced with idealised audio tracks, equalised, compressed, or expanded to achieve maximum listener impact from their duration. They often compare unfavourably with the widely varying audio levels within a movie soundtrack which intentionally possess vast differences.

Sometimes, early television commercials resembled radio with pictures; the visual storyline was just an accompaniment to an audio track. Even today, some modern cheap retail commercials use this technique. Try watching them with sound turned off, and see what kind of message they communicate.

Also jingles, proven effective aids for memory recall, sometimes place high reliance on words alone to tell the message in some poorly-produced commercials. If they are hard to hear or understand, then the impact of the product offer is possibly lost. Mainstream techniques have evolved to the point where writing has become a holistic endeavour, telling a visual and audio story. If well-written and well-produced, the commercial blends picture narrative and sound in total harmony

The traditional times when viewers would accept eagerly whatever the television programmers gave them, at whatever times deemed suitable, are gone now. The internet, and receiver technology, has made it possible for viewers to choose what they wish to view at a time convenient to them, not that of the stations. Today, with the number of different electronic media spin offs available, advertising has had to become very selective and targeted.

Which leads me to the place of sound in this visual medium.

The original silent movies were enhanced later with live musical accompaniment, so as to highlight mood and emotion. The next significant step was the use of synchronised disc recordings which, as well as dialogue, allowed music and sound effects to be presented. Then followed the ability to replay sound on film from an optical stripe adjacent to the image, or magnetic stripe positioned in a similar way.

The ability to couple sound to image gave the opportunity for directors to enhance the emotive effect of their visuals sometimes using solely music, sometimes with dialogue and effects. This led to the formation and growth of the massive sound recording craft of the movie industry. Film's communication impact changed radically from just mere pictures, to fully integrated performances.

Music has an enormous power of commentary. Whether orchestral works, choirs, jazz, rock, or military styles, all reveal a vast range of moods; panoramic scenic, romantic, dramatic action, tranquillity, speed, declamatory, introduction, or closings. Blend this with strong visuals and the result can be undeniably emotive - take Hitchcock's shower stabbing scene in 'Psycho', as an example.

The reasons for writing this article are some of my reactions to today's commercial TV channel operations; my responses could be similar to yours.

Usually the only stations which I watch are the ABC, fortunately commercial-free, although station promotional and corporate product advertising gives it a commercial look, and SBS which is straight commercial. My choice criteria are purely programme content and expected quality, particularly in news and current affairs given my broadcasting background.

I seldom watch commercial TV stations, or listen to radio other than ABC or a few niche FM stations, because to me they inhabit a realm of titillating trivia.

However due to my interest in aviation, recently I followed a programme about air crash analysis on Seven/TWO, and was pleasantly dismayed to find the commercials played with their audio so low in level compared to the host program, that I began to wonder whether the advertisers or their agencies might demand make-goods! The playout level was about one third to half that of the programme, a welcome chance for me to avoid being marketed at, but also to evaluate the communication soundness (no pun intended) of the commercials.

SBS seems to have its problem the other way round. Their commercials and promotions often are much louder than the surrounding programme.

I find myself viewing with the remote control in one hand to adjust sound quality. But I should not have to do it.

In these times of strong competition for the advertising dollar, it is surprising that all stations don't seem to value enough the subjective effect of sound levels on viewers to budget for overall higher presentation quality control of their operations.

In peak high-audience times instead of just shovelling out the shows, or relying on automated presentation, perhaps they should make efforts to improve their received image. This could offer eagerly sought-after advertisers a value-added service, albeit subtle, which might possibly justify the cost of careful manual over-ride presentation, and make commercials more impactive and acceptable.

Unless you time shift a programme, you only get to see it once, so surely its effect on you ought be so optimal that you keep coming back to that channel for more of the same.

That's one of the aims of broadcasting life – holding viewers, not churning them.