Mumbling On TV - Do You have Trouble With It?

The BBC have just shown a report on the news about the growing problem of not being able to hear some of the programmes properly.

A sound recordist has been doing some tests and found that things are getting worse and has given his reasons for it.

The conclusion that he has come to is that it is definitely becoming harder to hear some of the programmes. The main reason is because of them trying to make the performance seem more 'normal' and the other reason is unnecessary background music that is played 'for effect'.

Have you noticed this problem?

I've been complaining about it for years and have stopped bothering to watch programmes where the voices aren't clear. The background music problem I have, more or less, solved since I bought a Smart TV. On ours there is an adjustment that can be made to reduce background sounds.

The other problem I have found is that a lot of people tend to talk faster nowadays and it annoys me. They not only talk faster but don't put a pause between sentences.

Any other dislikes with programmes etc.?

 

But I am! Doesn't stop me from not bothering to watch the programmes tht have mumbling or noisy background music. I also have trouble with the higher pitched female voices - especially with American southern states accents. They seem to screech but it's the pitch of the voice. We have a lot of American friends, some of whom are southern states, and the ones not from the south also say they find it awkward.

 

That's correct but not to the extent to which it happens. Even with my tinnitus my hearing (checked each year) is well into the 'Normal' range but I still have trouble with some programmes.

Boots the chemist have hearing centres in a lot of their stores and they give free hearing tests. I think it's every two years once you have reached 60 (I now get it every year ) but even if you're under that age you can still get a free test.

As people get older they're more likely to have some hearing loss at either end of the spectrum but, I think, more towards the higher registers. A test is quite simple and only takes 15 minutes.

The sound engineer that was doing the testing of the TV programmes said that for a lot of programmes (especially dramas) the sounds were indistinct. He said that even when he had the scripts in front of him some of the voices were difficult to follow.

I think that the directors/producers are trying to claim that they do it that way because they want to make the programmes seem more real.

 

The speakers that are fitted to modern TV's also do not help - when we had CRT TV's, they often had quite large speakers which also had a lot of cabinet space behind them to give a bit of depth to the sound; more often than not, these speakers also fired forwards, toward the viewer or at least into the room.

Nowadays, TV's are so thin that the speakers within them are tiny - often only 4 or 5 inches in length, and their width only that of the depth of the TV (an inch or so); to make matters worse, they also fire downwards, so the sound is heading toward the floor before it gets to you.

Couple all that with the factors noted above about the way people speak etc, and it is no wonder that we struggle to hear sometimes.

If you do not have any sort of external audio on your TV, I would strongly suggest that you should be looking into something, even if it is just a sound bar. I am more than happy to give advice to one and all if it is needed.

 

A cynic (not me ) said that it was also because the big electronic companies wanted people to buy sound bars.

 

That was clear enough.