{"id":2245,"date":"2015-09-23T15:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-23T14:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/benshirley.wordpress.com\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2026-01-13T09:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T09:53:08","slug":"ibc-2015-tv-sound-for-hearing-impaired-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hub.salford.ac.uk\/accessibleaudio\/2015\/09\/23\/ibc-2015-tv-sound-for-hearing-impaired-people\/","title":{"rendered":"IBC 2015: TV Sound for Hearing Impaired People"},"content":{"rendered":"

IBC 2015 Demonstration of Object Based Clean Audio<\/h3>\n

\"hearing-30097_640\"<\/a>The problems of hearing impaired people watching TV have been well documented of late.<\/a>\u00a0Loud music, background noise and other factors can ruin the enjoyment of TV for many people with hearing loss – around 10 million people in the UK according to Action on Hearing Loss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In previous\u00a0research<\/a> funded by the ITC and Ofcom<\/a> I looked at solutions that\u00a0took advantage of the (then) recent introduction of 5.1 surround sound broadcast. Some of this ended up in broadcast standards and is being used by broadcasters.\u00a0Now emerging new audio standards are opening the door to improving TV sound much more for hearing impaired people, and also for many others.<\/p>\n

I’ve written about some of this work before, a recent blog post<\/a> described our journal article in the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society<\/a>\u00a0where\u00a0my colleague Rob Oldfield and I picked up where my PhD<\/a> left off and looked at how we could improve TV sound for hearing impaired people by using features of emerging\u00a0object-based audio<\/a><\/em> formats. In object-based audio all component parts of a sound scene are broadcast separate and are combined at the set top box\u00a0based on metadata<\/a>\u00a0contained in the broadcast transmission.\u00a0This means that speech, and other elements important to understanding narrative, can be treated differently compared to background sound (such as music, noise etc).<\/p>\n

I’ve just returned from IBC<\/a>\u00a0in Amsterdam where we’ve been demonstrating some University of Salford research<\/a>\u00a0outputs on\u00a0object-based clean audio <\/em>with DTS<\/a>, a key player in object-based audio developments.<\/p>\n

\"IBC-9\"<\/a>

IBC 2015: The largest global electronic media and entertainment show in Amsterdam last week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Object-based Clean Audio at IBC 2015<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last week we spent a week showing the results of our recent collaboration with DTS – presenting personalised TV audio and giving viewers complete control of how loud different object-stream categories were in their loudspeakers. Sound designer Ash Tidball <\/a>provided audio stems<\/a> mixed so that separate control over\u00a0different types of object streams was possible. Short films for testing were provided by directors Dan Price and Will Herbert. DTS encoded the film soundtracks as MDA<\/a> object-based audio streams\u00a0and\u00a0also provided a\u00a0customised version of their DTS:X <\/a>player designed specifically for our listening tests with an\u00a0on-screen menu allowing viewer-control over speech, music, background sound and foreground sound effects.<\/p>\n

Since then one of our talented MSc Audio Production<\/a> students, Melissa Meadows, has spent her summer running listening tests with hearing impaired people using a\u00a0DTS:X player-based test system as part of her masters project.\u00a0This already gives\u00a0us some early insight\u00a0into how people were using the DTS:X personalised audio mix and no doubt more will become clear as we work through a data analysis over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\"IBC\"<\/a>

Demonstration of DTS:X player interface for object-based clean audio at IBC 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

This implementation of personalised\u00a0audio for hearing impaired people was\u00a0demonstrated from 11th – 15th September at IBC 2015, Amsterdam<\/a>\u00a0in DTS’s demonstration room in Hall 2 and generated a lot of interest from people in the broadcast industry curious as to how their audience may react to having such control. Early results from our listening tests\u00a0indicate that the\u00a0hearing impaired people who took part loved the control that DTS’s DTS:X player gave them. The most common question from participants was, “when can I get this at home?<\/em>“. One participant said that it was the first time she had\u00a0been able to understand what was happening in a film on TV for years. Clearly object-based audio personalisation has much to offer for people with hearing impairments!<\/p>\n

Interestingly the small number of non-hearing impaired people who took part also made full use of the\u00a0personalisation allowed by the player indicating that\u00a0personalised object-based audio may have greater application than just for accessibility.<\/p>\n

We will be publishing full results of\u00a0our research in the coming months but would be interested to hear what features you would like if you could have more control over your film audio.\u00a0More or less music? Louder\u00a0dialogue? More or less sound effects? Comment is free \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

We would also love to hear from\u00a0people with hearing impairments who would like to take part in future tests and get a taste of what may be on the way to their TV at home.<\/p>\n

Acknowledgements:<\/strong><\/p>\n

This work would not have been able to take place without considerable\u00a0assistance from\u00a0the following:<\/p>\n