30 l September 2014
broadcast UNITED KINGDOM IPS calls for better audibility in TV sound
The furore earlier this year over sound intelligibility and mumbling actors following the BBC’s Jamaica Inn could lead to a change in attitude to how audio is handled on set and in post production, as Kevin Hilton reports
AUDIO IS A common cause of viewer complaints about television. In 2011 the BBC admitted that “bad sound” was the second most complained about topic on its website. This spring the BBC Academy, the broadcaster’s training and development department, put a fi gure of 22% on the level of protests on the subject. It is also the biggest cause of concern about TV broadcasting among members of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV), which campaigns on issues affecting public service broadcasting and for quality and diversity programming. But Jamaica Inn, the BBC’s big drama production screened last Easter, created what sound recordist and chairman of the Institute of Professional Sound (IPS), Simon Bishop, describes as a “perfect storm”, involving a number of different elements. The fi rst episode of the three- part adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel had viewers contacting the BBC to say they did not understand much of what was being said in the programme.
Initially the BBC blamed this on “issues with the sound levels” and said these would be addressed for the remaining two episodes. When this did not solve the problem, with more than 1,000 complaints received over the three-night run, the broadcaster was forced to concede that a “variety of factors” was possibly responsible. Attention, both on social media and topical comedy shows such as Have I Got News for You, turned to the performance of Sean Harris as wreckers leader Joss Merlyn, whose Cornish accent and
mumbling delivery were deemed often incomprehensible. Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC Drama Commissioning, later commented: “We have thoroughly looked into what caused the sound problems but there isn’t one explanation to single out alone. However, it has highlighted a range of problems that can occur with sound in drama and we would like to reassure audiences that we will learn from this to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” There are strong industry rumours that the BBC is compiling a further report on the Jamaica Inn affair but a spokeswoman for the broadcaster said the matter had been looked into by Stephenson and his team and there would be no further statement from him, although the intention was to improve the situation.
There is some incredulity that this situation happened at all, given that the BBC Academy published guidance on best practice for recording and mixing sound in 2011. This was largely prompted by the results of a TV Audibility Survey requested by the VLV in 2007 but also followed another high- profi le row over sound. Also in 2011 early episodes of science series Wonders of the Universe received 118 complaints about music drowning out the narration of Professor Brian Cox, who defended the production by saying it was designed as a “cinematic experience... not a lecture”. Despite this explanation later programmes were remixed and the BBC, working with the VLV and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB), drew up
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