Less noise in cinemas

2000/07/25 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Komunikazioak
• Multimedia

Those who come to the cinema, among other things, must suffer the attack of advertising. When the usual ads finish, they make us see the trailers of the films that will be released shortly. In general, these advances are projected with a spectacular volume. This way the viewer receives the attention and in many cases indicates the visibility that the film will not have. The public, however, does not like the noise at all. The number of complaints has increased considerably.

Modern and noisy

In the 1970s Dolby Laboratories improved its noise reduction system. Through it he had the opportunity to use the stereo sound. For example, the soundtracks in the films Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind were heard aloud in the halls of the time.

From there, Dolby has developed digital sound systems to emit movies with an even higher volume. In the face of a complaint from the public (or rather from the public), film technicians began to lower the volume. Consequently, advances were not willing to do so in this way. The average frequencies of the sound lost intensity next to the high and low frequencies. Therefore, in the trailers the voices of the actors were not heard well with the musical and sound effects. Public complaints increase. Technicians who perform sound mixes also have to use earplugs.

Dolby's have analyzed the sound of the films and identified what the audience's ear offends. There are more and more long sounds, more and more noisy for the public. When you hear a single shot in one you get the desired effect, but a whole shot is uncomfortable.

In some workshops there is a long noise meter, but they cannot be used for advances, since their duration is a few minutes. In addition, the sound spectrum of factories is very different from that of cinema. Therefore, Dolby has developed a device to measure together all the channels used in cinema. It explores mainly the stretch between 2 and 6 kilohertz, as they are the ones with the greatest problems.

Fast Diffusion Idea

Dolby sells the meter at $550. All Hollywood studios and twelve film companies have already bought and defined a standard measure for noise. The United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, the United Kingdom and South Africa have already reduced the volume of advances. It is expected to descend later this year in Denmark, Italy, Spain, France, Australia, Hungary, Poland and Iceland.

However, in the opinion of the expert of the British Kinematograph Sound and Television Society, Jim Slater, the volume reduction will cause a surprise. "If the technicians of the cinemas do not reduce the volume of the trailers, the films will be broadcast in a large volume. This will not please everyone." Do we have to end the deaf?