Film mixes with expanded dynamic range strain dialog intelligibility

Evidence

Some movies, played at reference level in cinemas, have caused audiences to complain, even to walk out. There are reported instances where cinemas turn the volume down—some as much as 10 dB, half loudness, for some movies—to satisfy customers. A consequence of doing this is that the dialog is less intelligible. Nobody wins. A few films have such loud special effects that the dialog is unintelligible in places, played at any sound level. Recording engineers and producers creating the film know the script, cinemagoers don’t. — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 854

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s existing work in one square inch of silence on noise annoyance and hearing protection; ties volume, intelligibility tradeoff adjacent to hearing conservation themes.