Why do commercials sound louder than the movies?
Viewers will often perceive the commercials to be louder than the programming content. This phenomenon is not unique to SUN TV. The audio on commercials is processed to make all of the audio punchy, energetic, and at the same maximum sound level. The advertisers want to get your attention. These spots are characterized by audio with minimal dynamic range. Dynamic range is the difference between the loudest point of an ad, and the softest point Movies on the other hand, have been mixed and processed with the theatre-goer in mind and tend to contain a mix of loud and quiet scenes. Movies are characterized by audio with a large dynamic range. The SUN TV programming schedule contains quite a few movies (our nightly SUN TV Movies). By applying our own in-house processing, we attempt to find a balance between the sound mix envisioned by the movie’s creative people, with the reality of most households’ television environment limitations. In spite of our best efforts, this issue can’t complete
