Augmenting TV Viewing using Acoustically Transparent Auditory Headsets

This paper explores how acoustically transparent auditory headsets can improve TV viewing by intermixing headset and TV audio, facilitating personal, private auditory enhancements and augmentations of TV content whilst minimizing occlusion of the sounds of reality. We evaluate the impact of synchronously mirroring select audio channels from the 5.1 mix (dialogue, environmental sounds, and the full mix), and selectively augmenting TV viewing with additional speech (e.g. Audio Description, Directors Commentary, and Alternate Language). For TV content, auditory headsets enable better spatialization and more immersive, enjoyable viewing; the intermixing of TV and headset audio creates unique listening experiences; and private augmentations offer new ways to (re)watch content with others. Finally, we reflect on how these headsets might facilitate more immersive augmented TV viewing experiences within reach of consumers

The Dolby era: Sound in Hollywood cinema 1970-1995.

Historically the understanding and appreciation of cinema have been shaped by a bias towards the image. Consequently, film sound has received little attention: today we know very little about how sound works in the cinema, especially in contemporary terms. My particular concern is to provide a first substantial account of sound in contemporary Hollywood cinema.Since the arrival of Dolby technologies in the early 1970s, the seismic nature of the changes that have taken place in mainstream cinema are so pervasive as to suggest that we are indeed in a new 'era' of cinema, the Dolby era. This period in the history of cinema has been characterised by a variety of factors such as the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers as well as a new 'kind' of audience.The thesis investigates these changes and their implications within a historical framework that has its roots in the 1960s, exploded in the 1970s, and matured beyond expectations over the past two decades.The thesis is structured around an exploration of the central features and figures that have characterised the Dolby era. It includes an examination of the reasons behind the success of Ray Dolby and Dolby Laboratories, as well as an analysis of the impact that technological innovations in film sound have had on filmmaking practices and the industry at large.The thesis advocates a move towards closer dialogue and integration between the world of academia and that of practitioners by focussing specifically on professional practices through a series of interviews with leading Hollywood practitioners. Finally, the thesis proposes an original approach to some key areas of film studies, namely film audiences, film narrative construction and film analysis

Improving television sound for people with hearing impairments

This thesis investigates how developments in audio for digital television can be utilised to improve the experience of hearing impaired people when watching television. The work has had significant impact on international digital TV broadcast standards; it led to the formation of the UK Clean Audio Forum whose recommendations based on the research have been included in ETSI international standards for digital television, adopted into ITU standards for IPTV and also into EBU and NorDig digital television receiver specifications. In this thesis listening tests are implemented to assess the impact of various processes with a phantom centre channel and with a centre loudspeaker. The impact of non-speech channel attenuation and dynamic range control on speech clarity, sound quality and enjoyment of audio-visual media are investigated for both hearing impaired and non-hearing impaired people. For the first time the impact of acoustical crosstalk in two channel stereo reproduction on intelligibility of speech is quantified using both subjective intelligibility assessments and acoustic measurement techniques with intelligibility benefits of 5.9% found by utilising a centre loudspeaker instead of a phantom centre. A novel implementation of principal component analysis as a pre- broadcast production tool for labelling AV media compatible with a clean audio mix is identified, and two research implementations of accessible audio are documented including an object based implementation of clean audio for live broadcast that has been developed and publicly demonstrated

Collaboration and Integration: A Method of Advancing Film Sound Based on The Coen Brothers’ Use of Sound and Their Mode of Production. Volume 2.

For the majority of cinema history, the film industry has treated sound as a less Integral ingredient In the filmmaking process. This has translated into working practices that have marginalised sound's contribution and have divided personnel. Joel and Ethan Coen's mode of production stands in contrast to a majority of those currently working in the film industry. They foreground sound's contribution by priming their scripts for sound, involving their sound personnel sooner and by encouraging close collaboration between those responsible for the soundtrack. The Coens' model serves as a way of highlighting sound's Importance and as way of generating more integrated soundtracks. As such, filmmakers should build upon their mode of production; a notion supported by other professionals and educational Institutions. By advocating this alternative way of working, future filmmakers can be encouraged to reassess sound's role in film construction

The Contemporary Hollywood Film Soundtrack: Professional Practices and Sonic Styles Since the 1970s

Since the 1970s, the soundtrack in Hollywood has come of age as a complex and sophisticated site of cinematic art. Greater combinations of sounds expressing a wider spectrum of tones, textures and volumes can be heard at the movies more than ever before, while behind the scenes, the number of personnel producing them has grown considerably. Moreover, this era has witnessed a proliferation of different artistic and professional approaches to sound. This thesis provides a detailed and wide-ranging picture of these developments and how they were ultimately affected by changes within the American film industry. Drawing on a range of accounts by contemporary sound practitioners and critics, the thesis explores sound production practices, focusing on the sound designer and composer, their creative choices, collaborative relationships - or “sound relations” - and the technologies they employ. The soundtrack is also examined in terms of “sonic style”: the ways in which sound effects, music and the voice function variously in the service of contemporary film narration and genre. It is argued that Hollywood sound production practices and styles have diversified to a high degree, particularly during the last three decades. Industrial realignments on the “New Hollywood” landscape in the 1970s and the integration of the independent and major sectors throughout the 1990s have introduced greater flexibility to mainstream filmmaking norms. These events have played key roles in the expansion of its different sonic styles and working practices in contemporary Hollywood. I take George Lucas and David Lynch, their respective sound design partners Ben Burtt and Alan Splet and composers John Williams and Angelo Badalamenti, and identify distinctions between their professional modus operandi and sonic styles to illustrate the growing diversification within the industry. Most importantly, these examples are used to demonstrate both the intricacy and variety that characterises the styles and crafts of the contemporary Hollywood soundtrack

Collaboration and integration : a method of advancing film sound based on the Coen brothers' use of sound and their mode of production. Volume 2

For the majority of cinema history, the film industry has treated sound as a less Integral ingredient In the filmmaking process. This has translated into working practices that have marginalised sound's contribution and have divided personnel. Joel and Ethan Coen's mode of production stands in contrast to a majority of those currently working in the film industry. They foreground sound's contribution by priming their scripts for sound, involving their sound personnel sooner and by encouraging close collaboration between those responsible for the soundtrack. The Coens' model serves as a way of highlighting sound's Importance and as way of generating more integrated soundtracks. As such, filmmakers should build upon their mode of production; a notion supported by other professionals and educational Institutions. By advocating this alternative way of working, future filmmakers can be encouraged to reassess sound's role in film construction.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

An Autoethnography on Film Composition Practice: Integrating Virtual Instruments and the Live Performance Realisation within the DAW

The research presented here is to establish realism and authenticity within my professional and creative practice in the recording studio and investigate how to create a sense of liveness and realism with the integration of virtual instruments and live performance through hyperorchestration. It represents an autoethnographic investigation into the challenges of composing the most naturalistic, emotionally compelling film scores, with liveness, realism and performance using computer technology and to examine how my process is mediated by ideas, intentions and technology. The commentary details how I brought realism to my scores, acknowledging the complexities of orchestration in conjunction with live and MIDI performance to produce natural sounding performances within the Digital Audio Workstation