Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532010
38 S P R I N G 2 0 2 5 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y "Say What?" DIALOGUE INTELLIGIBILITY PANEL b y K u r t K a s s u l k e C A S "Say What?" was a fascinating panel discussion which examined the ongoing challenge of dialogue intelligibility— framed by the question, "Why do viewers at home opt for subtitles?" The panel was a talented gathering of industry professionals from a wide range of positions: production mixer Devendra Cleary CAS, dialogue editor John Creed MPSE, dialogue re-recording mixer Marc Fishman CAS, VP Advanced Media Systems Group at Dolby Laboratories Jeffrey Riedmiller, and Audio Workflows & Creative Technologies Executive at Netflix Ozzie Sutherland CAS. The moderator for this lively exchange was Brian Slack CAS, Director of Technical Operations at Deluxe Media. Brian began by giving a brief history of how dialogue intelligibility has become a more pressing issue. All the panelists agreed that part of the current issues with intelligibility stem from the much wider variety of playback formats and playback devices that have been developed and released in the last 20 years. Back in the day, you could mix on Auratones or playback through a Sony Trinitron monitor and you would know that the majority of your audience would hear something similar to what you heard on the mixing stage. Today, we have a highly dynamic pipeline that can send Atmos and 5.1 to the consumer. With so many variables affecting playback such as receivers, flat screen TV's, and even AirPods and other Bluetooth devices, that it takes a more concerted effort to try to create potentially multiple mixes that are more specifically effective for each format and medium. Marc Fishman offered a commonsense approach of taking the stereo mix home and playing parts of it over computer and other speakers, along with different headphones to get an idea of where problems might exist. However, he noted that he tries to mix the Atmos or 5.1 with the creative demands of the story and creators foremost in mind. Both Ozzie Sutherland and Jeffrey Riedmiller agreed that the creative drive of every project is the first goal, but observed that there is dynamic dialogue compensation technology available in codecs and some of the hardware and software involved in streaming which can do part of the work towards making the downmix to stereo from the Atmos or 5.1 source more easy to understand on stereo devices. They also pointed out how a percentage of flat screen devices have very poor frequency response in the dialogue intelligibility range. L-R: Brian Slack CAS, Marc Fishman CAS, John Creed MPSE, Devendra Cleary CAS, Jeffrey Reidmiller, and Ozzie Sutherland CASCAS.