Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1541592
24 M PS E . O R G n recent years, dialogue intelligibility has been a topic of discussion and often a point of contention both within the filmmaking community, as well as the broader viewing audience. According to a poll of 1,182 adults nationwide, conducted by AP-NORC August 21-25, 2025, with 1,182 adults nationwide, 55% of respondents who use subtitles say it is because they want to catch every word of dialogue. How do we quantify dialogue intelligibility? Enter DialogCheck from NUGEN Audio. I happened to be sitting on a dub stage on the Universal lot the week DialogCheck was released, and our mixers were already taking it for a spin. Sure enough, as the show played, the plugin gave us a real-time and long-term intelligibility score for our mix. At first this seemed like a novelty, but as the concept of what it was doing sunk in, so did the ramifications of this new metric. Speaking with Paul Tapper, CEO of NUGEN Audio, we got a little insight into the catalyst that led to the creation of DialogCheck. "We are always talking to industry partners and listening to their technology needs. Ensuring the best dialogue intelligibility was something we knew was very important to Netflix, and the creation of DialogCheck happened in close communication (in fact, you could say, dialogue) with them." On the Netflix Tech Blog article, "Measuring Dialogue Intelligibility for Netflix Content," Netflix shared further insight into the collaboration: "Understanding dialogue intelligibility across Netflix titles is invaluable, but our mission goes beyond analysis—we strive to empower creators with the tools to craft mixes that resonate seamlessly with audiences at home. "Seeing the lack of dedicated Dialogue Intelligibility Meter plugins for Digital Audio Workstations, we teamed up with industry leaders, Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT (Fraunhofer IDMT) and NUGEN Audio to pioneer a solution that enhances creative control and ensures T EC H CO R N E R BY KOREY PEREIRA MPSE NUGEN DialogCheck: I A solution to the dialogue intelligibility debate?