The end of 'loud' TV commercials on South African television? DStv Media Sales asks ad industry to tone down the loudness on TV adverts.

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DStv Media Sales is asking the South African advertising industry, TV commercial producers, and everybody involved in making television adverts and working with the process of getting it on-air to ''tone it down'' when it comes to the perceived ''loudness'' of TV adverts. DStv Media Sales wants the South African television advertising community to work towards one standard of advert sound volume.

DStv Media Sales that told ad execs and the advertising industry at a DStv Media Sales Tech Update that it's working towards a ''first rate audio experience'' for subscribers when it comes to showing television commercials on DStv.

DStv Media Sales said that South African TV viewers and DStv subscribers - like their international counterparts - are fed up and tired of too loud TV commercials which is caused by audio compression during post production - something which broadcasters don't really have control over at the moment. The practise causes TV adverts to ''jump out'' and sound ''louder'' than the rest of the content a TV viewer has been watching and is disturbing and disruptive to the watcher's TV viewing experience.

DStv Media Sales is imploring the South African advertising community to work towards a singular standard, similar to what is happening in America and Europe where the EBU R128 standard in Europe is likely to be adopted soon and with America that is on the brink of enacting the so-called ''Calm'' legislation to regulate TV commercial sound levels.

''Viers get terribly annoyed when they watch a show or movie and suddenly during ad breaks commercials hit you with noise that seems louder. It's because of audio compression. Advertisers want to make their adverts stand out and do audio compression to make their ads stand out. But then everybody does it and viewers actually mute their screens,'' DStv Media Sales told the South African advertising community.

''Too loud TV commercials are everybody's problem. We all need to work towards one standard,'' says DStv Media Sales. ''A uniform standard needs to be adopted to regulate the loudness of TV commercials. In America soon broadcasters will be held responsible if they don't address commercials that jump out because it's being perceived as being suddenly 'louder' than the volume on the TV set.''

''It is something we are working towards and it's something we should all be working towards. The various broadcasters always takes the flack from viewers for adverts that are perceived as being too loud, but its actually an audio compression issue and something that's caused by advertisers and changes during the post production process of commercials,'' says DStv Media Sales.