AES NY section (Online) “Improving Dialogue Intelligibility in Media”

AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery has published the comprehensive Technical Document (TD1009), “Improving Dialogue Intelligibility in Media.” Which diagnoses the intelligibility problem and presents solutions.

Join AES NY Section and the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 15 March 12th at 2:30 PM on line VIA ZOOM LINK please register if you will attend:

[https://us06web.zoom.us/…/register/lwfCO53iT9KPBMqG3dNycw]

If we reach capacity we are also going to share it here on fcebook live that day.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/aesnyofficial.

The event will eventually (approximately 1 month later) be rebroadcast on the sections Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@aesnysectioneventsarchive5007

Featuring: David Bialik (Host and Moderator), Richard Friedel, Jim Starzynski, Scott Kramer, Robert Bleidt and Scott Norcross

A panel discussion about:

Sound for picture delivered through broadcast and streaming is the primary focus of TD1009. Solutions also apply to audio-only media. Important takeaways from the study include detailing the Dialogue Intelligibility Ecosystem – dialogue’s journey from acquisition to the ear of the consumer and the application of how humans understand and interpret dialogue. Solutions presented include fostering a culture of dialogue intelligibility in the post-production process; addressing the limitations of TV sets, set top boxes, and, audio/video receivers; as well as identifying what can go wrong in distribution.

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Production insiders and subject matter experts have collaborated for over two years in the development of TD1009 to guide creative professionals, content distributors, device manufacturers, and consumer enthusiasts. The guide was created under the leadership of the AES Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery (TC-BOD), an international group that addresses audio quality chaired by David Bialik, Kimio Hamasaki, Matthieu Parmentier, Jim Starzynski.

The publication of TD1009 follows its initial public presentation at the AES Show 2025 – Long Beach Convention, during the session “Improving Dialogue Intelligibility in Media: A Report from the AES Broadcast and Online Delivery Technical Committee.” “With AES TD1009 now publicly released,” notes Rafael Kassier, who co-chairs the AES Technical Council with Lesley Fogle, “we encourage broadcasters, streaming platforms, content creators, and audio engineers worldwide to explore and apply its recommendations to enhance speech clarity and overall listener experience.”

This paper is distributed openly by the Audio Engineering Society and may be viewed/downloaded at https://aes.org/community/technical-council/aestd1009/. The TC-BOD can be contacted by email at broadcast@AES.org

Featuring:

David Bialik (Host and Moderator):

David Bialik holds a B.S. in Audio Technology from American University. Having been a broadcast engineer in U.S. major market radio since 1983. While working at NPR affiliate WAMU-FM and at the NAB Science and Technology Department, he contributed extensive material to the NAB Engineering Handbook Seventh and Eighth editions. In 1986 he went to work in New York City at WNYC and then Bonneville’s WNSR. During this time, he became chair of the Society of Broadcast Engineers Chapter 15 and started a 35 year-run of chairing the Broadcast Sessions at the Audio Engineering Society Convention. David joined United Broadcastings’ WKDM in 1991, as chief engineer. Forming a systems engineering consultancy in 1995, advising various industries including broadcasters on integrating technology applications such as studio construction, computer networking, VOIP telephony and Internet Streaming. In 2010 he joined CBS radio eventually being promoted to Director of Stream Operations for CBS Radio and later Entercom Media. While at CBS, Bialik collaborated with Telos to create the R2 encoder. Currently he is Director of Engineering for MediaCo’s New York Stations , WQHT and WBLS. Also, David has published many articles in Radio World and Television Technology. Bialik is a Co-Chair of the AES’s Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery and is chairing the NRSC’s Metadata and Streaming Working Group. He is an active member of SBE, AES, SMPTE, and IEEE (BTS). He is an SBE Life Member and AES Fellow and was awarded the AES Distinguished Service Medal, Citation, and Board of Governor’s Award. David is one of the co-chairs of the AES’ Technical Committee for Broadcast and Online Delivery. Along with the members of the TD1008 drafting group he was among the inaugural recipients of the AES President’s Award for Outstanding Technical Achievement, December 2021.

David Bialik resides in New York with his wife, Alicia, and two children, Madeline and Richard. He is a board member of the AES NY section for 25 years, over and has planned many events.

Richard Friedel:

Richard Friedel retired from Fox Corporation, Richard has created a consultancy, Broadcast.Advocate Ltd., focused on furthering his ongoing efforts to support technology advancement in media & entertainment.

During his 26-year career at Fox, Richard held various executive positions responsible for technology strategy, engineering, and day to day television operations for Fox’s national broadcast and cable networks, their regional sports networks and the Fox television stations group. Early in his time at Fox, he was a member of the executive team that launched Fox News Channel.

Before joining Fox, Richard held various leadership and engineering positions at Capital Cities/ABC, NBC News and local television and radio stations.

Richard serves as Chair Emeritus of the Advanced Television Systems Committee and President of the Video Services Forum. He is also a fellow of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, a life member of the Audio Engineering Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a member of the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Richard was honored by the National Association of Broadcasters with the 2015 NAB Engineering Achievement Award and has been awarded several technical Emmy awards by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences including one for lifetime achievement in 2018. In 2022, Richard was recognized with the International Achievement Award from the North American Broadcasters Association.

Jim Starzynski:

Jim Starzynski is Director and Principal Audio Engineer for NBCUniversal, overseeing audio technologies and practices for all NBCU television properties. Jim is responsible for establishing NBC’s audio strategy for digital television and works on advanced technologies. Jim is chairperson of the Advanced Television Systems Committee’s group on Next Generation Audio, and their group that developed ATSC-A/85, the Emmy winning Recommended Practice on Loudness for Digital Television. He is chairperson of the Sports Video Group’s DTV Audio Group and Co-Chair of the AES’s Broadcast and

Online Delivery Technical Committee. Jim is an Ex-Officio of the Audio Board and chairperson of the OTT Loudness Group of the Consumer Technology Association. He holds both SMPTE and AES Fellowships. Jim gave expert testimony to the 2009 U.S. Congress on the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act (C.A.L.M. Act). He is the recipient of six NATAS Emmy Awards and the 2006 NATAS George Wensel Innovative Technical Achievement Award. He is a 2018 Television Academy honoree for his contribution to the Emmy Award winning sound mixing of Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert.

Jim is a recipient of the AES Board of Governors Award and President’s Award. He authored the 2017 NAB Engineering Handbook’s chapter on “Digital Television Audio Loudness Management”. Jim is the 2011 recipient of the ATSC’s Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award.

Scott Kramer:

Scott has dedicated his life to sound technology. He spent 15 years as a mix technician, sound supervisor, and re-recording mixer for film

and television with a diverse range of credits including Twilight and Mozart in the Jungle. He then transitioned to the studio-side at Netflix where he spent the next eight years co-leading sound initiatives and collaborating with audio developers, post-production managers, and creative executives at one of the world’s largest content studios.

His expertise spans audio engineering for production and post-production, international standards, audio encoding, TV and film sound design, acoustics, and streaming technology. Scott is known for his ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly, bridging the gap between creative teams, engineers, and executives.

Robert Bleidt:

Robert Bleidt has worked in the media technology industry since the 1980’s, helping to develop and introduce HDTV and streaming media technologies while working at companies such as Fraunhofer, Philips, and Sarnoff. He is the lead author of “Development of the MPEG-H TV Audio System for ATSC 3.0” in the IEEE Transactions on Broadcasting and his team at Philips was the recipient of a technical Emmy for the first frame-accurate web-based proxy editing system for video. He is the inventor of the “Sonnox Fraunhofer Pro Codec” plug-in which was a 2011 TEC award nominee and received the 2012 Sound-on-Sound editor’s choice award.

He has been a speaker at AES conventions and educational events since 2008 and is one of the editors and contributors to TD1009, the new AES report on dialogue intelligibility.

Scott Norcross:

Scott Norcross received the B.Sc. degree in physics from McGill University in 1989, the M.Sc. degree in physics from the University of Waterloo in 1995, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa in 2009. He worked at the Communications Research Centre (CRC) where he was involved in multichannel audio evaluation, loudspeaker and room equalization, and loudness research which lead to ITU-R BS.1770. During his time at CRC, he was involved in ITU-R, ATSC, and EBU standards work. In 2012 he joined Dolby as a Platform Manager for Loudness and Metadata platforms and currently is a Principal Technical Staff in the Sound Experiences Lab in the Advanced Technology Group. He actively participates in ITU-R WP6C/B, EBU, and AES standards and technical committees.