Audio quality is very important to broadcasters’ audiences, and unwanted loudness variations do compromise the quality of experience for the listener. Dynamic range control applied by the broadcaster can go some way to avoiding problems but can never take the individual environment of the listener into account. The listening conditions are a significant factor to be taken into account when dynamic range control is applied. The web audio API provided by HTML5 offer the possibility of performing dynamic range control under the control of the listener, tailoring it optimally for their individual situation. We have developed a system that demonstrates that this achievable in a modern web browser. The implementation controls the compressor based on environmental noise level measured using the microphone present in most mobile device audio players.
This document was originally published at the Audio Engineering Society 57th Conference, 'The Future of Audio Entertainment Technology – Cinema, Television and the Internet', Hollywood, CA, USA – March 6-8, 2015.
It was written by Andrew Mason and Frank Melchior (±«Óãtv R&D), Nick Jillings (Birmingham City University), Zheng Ma and Joshua D. Reiss (Queen Mary, University of London).
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