SHHHH - It's The Law!
CALM Act signed by President
It’s official! President Obama signed the CALM Act on December 15, so it’s now the Law of the Land. Fans of the new law wishing to show their appreciation are encouraged to applaud quietly, with any cheers kept to “indoor voice” levels. Opponents can grimace all they want – just keep the noise down, please.
For those of you who have been walking around with cotton stuffed in your ears (to avoid loud commercials on TV) and who may, as a result, have missed out on the background of the CALM Act, you can check out our posts on the matter here. But don’t be throwing all that cotton away just yet. While the Act has now made it through the peristalsis that is the legislative process, that means only that Congress and the White House have dumped the hot potato of loud commercials onto the FCC’s lap. It’s now up to the FCC to change its rules to incorporate the remedy prescribed by the Act, and then it will be up to video providers to bring themselves into compliance. The Act gives the FCC a year to get its part of the job done, and it gives video providers a year to get their own act together once the new rules are in place. Check back here for updates.
As someone who works as a technician in the digital cable advertising business, I can confidently say that Congress and the President have no clue what goes into this issue. I have even read some technical, computer "expert" on a weekly syndicated radio talk show & daily email newsletter(s) pontificate about how much easier controlling TV ad volumes should be with digital technology. She could not be farther from the truth. In the analog days, a compressor/limiter or AGC/leveler would go a long way in doing that, but in the digital world it is infinitely more complicated. This type of issue is the bane of our existence and we deal with it every day. This is stupid legislation and unnecessary. I guess since Congress and the President have solved all other problems in this country, television volume control was next on the agenda.