The document discusses loudness in advertising and discusses several potential solutions to address complaints about ads being too loud. It notes that while loudness increases intensity, volume increases pressure. It also discusses how music and albums have gotten louder over time due to remastering. Finally, it proposes some options for publishers to help reduce the impact of loudness variations, such as transcoding all content to a consistent loudness level or using server-side ad insertion to ensure ads match the loudness of surrounding content.

1. Ad Loudness
Jeremy Brown - Video & Advertising Architect

2. Loudness isn’t volume
● Loudness increases intensity
● Volume increases pressure

3. You can increase loudness
without increasing the volume

4. Ad loudness - Most frequent app complaint

5. Not every creative is loud however...

6. When loud creatives were running complaints spiked

7. It’s common for each ad and the
content to have unique loudness

8. Streaming on iOS app
Episode Good Ad Loud Ad Very Loud Ad

9. How do I think we got here?

10. Music has been
increasing loudness
over time

11. Remastered albums
are louder than
their originals
Read into “the loudness wars” Papa don’t preach - Madonna

12. Increased loudness
was a good thing
for small speakers

13. For consistency “connected TV” loudness level of
-24 LKFS match the loudness level of conventional
broadcast.
FREE TV AUSTRALIA OPERATIONAL PRACTICE OP - 75
Publishers followed loudness standards

14. So publishers create VOD content with
loudness -24 LKFS to match broadcast

15. Loudness levels widely used among non-broadcast
websites is -16.5 LKFS and -13 LKFS
FREE TV AUSTRALIA OPERATIONAL PRACTICE OP - 75
But social networks requested
much louder creatives

16. Increased loudness
is a good thing for
small speakers

17. But now we stream
on home theatres and
$500 headphones

18. With headphones, loud ads hurt

19. Some ad creatives are created
to the loudest requirement
designed for small speakers

20. So what happened to loudness standards?!?!

21. Industry standards for loudness are everywhere
● AES Technical Council AESTD1006.1.17-10 Loudness Guidelines for OTT and
OVD Content
● Free TV Australia Operational Practice OP - 75
● ITU-R BS.1770 Loudness and True-peak level standard
● EBU TECH 3343 Guidelines for production of programmes in accordance with
EBU R 128
● ATSC A/85 – Techniques for establishing and maintaining audio loudness for
digital television
● Streaming Video Alliance : Improved Quality of Service (QoS) For Advertisement
Delivery Across OTT

22. -20 LKFS
AES Technical Council AESTD1006.1.17-10 Loudness Guidelines for
OTT and OVD Content
AES recommended a number

23. ATSC A/85:2013 Establishing and Maintaining Audio Loudness,
ABE asks ads match content loudness
match loudness
within +/-2 dB

24. Publish both mobile & in-home loudness levels
as phone speakers don’t deliver the same range
Streaming Media Alliance: Improving QoS for Advertisement Delivery Across OTT
SMA asks we publish two loudness creatives

25. Free TV suggests a similar approach
-24 LKFS
-16 LKFS

26. yuck

27. Local standards aren’t logical
in global ad marketplaces

28. We may never agree on a standard loudness
as we build new streaming experiences

29. Mistakes happen, clips will always
have incorrect loudness

30. Plus, who will police ad loudness?

31. Publishers have options to reduce
the impact of loudness variation

32. Reduce the impact of loud ads by increasing content loudness
You will lose some fidelity on hifi playback
1. Transcode louder content
Very Loud Ad!
-16 LKFS
-24 LKFS
-6 LKFS
New loudness
Loud Ad
Original Loudness
Good Ad
Reduced
Variance

33. Ad 1 Ad 2 Ad 3 Ad 4 Ad 5
1. Transcode content louder
Reduced Variance .

34. Have your ad server transcode all content to an acceptable loudness
This won’t fix third party served ads like programmatic
2. Set Loudness In Ad Server Transcode
Very Loud Ad!
-16 LKFS
-24 LKFS
-6 LKFS
New loudness
Loud Ad
Good Ad

35. Ads are transcoded to match content
Loudness is consistent across both
Serve different loudness to platforms
Other benefits of seamless playback
2. Use SSAI to match the ads to the content
#EXTM3U
#EXT-X-VERSION:6
#EXT-X-TARGETDURATION:6
#EXT-X-MEDIA-SEQUENCE:1290814
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY-SEQUENCE:0
#EXTINF:6.0,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12
#EXTINF:6.0,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12
#EXTINF:6.0,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12
#EXTINF:4.9,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
#EXTINF:3.066667,
https://ads.com/1511810307479-w8feyq/de98275e439d016f601afa072f80eabc6d5afec0_t
#EXTINF:3.0,
https://ads.com/1511810307479-w8feyq/de98275e439d016f601afa072f80eabc6d5afec0_t
#EXTINF:3.0,
https://ads.com/1511810307479-w8feyq/de98275e439d016f601afa072f80eabc6d5afec0_t
#EXTINF:3.0,
https://ads.com/de98275e439d016f601afa072f80eabc6d5afec0_transcoded00003.ts
#EXTINF:2.933333,
https://ads.com/1511810307479-w8feyq/de98275e439d016f601afa072f80eabc6d5afec0_t
#EXT-X-DISCONTINUITY
#EXTINF:5.467,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12
#EXTINF:6.0,
https://c4af3793bf76b33c.com/out/v1/dcb76013db8f4a67b0adb96eaca140b0/index_1_12

36. 3. Reject the bad actors
Request loud creatives be fixed

37. Thank You
Jeremy Brown - Video & Advertising Architect