“I have always loved film. I lost my sight at the age of 17 and have since missed many,

many, many years of cinema. Audio description at the cinema has been a life-changing experience. It has enabled me to ‘see’ the crazy action of a Michael Bay film, and to experience the origin of time and infinity, with evolving galaxies and beautiful nebulae, in a Terence Malick film. It has taken me to places I’ve only ever dreamed of, where I’ve locked horns with an evil rival, and gone home with the prettiest girl just in time for dinner. I love the cinema all over again. I go with my friends who are sighted and they no longer need to talk to me throughout the film, explaining what’s going on (not fun for anyone!). Thanks. You have really changed my life.”

Specialized Audio Systems for the Blind and Partially Sighted

Audio enhancement equipment is designed to bring the director’s intent for blind and partially sighted people as well as those with hearing difficulties. Descriptive narration – the equipment’s VI-N channel – brings narration to those who cannot see the action. Enhanced dialog – the equipment’s HI channel – brings up the voice frequencies for those who find the effects and/or music tracks too loud.

These systems are also an evolution of existing technologies. Early systems used technology that worked directly with hearing aids. Technology and needs evolved, often driven by solutions from other public spaces, with the techniques then brought to the cinema theater. 

Audio processors changed to make it simple to interface the different personal sound systems. Over time a few companies put in special efforts to cater to the cinema market. Standards were developed to make certain that the HI and VI tracks were always in the same place in the signal flow. 

Williams Sound is a company that fills a wide range of client needs, but entirely catering to the need for assisted listening in public spaces. They developed their simple to use infrared-based technology to solve the common problems with the then current hearing aid loop systems, which had large installation costs and had room to room sound leakage issues. 

The emitter portion of the Williams Sound system plugs into the HI and VI-N channels of the audio processor. It is then mounted in the rear of the auditorium, pointing at the screen. The screen then reflects the signal to user headphones with built-in receivers. One channel carries a specially mixed audio channel to the headphones that emphasizes the dialog of the movie. There is an adjustment that controls the sound level so that the dialog can be distinct while still hearing other sounds from the theater audio system. The other channel carries the descriptive narration track, which feeds more story information for the blind patron, in between dialog and in addition to the all the other sounds of the movie. [Examples on the Links page that follows.] There are several product variations that allow for different room sizes and choice of frequencies, or even multiple frequencies in case the environment changes at the site. 

USL, Inc. also builds several LED-based audio assist systems, which install and perform in a similar manner. Their engineering team has been a major, long-term, industry driver in making a standards-based system perform well at the aforementioned plugfests. One of their recent innovations allows their closed caption system to use the same LED-emitter package that the audio systems use. They also deliver various packages that are chosen based on room size, frequency and other requirements. 

Doremi chose to use a standards-based wireless technology named DECT for their Fidelio audio system. Like the CaptiView system, it is designed to take signals directly from their very popular media server, but it will work with other servers using Doremi’s optional AccessLink device. The Doremi CaptiView caption system transmitter can even plug into the Fidelio transmitter for convenience.

The wireless signal is picked up by a receiver unit which fits into a patron’s pocket, or can be clipped to a belt or hung from a lanyard. Any set of headphones with a mini stereo jack can be plugged into the receiver unit. The choice of HI, VI-N, or both, are set up by theater personnel at the charging station.

As the most recent technology to appear on the market, the Sony implementation (named the Sony Entertainment Glasses with Audio) also takes advantage of a separate rechargeable receiver unit. This receiver is the same device used for the caption glasses. When a headset is plugged in, the receiver automatically switches to deliver audio. The set up for HI or VI-N use can be done at the charging station or, prompted by the receiver itself, in the theater by the patron.  

Like the Sony Entertainment Access Glasses, the audio system can be configured to pick up one of 6 different languages. 

[It hasn’t been a topic in this paper, but multiple languages is a feature for countries who have audiences who use multiple languages. The SMPTE/ISO standards allow for this, so if a movie is distributed with different language choices, the various systems can take advantage of this to varying degrees.] 

Since this system was designed after the SMPTE CSP/RPL interface standards were completed, it is also natively compliant with all SMPTE compliant server systems. The transmitter uses a variant of the evolving 802.15.4 standard signal that is broadcast into the auditorium.

Some argue that radio signals are one more potential point of failure to manage, especially if the radio signals go through the theater walls and interfere with each other. The manufacturers point out that these are generations removed from the loop or even Wi-Fi era, and once set up correctly are easy to manage – a small item on the list of things to correctly manage in the digital projection room and theater. Since LEDs can also fail and require maintenance, it isn’t a clear case of choosing one technology because of problems with the other. 

Smartphone or PDA audio technology that works well in other auditoriums, doesn’t work in the cinema space for the same reasons that streaming text doesn’t work. There are enough piracy concerns to make the camera and recorder capabilities of a phone inappropriate in addition to the bright lights and other distractions that a phone could bring. 

In Summary

The purpose of this white paper has been to bring up to date a segment of digital cinema’s transition that involved 12 years of evolution in politics, law and technology with an intermingled viewpoint of all the parties involved. Cultural attitudes and technology have both changed dramatically in the interim, as have the costs to implement the technology. No one would say that they have changed as fast as anyone expected or wanted them to. But the change has arrived with good potential for continued evolution.

The two separate tracks – full SMPTE/ISO compliance for digital exhibition technology and cultural access as a human right – have been introduced, though neither is fully developed, implemented or widespread. Finally, indications are that they will be.

Cinemas themselves are evolving (again) to meet challenges as client expectations and external technologies affect them. They are bringing new capabilities and forms of entertainment that require implementing satellites and high-speed fiber to successfully bring live opera and sports from distant lands, or “film festivals as files” from cultures and artists that might only fit niches of a particular local community. Over time, there will be many other advantages of having created and participated in the industry’s evolution of capabilities that secure and high quality digital technology brings.

The inclusion of more people into this cultural phenomena with high-quality and consistently performing access tools, like every step of the digital transition, has sometimes been difficult, often very expensive, then sometimes surprisingly simple – bring your own headset! 

As one studio executive said during interviews for this piece, “It is the right thing to do.”