EASIT. Easy Access for Social Inclusion Training.
Unit 3B. Easy to understand
and audio description.
Element 3. Technical aspects.
Interview with professionals: Bernd Benecke.
In this interview, AD professional Bernd Benecke
will discuss technical aspects of AD
and their impact on making AD
easy to understand.
I am Bernd Benecke,
head of AD at Bayerischer Rundfunk Bavarian Broadcasting, Germany.
Here are my answers for the EASIT project.
Are there technical adjustments
to improve the listenability of AD?
I can talk about our project.
We arrow the description as a pre-mix
through the channels, to the broadcasting.
This is the idea of using HBB TV
and an app, that looks like this,
to transmit the "Pure AD".
So blind people
can listen to the description, like in the cinema,
while the soundtrack comes from your TV
and sighted people can watch the film without AD
and you can get the AD on your headset
and adjust the volume,
make it louder so it is easier to listen.
That is done in this app.
It is still in the testing model.
We only have it to Android phones.
You have to have TV via satellite.
So this would be a technical aspect
that can make things easier to understand and to listen to.
Do you think extended AD can be a solution
for people with cognitive, intellectual or learning disabilities?
Everybody would love extended AD.
When you do not have to put the stuff into the gaps
in between the dialogues.
But where do you put extended AD?
It is not possible: you cannot stop the film.
If you'd like to put extended AD,
you have to go to the internet,
have an audio introduction, e.g.,
and put your extended AD there.
Or if you have a DVD or a blue ray,
you can have an audio track
for the extended AD.
But for things
that have to do with getting the story told,
you must put the description in between the gaps.
According to you,
would TTS AD be better than human AD
for people with cognitive, intellectual or learning disabilities?
I am not a fan of text-to-speech voices.
I prefer human voices.
I do not see why TTS is better to understand
for the special audience.
This video was prepared by Elisa Perego,
produced by Angelika De Marchis,
Laura Marini and Annalisa Navetta
from University of Trieste. The narrator was Annalisa Navetta.