NUGEN Audio To Present New Speech Intelligibility Plug-In

NUGEN Audio will unveil its latest speech intelligibility plug-in, DialogCheck, at IBC 2025. The software is a mono, stereo, and multichannel dialog clarity meter that provides an objective measure of speech audio intelligibility within an audio clip or throughout an entire project.

"Though poor speech clarity is commonly cited as a major source of television audience complaints, engineers typically listen in acoustically specialized environments that can make it more difficult to judge whether further changes are needed to improve clarity," said Dr. Paul Tapper, CEO, NUGEN Audio. "DialogCheck provides an objective measure of speech, further enhancing the skilled work and creative process of the incredible engineers who craft sound – from novices to experts. The software has already received rave reviews since its launch, and we look forward to introducing it to IBC attendees."

The ability for a listener to understand a piece of dialog is affected by many factors. This includes language, dialect, enunciation, reverb and effects, loudness of speech and background noise, as well as listener hearing ability, listening environment, placement of speakers and supporting visuals, among other elements. Audio engineers have control over some of these factors, but not all. DialogCheck enables users to easily evaluate their audio to identify sections of speech that might be difficult for listeners to understand, allowing engineers to make informed decisions about appropriate tweaks.

DialogCheck features more than one-dozen interface tools aimed at supporting engineers in their dialog editing process, such as the integrated real-time bar meter and history graph. Additionally, the distribution view and numerical statistical values provide an overview of the speech intelligibility of the entire program. This information can then be used to guide engineers to correct issues before testing again. Furthermore, the tracking function syncs the views with the audio playback in the DAW, while ‘Macro View’ highlights the current audio section within the wider historical view.

DialogCheck also has its benefits for pre-production to assess different mic’ing configurations, performance styles, room set-ups, etc., to ensure that raw production audio is already near to the desirable clarity levels.

DialogCheck utilizes the Listening Effort Meter (LE-Meter) developed by Fraunhofer IDMT, which allows sound engineers to visualize listening effort during mixing and conduct post-mixing checks to optimize audio quality. Designed to objectively assess the listening effort of dialog in broadcast material, LE-Meter utilizes automatic speech recognition and psychoacoustic modeling with metrics to evaluate the intelligibility of dialog.

"Our LE-Meter enables the objective measurement and display of speech intelligibility and listening effort," said Prof. Dr. Jan Rennies-Hochmuth, Group Leader for Personal Hearing Systems at the Branch for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology at Fraunhofer IDMT. "Thanks to validations and optimizations using formal listening tests, this provides media producers with a precise tool for analyzing and implementing audio content. For example, difficult sections can be identified automatically for improvement with respect to listening enjoyment and accessibility."

Like all NUGEN Audio solutions, the new software also comes with a variety of factory settings and presets. Personal presets can be created and saved to later be selected in the featured "Preset Bar."

While DialogCheck is designed for use in traditional post-production, any audio that includes speech/dialog can benefit from integrating the software. For more information regarding DialogCheck, visit nugenaudio.com/dialogcheck.

www.nugenaudio.com