The Cost of Poor Audio Quality
Byby Scott Quillin, for New England Multimedia
"Make it STOP!"
The quality of audio in an advertisement, whether radio or video, has a definite effect on the public’s perception of the quality of the product or service you provide. While “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” poor quality audio is apparent to everyone listening. Many businesses don’t realize the negative effect low-quality sound has on their brand.
It’s easy to hear the difference in audio quality between a professionally-produced product and one produced with sub-par technology. When it comes to the transmission, reception, or reproduction of sound, audio sometimes ends up at the bottom of the technical food chain. This has never been more apparent in the flood of online web videos, podcasts, music sites and marketing material uploaded to the Internet each day.
Truth is, in some applications, there are applications where you can record using “cheap” video but use professionally-produced sound quality, and still result in a professional experience.
Not convinced?
Paranormal Activity, an independent horror film written and directed by Oren Peli, had a nationwide release on October 16, 2009. Peli chose to shoot the picture with a hand-held home video camera to focus on believability and authenticity.
According to an article in Entertainment Weekly, the film was shot with a Sony FX1 camcorder and edited on a Dell PC using Sony Vegas.
The audio was recorded and processed professionally to give it that “cinematic” quality – even with intentional low-quality video production.
This is just one example of the importance of high-quality audio production to deliver a professional quality product.
Scott is the CEO and Founder of New England Multimedia. You can contact him by email, on our Facebook, or on our Twitter.
