SRS TruVolume: Why another volume leveler?

Given that TV makers can already choose from at least two volume-leveling technologies— Audyssey Dynamic Volume and Dolby Volume—the announcement that SRS has launched a competing technology might be greeted with the same excitement as a new brand of HDMI cable. According to SRS chief technology officer Alan Kraemer, though, SRS’s TruVolume technology has a big advantage over its competitors … and his pitch is not the usual “we’re better” spiel.

Technologies such as TruVolume seek to solve the decades-old problem of loud commercials blaring out at double the volume of the TV show you’re watching. In the past, manufacturers have tried to quash such outbursts using primitive automatic level circuits, but in Kraemer’s words, “Those either did nothing or really messed up the sound.”