NUGEN Audio CEO Dr. Paul Tapper will present at NAB 2026 on 21 April, exploring whether dialogue intelligibility is heading toward the same kind of formal quality control standards that reshaped the broadcast industry's approach to loudness two decades ago.
Anyone who’s turned on a streaming service recently and struggled to make out what is being said knows this is a real issue. Dialogue intelligibility has become one of the most common audience complaints in broadcast and streaming, and NUGEN Audio CEO Dr. Paul Tapper is bringing that conversation to NAB 2026 with a presentation that asks a pointed question: is this the next loudness?
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Titled “Is Dialogue Intelligibility the New Loudness?“, the session takes place on Tuesday, 21 April from 10:10 to 10:30am in Room N256 of the Las Vegas Convention Centre, as part of the Broadcast Engineering and IT Conference program.
The parallel to loudness is potent. In the early 2000s, inconsistent loudness levels prompted widespread viewer frustration, regulatory action and ultimately the development of international measurement standards that became embedded in broadcast quality control. Dr. Tapper’s argument is that dialogue intelligibility may be approaching a similar inflection point.
“Twenty years ago, loudness was the dominant viewer complaint, and the industry responded with measurable standards,” says Dr. Tapper. “Today, poor dialogue intelligibility is often cited as the primary frustration for audiences. The question now is whether we are approaching a similar turning point.”
The session will cover emerging measurement approaches in this space, including the Listening Effort Meter developed by Fraunhofer IDMT and incorporated into NUGEN Audio’s DialogCheck software. Dr. Tapper will walk through how these technologies analyse speech elements within an audio signal to estimate listening effort, and why manufacturers and content providers are paying closer attention.
Beyond the technology itself, the presentation will explore what formal dialogue intelligibility standards could mean in practice – namely, whether these metrics are likely to evolve into mandatory QC deliverables or remain tools for the creative stage of production.
“As audience expectations shift, we must consider how we define and measure audio quality,” Dr. Tapper adds. “It’s not just about technical compliance – it’s about ensuring viewers can clearly follow the story.”
NAB 2026 runs in Las Vegas from 5–9 April – more information at nugenaudio.com.
