OVER 2 YOU, 154 (04/11/03)

LAMINATED FLOORING

With the increasing popularity of laminated boards as floor covering does anyone know of a computer program that can calculate the optimum layout for minimum wastage? It should take into account floor area and shape, board size, the minimum allowable staggering of the joints and any clearances recommended by the board manufacturer.

R. Aked, Goring-on-Thames

I don’t think there’s any single program that does all that you require but there are a number of CAD (computer Aided Design) packages, developed specifically for those in the floor covering industry. I suggest that your correspondent has a look at the following web site: http://www.floorcoveringsoft.com/, where they will find details of FloorEstimate Pro

Stan Leyland, Runcorn

A firm called Melteca, here in new Zealand, has links to several floor design programs on its web site at:http://www.melteca.co.nz/floor-plan/view.asp

Saul Major

With respect I would suggest that this is a walnut for which a PC solution would be a sledgehammer. If the flooring is laid correctly, wastage is automatically minimised. In any case, most retailers these days will refund any unused packs of boards if returned within 30 days. So simply measure the area of the floor, divide this by the area covered by a pack of boards (usually printed on the pack), add a generous amount for wastage (if laid as above 10% would be generous), and buy this number of packs but keep the receipt. Lay the flooring and return any unused packs for a full refund.

I would suggest that the above calculation would take less time than inputting the data required (floor area, shape, board size, etc.) for a computer programme to do the calculation for you.  
Ian Pegg, IanPegg@aol.com

HEARING PROBLEMS

As I grow older my hearing has deteriorated. These days more documentary TV programmes seem to have background music. The problem is the music is not turned off during the dialogue, making it almost impossible to hear the essence of the programme. Is there any technology, which will eliminate background music and allow just the dialogue to be heard?
Peter Sheardown, via email

A possible, if slightly unsatisfactory, solution to the problem of gratuitous music in documentaries is to use the 888 code on Teletext to obtain sub-titles for the deaf, and then mute the soundtrack. Very little is lost, though in some cases, particularly BBC current affairs productions, the words keep flicking up the screen in a tiring and tiresome manner. The sub-titling for documentaries involving presenter and “talking heads” uses different colours for different speakers, and as “music” is usually though not always confined to the presenter not the interviewee, it is possible by skilful use of the mute button to hear the experts and just blot out the presenter and his/her accompanying racket. 

Anne Glyn-Jones, Topsham, Devon.

It is true that many people have to put up with frustratingly high levels of background sound as they struggle to listen to dialogue on television. The RNID is concerned that the situation is becoming worse – just at a time when the number of older people in society is increasing. 

RNID sees this as a significant issue and will be raising it with the new Ofcom. Both the BBC and ITC have tried to get to grips with this problem but no solution has yet emerged.  It is vital that broadcasters are constantly reminded how serious this is, so RNID recommends viewers to complain directly to broadcasters about unacceptable noise levels on certain programmes.

We produce a fact sheet on subtitling on TV, DVD and videotape, which gives contact details of broadcasters. To view an RNID fact sheet visit: www.rnid.org.uk or contact RNID's Information Line on 0808 808 0123 (freephone) or 0808 808 9000 (textphone) or email: informationline@rnid.org.uk

Brian Grover, Head of Technology and Research, RNID

I have a solution to Peter Sheardown's difficulty hearing speech on the TV. Being a hi-fi enthusiast, I decided to feed my video recorder into my hi-fi, (rather like a radio) and use the amplifier & speakers to play the sound while muting the TV. With a high quality system the sound cleans up dramatically. Speech becomes a lot clearer and less muddy. The sound is also more directional, so that different sounds are separated out spatially. The improvement will be dramatic with an expensive hi-fi, but any system of reasonably good quality components will be a big improvement over the cheap amplifier & speakers in most TVs. You will, however, need to switch on TV, amplifier and video before you can watch your favourite programme. A good quality hi-fi shop will be able to help you set up the system.

Another possibility is to buy a set of 'Isolation Spikes' from a good hi-fi shop. (these will cost about 20 pounds.) Resting the TV on isolation spikes will 'tighten
up' the sound, and should lead to some improvement in the sound quality.
Robert Flatau, Wimbledon

At the European Congress of Medical Physics in May this year, B Kollmeier of Oldernburg University, Germany, demonstrated a system for separating speech from background noise (such as a TV). It works very well, but currently has a delay of about 30 ms, which is not acceptable in a real-time system. Research is on-going.

Paul Ganney, Head of Computing, Medical Physics, Hull Royal Infirmary,

Many TV programs and films shown on TV nowadays are processed using ‘Dolby Surround’ whereby dialogue is directed to a separate channel, designed to be heard through a ‘centre speaker’. I suggest Peter invests in a home cinema system, with a built-in Dolby Pro Logic decoder, which he can connect to the stereo audio output of his TV or Hi-Fi video recorder. He will then be able to balance the levels of the channels to enhance the sound coming from the centre dialogue speaker.

A year or two ago the BBC set up the “Diction” project to investigate the possibility of separating intrusive music from speech sounds and concluded that it was technically not possible. Complaints about TV background noise are not restricted to those with a hearing problem. It is well known in hearing science that a low frequency sound like that generated by a moving vehicle will mask a higher frequency sound like that in speech. Musicians and composers are well aware of this phenomenon but it is ignored by television producers who delight in interviewing celebrities in moving cars and trains.

In the 1940-50's when the science of information theory was being developed, a model used to study speech communication was the cocktail party effect because of the analogy with the difficulty of understanding a conversation when other conversations are going on around one. It was found that listening with two ears enables us to use the spatial properties of sound to help select the speech of interest in this situation. This fact is ignored in TV presentations where the spatial qualities of sound cannot be easily transmitted and is only partly helped by stereo sound reproduction.

Writing for the New Scientist, Raymond Harriwell put the blame for this state of affairs on the fact that the artistic director rather than the sound engineer now has overall power in TV productions. To quote him: "In their desperate search for kitchen-sink realism, producers of plays and documentaries use actual kitchens and other rooms of ordinary houses as studios, apparently without any regard to the acoustics of these rooms".

Recently, there has been a further problem; a deterioration in the clarity of performer's diction, with much slurred incoherent speech, particularly in American productions. I have heard that this also is to introduce "realism" because more people speak like this in real life, but I wonder if it is because it becomes easier to dub the speech into a foreign language to enhance foreign sales.
John Shaw

CAN YOU HELP?

I find it hard to keep track of all the various clothes in my cupboards and want to create a small digital library of what I have without creating a digital photo of each garment. Can anyone suggest a program, using simple icons e.g. pullover, skirt, blouse etc. and a full range of colours so that I can combine items, for example a black skirt with a red jumper so that they form an outfit, which I can then save for reference purposes?

Margit Appleton, via email

My living room is being overrun with remote control handsets, I am convinced they are breeding! I would like to thin them out so does anyone know of any programs that will allow my laptop, which has an infra-red window, to control my television, video recorder, DVD player and hi-fi system? Ideally it would be able to operate all of the various functions using simple mouse-clicks.

Peter Thornhill, via email