Dialogue Boost uses AI to make voices louder and, more crucially, clearer to understand.
In a blog post published on Tuesday, Amazon introduced a new accessibility feature for Prime Video it calls Dialogue Boost. According to the Seattle-based company, the feature is built to make voices more intelligible by “[increasing] the volume of dialogue relative to background music and effects, creating a more comfortable and accessible viewing experience.” Calling it “innovative,” Amazon claims Dialogue Boost “cannot be found on any other global streaming service.”
While anyone can use the new software, regardless of their aural abilities, Dialogue Boost was originally conceived to help hard-of-hearing people. The feature harnesses artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to specifically target and enhance human voices rather than rely on traditional amplification. “Dialogue Boost analyzes the original audio in a movie or series and intelligently identifies points where dialogue may be hard to hear above background music and effects. Then, speech patterns are isolated and audio is enhanced to make the dialogue clearer,” Amazon wrote in the post.
Dialogue Boost can be found within the Audio and Subtitles drop-down menu of the playback interface. Users can choose between Medium or High levels.
“At Prime Video, we are committed to building an inclusive, equitable, and enjoyable streaming experience for all our customers,” Raf Soltanovich, who is Amazon’s vice president of technology at Prime Video and Amazon Studios, said in a statement included in the press release. “Our library of captioned and audio described content continues to grow, and by leveraging our technological capabilities to create industry-first innovations like Dialogue Boost, we are taking another step to create a more accessible streaming experience.”
At a fundamental level, what Amazon is doing with Dialogue Boost, while noteworthy in its own right, isn’t uncharted territory. They are relying on software to accomplish more or less the same goal as dialogue-friendly soundbars like the popular AccuVoice series from ZVOX. The concept is the same: enhancing voices on television, except Amazon isn’t asking you to add another piece of hardware to your home theater setup to do so. They even admit to it in the post, writing Dialogue Boost “offers a capability that was previously only available to customers with high-end theater systems, specialized audio equipment, or select smart TVs.”
It’s also true that a feature such as Dialogue Boost is a complement to—not a replacement for—captions. There are reasons to prefer one over the other, but too many people conflate convenience for accessibility. They would rather raise the volume on their television rather than read words on the screen; the (arguably ableist) implication there is captions are bad because they’re distracting. What most people don’t realize is, although voice enhancers and captions are close cousins, the fact they co-exist is precisely because they suit different needs.
In terms of availability, Dialogue Boost is compatible with “all devices” that support the Prime Video app. The feature is available now on Amazon Original titles such as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Harlem. Dialogue Boost will be supported by additional titles on the service “this year,” according to Amazon.
