TV sound question

[cordura21]

Hey. I noticed that sometimes, after a loud sound is caught on a tv show (specially live and low boudget) the next sounds caught by the microphone are very low for some time until they get back to normal levels. For example when there's an explosion on the set, then the following dialogues etc. can hardly be heard.
Why's that?
Andrés

[DonF]

Could be an artifact of audio compression. A loud sound causes the compressor to turn its gain down temporarily. After the loud sound is over, eventually the gain returns to normal. The "release time" setting controls how fast this happens. If you can hear the compressor doing this, it's known as "pumping", and it's an indication that the release setting may be inappropriate.

[TexRoadkill]

Yep, that's a compressor with the release set too slow. Most home video cameras have one built in and you will notice that if there are sudden loud noises.

[Jimbo Jones]

yeah, most likely just bad compression.
my TV actually has a "steady sound" option which is a built in limiter/compressor
it was good at making those blaring commercials quieter, but it made music sound like shite so i shut the thing off

[Freeform]

yea, when i first used my latest tv, it was driving me nuts how bad the volume differences were...it just turned out the tv had a really bad compressor turned on