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Mass Effect 2 Zaeed actor Robin Sachs passes away at 61
Voice actor Robin Sachs has passed away after a long career, playing parts like Ethan Rayne in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Hedronn on Babylon 5. Bioware has posted a quick note on the company blog remembering Sachs' work on their franchises, including serving as Admiral Saul Karath in Knights of the Old Republic, Lord Pyral Harrowmont in Dragon Age Origins, and perhaps most memorably as vicious bounty hunter Zaeed Massani in Mass Effect 2.As Bioware says, "our thoughts are with Robin's family and friends during this difficult time." Thanks for the stories, Zaeed.
FCC tells advertisers to CALM down, lowers the volume on commercial breaks
Pretty soon, you won't have to scramble to lower the volume during noisy commercial breaks -- that's if you even watch live TV. After making its way through Capitol Hill, the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act (or CALM) -- which aims to keep the sounds coming out of your flat panel even-keeled -- has just been adopted in a ruling by the FCC. Starting next December, ads and promos will have to remain in-step with the audio levels of scheduled programming. While the affected parties have a full year to get their acts together, the main burden of enforcement lies with broadcasters and MVPDs like Comcast and Verizon FiOS. So, come next holiday season, you'll be able to tune in and tune out without being blown away.
CALM Act approved by Congress, should make TV commercials slightly less obnoxious
We did say it'd take an Act of Congress to lower the volume on televisual commercials and, shockingly enough, that's exactly what we've got now. The House of Representatives has given its nod of approval to the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act, which, having already cleared the Senate, is now on its way to President Obama's desk for final validation. Once signed into effect, the new legislation will require that all advertisers modulate their volume down so it's no higher than that of the program you're watching, and it'll be the FCC's duty to ensure that they all adhere to the new rule. A year's leniency will be allowed for all those who struggle with figuring out how to turn it down from 11, but after that we should all be able to watch the dying medium that is live television without dreading the commercial breaks.
