I think the point is that when you don’t control the ad, it’s a bit tough to normalize its audio. And controlling the ad means bringing ad serving in house, which while possible, is a huge engineering ask.

I guess the solution is to switch to a proper ad insertion company that normalizes to -24 like you’re supposed to, but that’s not cake either. Especially if contracts are signed.

I assume that they also have mechanisms to check that the content itself is legal to broadcast. Checking the loudness and rejecting based on them in that process should be trivial.

If you're streaming the audio waveform, you can calculate the peak volume and adjust the gain.

[dead]

Well maybe then they should have done quality control. We’ve gotta stop making excuses for these companies that are making money hand over fist.