TELE-AUDIO-VISION

 Why Television Ignores Audio -

And Why It Shouldn’t

I’ve been thinking about this question for quite some time.

Why does television give so much importance to what we see, but so little importance to what we hear?

Maybe it’s because I come from radio. When you work in radio, you don’t have a face, a frame, a camera movement, or a beautiful location to tell your story.

You have a voice.

You have music.

You have silence.

You have the little sounds in between.

And somehow, those sounds are enough to make people imagine an entire world.

That’s probably why I notice something that might otherwise go unnoticed.

We call television an audio-visual medium.

But in practice, sometimes it feels more like visual-with-audio.

And that got me thinking:

What if we looked at television differently?

What if, just for the sake of the conversation, we called it “Tele Audio Vision”?

Not because I want to rename television.

But because maybe we need to remind ourselves that audio deserves a seat at the table too.

Television was born to show. But it also learned to speak.

The word television itself comes from ideas connected to seeing something from a distance.

And that makes sense.

The screen is the first thing we notice.

The picture tells us where we are. It shows us faces, places, action, expressions, colours and movement.

But then there is sound.

A voice tells us what a person is feeling.

Music can completely change the meaning of a scene.

Silence can create tension.

A distant sound can make us look towards something before we even see it.

Sometimes, we hear something before we understand what we are seeing.

That is the strange beauty of audio.

You don't always need to see something to feel its presence.

Why does the picture usually get all the attention?

Think about how we talk about television technology.

4K.

8K.

HDR.

OLED.

Refresh rate.

Frame rate.

Colour grading.

Resolution.

Camera lenses.

VFX.

We have entire conversations about the quality of the picture.

And rightly so.

But how often do we have the same excitement about dialogue clarity, sound design, ambience, dynamic range or the way a scene sounds?

Audio often becomes:

“Can you hear the dialogue?”

“Fix the background noise.”

“Add some music.”

“Do the final mix.”

And that's it.

Somewhere along the production process, sound can become something we fix, rather than something we create.

Maybe that's the real problem.

Coming from radio, I see audio differently

In radio, there is nowhere to hide.

If your voice doesn't connect, people leave.

If your storytelling doesn't create an image in their mind, the story doesn't work.

If the music is wrong, you feel it.

If the silence comes at the wrong moment, you feel that too.

Radio taught me something very simple:

Audio doesn't just accompany a story. Audio can BE the story.

And when I started thinking about television from that perspective, I began noticing how powerful sound can be even when there is a beautiful picture in front of us.

Think about a horror scene.

Sometimes the most frightening moment isn't when you see something.

It's when you hear something coming.

A door slowly opening.

Footsteps.

A distant voice.

A sudden silence.

A sound that you can't quite identify.

The image shows you what is happening.

Sound tells you how to feel about it.

And that difference matters.

Good audio can change the way we experience an image

We've all experienced this without necessarily thinking about it.

Watch a scene with poor audio.

Then watch the same scene with clean dialogue, carefully designed ambience, music and sound effects.

Suddenly, the entire experience feels different.

Sometimes even the picture feels better.

That's how powerful sound can be.

A news report can feel urgent because of its voice, natural sound and music.

A documentary can feel intimate because we hear someone's breathing, surroundings or pauses.

A film can make us emotional with nothing more than a voice and a few notes of music.

And sometimes, the most powerful sound in a scene is no sound at all.

So why do we still treat audio as the supporting character?

Maybe we need to change the mindset

I'm not saying television should become radio.

And I'm definitely not saying visuals are less important.

They aren't.

The magic is in the combination.

But perhaps we need to give audio the same creative importance we give visuals.

Why shouldn't sound designers be involved from the beginning of a project?

Why shouldn't directors think about sound while imagining a scene?

Why shouldn't writers consider what the audience will hear, not just what they will see?

Why shouldn't we talk about sound with the same excitement with which we talk about cameras and lenses?

And this is where my slightly crazy idea comes in.

 

What if we called it “Tele Audio Vision”?

Maybe the name doesn't matter.

Maybe it does.

Because sometimes changing the way we describe something can change the way we think about it.

Tele Vision Audio.

Tele Audio Vision.

Or simply, Audio-Visual.

Whatever we call it, I think the important thing is that we stop treating audio like an accessory.

So, I want to hear from you

This isn't me trying to give the final answer.

Actually, I'm not sure there even is one.

I'm genuinely curious about what other people think.

If you're a filmmaker, television professional, content creator, editor, sound designer, radio person—or simply someone who watches a lot of content—I want to hear your perspective.

Do you think television underestimates audio?

Should sound get the same creative importance as visuals?

Do you think the dominance of visuals is completely justified?

And here's the question I'm most curious about:

 

If we started thinking of television as “Tele Audio Vision”, would it actually change the way we create content?

Or is it just a nice phrase?

I'd genuinely love to hear arguments for and against this idea.

Because maybe I'm looking at television through a radio person's ears.

Or maybe we've simply become so used to looking at the screen that we've forgotten to listen to it.

Either way, let's talk.

                                                        What do you think?

Chichu | Freelance Digital Marketer in Alappuzha