People will watch YouTube videos of terrible quality on palm sized screens as long as they can understand what’s being said… but put an HD video on a large screen TV with poor sound and they quickly lose interest.  While the visual is sometimes self-explanatory, the audio completes the communication.

Many articles have been written about the relationship between audio, the brain, and memory including, Music, Memory, and Emotion (Lutz Jänke, Journal of Biology 2008, 7:21). or Involuntary Memory (Wikipedia contributors, “Involuntary memory,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed January 14, 2013).

While media doesn’t necessarily start with the audio, it finishes it.  Remove the music soundtrack from a movie and the scene is empty.   The closest thing to a time machine I’ve ever experienced is hearing a long forgotten song.  Music becomes the soundtrack to our life.  So, audio is kind of important.  Quality audio is our commitment.

and with that… cue the crickets…