Re: Competition volume
 

I definitely recommend bringing some kind of hearing protection for kids. That way you're covered if you need it.

I've been bringing my ~18 month old daughter to competitions these past two seasons. We have her wear noise attenuating ear muffs (luckily she puts up with them and keeps them on).

Re: Competition volume
 

I brought this up in another thread but will repeat here because I think it is important. Let me start by saying that I already have hearing loss - I can't hear anything over 8KHz - and it makes life difficult. At St Louis after the final match I could wear ear plugs and not be able to have a conversation, or not wear them and be in pain. My problem with St Louis was that the team was far up in the stands and the noise levels were tolerable but when the DJ played certain music, the bass was extremely loud. It was painful With the earplugs. We got our team out of there before the final awards rather than expose them to dangerous levels. I was very angry that we were subjected to this. I've been to many rock concerts and I have never experienced this level of bass before. Everything was getting distorted due to the ears getting overloaded.

If FIRST cares about safety, if they care about setting good examples, they will fix this.

Re: Competition volume
 

I was our teams drive coach at the Greater Toronto Central regional and at the end of day 2 I Had almost lost my voice from yelling so loud so the drivers could hear me over the music.

Re: Competition volume
 

The championships in St Louis were a bit of an issue for me. The event was amazing, but the volume was a bit too loud.

I have an audio-processing issue on my left side, and even so the event volume was so loud during opening and closing ceremonies I could feel myself start to get ill. On the field itself, the volume wasn't too bad as the speakers were facing out, but I still strained my voice trying to communicate with the other teams in the alliance. This loss of voice seemed to be a common problem across a lot of our drive team, and even a few pit crew, members from both of our teams.

Something else to note is the bassline of the massive speakers inside the dome. When music was playing, particularly bass-heavy music, the speakers would cause a sort of 'thumping' in peoples chests. For students, mentors or guests with heart problems this may be a concern to keep mindful of.