[Pretzel]

One thing that I should mention is that many of the events are probably louder than they need to be without knowing it due to the speaker and DJ placement. If the person with control over the volume is behind the speakers, he/she may be tuning it to how he/she likes it from his/her position. It could start the day fine, but it may get louder gradually as the crowd gets louder and the DJ turns up the volume to compensate so he/she can still hear it about as well as he/she did in the morning.

Either way, just telling people to put on hearing protection is a less than optimal solution. I tried it in semifinals match 4 at the Colorado regional and was unable to hear my coach or co-driver accurately, especially if I was saying something at the same time (since your own voice feels amplified when you wear earplugs or earmuffs). Communication becomes hampered and that could lead to other safety concerns, especially if drivers pulling robot carts can't hear instructions from field crew members because of the earplugs.