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Originally Posted by KarenH
Seriously, anyone who couldn't hear the music at Arizona, Southern California, or Nationals should go to a doctor for a hearing test.
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I would actually tend to disagree, in the pits at least. In both Arizona and Socal (but Socal more) the music could not be heard to well in the pits. I would start bopping my head to a song and all my teammates would be like "what the heck are you doing" I'd be like "I like this song" they'd be like "I don't hear it, what is it?" On the field was better. At LA in the stands for viewing the field it was very difficult to see or hear what was going on. The screen was too small, faded, and out of focus. The anouncing wasn't loud enough or clear enough.
In 2002 and 2003 in LA, the whole place was so incredibly loud that you had to shout at the top of your lungs to the person next you and we all lost our voices. Soft is better that loud, but a good balance in between is the best.
One thing they should change is that music should be playing from the moment the first person steps in the door of the Arena. it makes the place get lively faster. Usually, it takes them up to an hour to get it going.
One thing is that Phoenix as always has absolutely fantastic pit announcing and queing. LA was significantly improved as well.
One small issue is that several inspectors at both events had inspected the previous year as well and still thought we were not allowed to have titanium because it was not on the "additional hardware and materials list". Once we convinced them that there was no such list and titanium was indeed allowed, everything was okay. Also, inpectors should check for compressors running in reverse, they didn't seemed at all concerned that ours never reached full pressure and was so hot you could fry an egg on it.
One big thing that has always bothered me is that they say no grinding, soldering, or open flame in the pits, only in the designated area. Well, at every single event I have ever been to, I've asked everyone I could find if they know where we are allowed to grind and they don't know. They ask someone else who doesn't know, and it goes on. All the people I've asked where this special area is, it seems like news to them that you can't do it in the pits. But as soon as you do grind in the pits, you have some FIRST person YELLING at you to stop and if you ever do it again they'll take your grinder away and not give it back. We need designated areas for these activites.
Additionally, I have seen students using (in a very unsafe manner I might add) circular saws in the pits. I don't think the size and power of a tool like that is really something that belongs in a 10x10 space with like 5 other people.
Last, FIRST please do whatever it takes to put a monitor or screen on the Pit side of the curtain. LA had zip, zero, nothing, nada. Even just a 15" computer monitor or 13" TV would be better than nothing. Had we known, we could have brought like 2 LCD projectors and screens from school.
The electrical in the LA pits was not very good. We were running a battery charger and a small air compressor, team 980 was running a soldering iron and a battery charger and we kept tripping the breaker. That made our dual compressor set up out of the question. We need better electrical in the pits so we can run multiple battery chargers and air compressors and such. It's really annoying trying to run an air ratchet with no air, a robot with uncharged batteries, or a cold soldering iron.
I know this isn't necessarily what was brought up at a forum (because I wasn't there) but it probably should have.