Competition volume

[Lil' Lavery]

I've been too far too many regionals and loud concerts for sound to typically bother me. The lone exception was the Chestnut Hill district this year. The sound levels were ridiculously high, and the speakers pointed right at the queue line and driver's stations. It would borderline impossible to communicate with anyone, and my ears were often physically hurting. I made multiple complaints to field staff at the venue and again in the post-event surveys. I hope that particular individual DJ is not allowed back.


That being said, my voice would prefer if I didn't have to converse over the music constantly at just about any event.

[ayeckley]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

my ears were often physically hurting.

That means that you have now incurred a small but irreversible amount of hearing loss. FIRST goes to a lot of effort to ensure safety at events, but really drops the ball on this issue. Not referring to you Sean, but unfortunately some folks think that ringing ears is a point of pride. I used to think so too, but as much as I enjoyed that Rush concert at the Richfield Coliseum back in '85 it was probably too loud. The thing that I don't understand is that nowadays rock concerts are very careful about not exceeding SPLs, but yet other events staffed by essentially the same type of production professionals aren't.

Buckeye was the first time I've had to put on my hearing protection at an FRC event in several years. Did not like.

[JamesCH95]

At Hartford this weekend the DJ/AV guy had the sound for buzzers/bells cranked to an insane level. I politely asked him to turn it down and he did. The rest of the weekend was much more pleasant than Friday night.

Has anyone else ever tried politely asking for the volume to be turned down?

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

At Hartford this weekend the DJ/AV guy had the sound for buzzers/bells cranked to an insane level. I politely asked him to turn it down and he did. The rest of the weekend was much more pleasant than Friday night.

Has anyone else ever tried politely asking for the volume to be turned down?

I tried at Chestnut Hill. The DJ nodded towards me, but no perceptible change occurred. Members of the event staff also spoke to him, with little to no success.

[Nemo]

Last year the sound at North Star was loud enough to hurt my ears in the stands. I brought that concern to a safety advisor, and she brought it to other volunteers. It got better after that, which was awesome.

This is something that could be addressed from the top. FIRST can direct event organizers to follow certain volume rules, then event coordinators make sure the sound people know those limits.

I'm sure some of the people who run the sound at these events are used to other events where lots of the people actually want 100 decibels or more. It might not occur to those people to moderate their volume unless somebody directs them to do so.

I fully agree that this is an important issue given that we spend 3 long days at a typical regional event.

[dougwilliams]

I'm curious what everyone on here is using to measure sound level? I'm going out an a limb and assume mobile phone apps. As someone who has spent a good deal of time designing and measuring sound levels on cell phones, I would caution that these are devices are not intended for any sort of measurement accuracy, and probably have little correlation to on actual absolute value.

That said, clearly there are people at each events that are uncomfortable; I've experienced some piercing high frequencies at the events as well, and agree that the venues and sound folks should be more cognizant of sound levels through the venue.

[jvriezen]

I'm wondering if part of the problem is that the show folks make the (reasonable) assumption that they only need to test sound levels on the fields, in the stands and maybe at the driver stations, not realizing that there are students and volunteers routinely at the outskirts of the field area for queuing and other things.

Hence, they put their speakers out there and blast the folks in the queuing areas, having not tested those areas to be within decibel limits. It would be better if speakers were elevated over the ear level of those working the event, rather than set on the floor as they often are.

[Fields]

I'm actually a little concerned now. Being my rookie year with FRC, I had invited my family to stop by and see what the team had accomplish. But having two kids under 5, I'm not so sure now.

[IronicDeadBird]

Originally Posted by Fields

I'm actually a little concerned now. Being my rookie year with FRC, I had invited my family to stop by and see what the team had accomplish. But having two kids under 5, I'm not so sure now.

At the Denver Regional there are definitely hot spots or areas where the crowd is rowdy and causes a ruckus. That being said the inverse is also true there were areas where you could watch the match where it was not as bad.
I will dare to say it and I know some people hate hearing this so come at me CD!
I would be behind the idea that there is reserved seating for people with needs that would fall under this and other category. These seats would provide a decent view of matches without the insane noise levels. Roughly speaking I would save this area for people with smaller children, guests (I don't want to bring a principal into a mosh pit), people with disabilities, and the billion or so wild tripods that seem to grow out of the ground to film the competition.

[Conor Ryan]

I see 3 sides to this story:

1) Regional/District Directors want to make sure people can hear the event commentary. If you have noise concerns at events, these are the people you need to track down. They got the power to fix it for good.

2) Due to the nature of the venues we have, speaker set up is frequently the last concern for an event committee. Usually they end up where the fit, generally in sub-par locations where volume is turned up to compensate for poor placement. Generally speakers are aimed for the audience seating, because people are everywhere at FRC events its a unique audio engineering challenge, and usually the sound guys don't have the ability to add more speakers, which would be the ideal solution.

3) Frequently the volume at the source of the speakers is way too loud and people are standing next to it all day. Queuers are the most frequent victims in my opinion. HQ has given minimal guidance to keep the sound at a safe level.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Conor Ryan

3) Frequently the volume at the source of the speakers is way too loud and people are standing next to it all day. Queuers are the most frequent victims in my opinion. HQ has given minimal guidance to keep the sound at a safe level.

Meh. They're only queuers.

[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.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by Fields

I'm actually a little concerned now. Being my rookie year with FRC, I had invited my family to stop by and see what the team had accomplish. But having two kids under 5, I'm not so sure now.

Check things out on Friday, and have them come on Saturday with or without ear protection as needed. And welcome to FIRST -- this weekend should be one of the best highlights of your FIRST season, regardless of how well you do on the field!

My inclination (without real hard evidence) is that the 10K Lakes Regioinal isn't as noisy as North Star, since the pits are segregated from the field. Since it is right across the street, running at the same time, they can visit pits and watch matches there as well-- though obviously they'll also want to see your team's pit and some of your matches!

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by Fields

I'm actually a little concerned now. Being my rookie year with FRC, I had invited my family to stop by and see what the team had accomplish. But having two kids under 5, I'm not so sure now.

If you have a problem with sound levels at North Star, find any key volunteer (like myself!) And we'll see what we can do to get it fixed. Even though I run out to the field and back all the time, the speakers are pointed such that I don't get the full blast in the areas I'm in... The people sitting at the desk behind the field don't know that it's too loud unless they're told!

[GreyingJay]

Originally Posted by Fields

I'm actually a little concerned now. Being my rookie year with FRC, I had invited my family to stop by and see what the team had accomplish. But having two kids under 5, I'm not so sure now.

I think it's very much dependent on the location. I had no troubles with sound levels at Toronto Central (held at the old Maple Leaf Gardens) and at North Bay (held at one of the basketball courts at Nipissing University). Hockey games are way louder. Though the crowd noise got pretty intense at the finals in North Bay!