Competition volume

[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.

[MikeE]

Originally Posted by 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.

Quoted for truth.
I also have experience measuring audio capture characteristics of cellphones and can confirm wide variations often within a single device model.

I'm usually at field side during an event and always use hearing protection once matches are underway.

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

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.

It makes no sense to not do what your customers are asking for. Time to pursue the steps outlined by jvriezen.

[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

It makes no sense to not do what your customers are asking for. Time to pursue the steps outlined by jvriezen.

To argue the other side for a moment, just because ONE person thinks it is too loud, doesn't mean it always should be turned down as someone may be hyper-sensitive and it makes more sense to use earplugs for those few. My thoughts apply to legitimate complaints about volume level, which can be objectively measured with the sound tech's meter (or something better than a cell phone app!) at the locations where people need to hang out.

Also, I hope the standard pre-event preparation includes informing the show crew all the places where participants (students/volunteers) will be located and the need for sound levels to be acceptable. In some cases, teams will be in queuing for a long time if there are field problems and/or a match needs to be replayed -- while the DJ is playing audience participation tunes.

[Sunshine]

C.O.R.E. 2062 has offered earplugs to anyone visiting our pit. We have attempted to contact FIRST offering to put up earplug dispensers at championship. Haven't heard back, but in all honesty I'm not sure if the students knew how to exactly contact the correct person.

At the very least, stop by our pit to get earplugs and check the db readings we take throughout the day.

[XaulZan11]

The loudest I've experienced were at the Championship. It seems that if you sit at the wrong seats in the stands, the speakers are blasting directly at you. I'm really curious to see how attempt to deal with the extra fields on the dome. I hope they don't just turn up the volumn more because people can hear the other fields.

[Metonym]

FIRST definitely sees this issue and is looking at what could fix it, but it is really up to the Regional's EM and VC to keep the volume at a reasonable level. PNW recieves many complaints about the sounds, ranging from what is being played to how loud it is. During week 2, the TD and I spent a bit of time finding the optimal loudness of the speakers from the closest and furthest points in the stands. We measured 80-85 dBa, based on the size of the venue, to be the optimal level. We then tested what would happen if we lowered the volume to like 70. In short, don't do it. It kills the atmosphere of the event. Even songs like YMCA could only revive the crowd for so long.

[Whippet]

I would like to thank the sound crew at Hub City this year for keeping it at a reasonable level. It wasn't hard to discuss strategy in the queue, and talking to volunteers was fully possible as well. In addition, this was the first time I have ever been able to hear the robot over the music through the alliance wall, and that helped us diagnose an issue with our drivetrain during a match. The crowd seemed as though they weren't fazed by the volume being lower than previous years.

[Clayton Summerall]

Bayou had some baddddddd bass, it was way to much.

[cbale2000]

At the Great Lakes Bay Region District this year, several teams from an area of the stands complained about high sound levels due to a speaker that was positioned directly behind them on the second floor walkway. We (the A/V crew at the event) could only turn the volume down slightly, as lowering it further would create issues for spectators in other areas of the gym.

We couldn't relocate the speaker because of limited cable length, and since the speakers were daisy chained, removing it would cut off every speaker past it in the chain too. Eventually we alleviated the issue by rotating the speaker about 90 degrees (pointing it down the 2nd floor walkway rather than out over the edge of it), but it served as a good reminder to us for future events to always have someone checking where and how the guy that drops off the sound equipment places and hooks things up.

[themccannman]

I'm glad someone finally brought this up, it's ****ing ridiculous and dangerous, I'm seriously pissed off that anyone seems to think that that level of volume is acceptable, let alone for 9 hours a day at an event that is 3 days long. This is completely absurd, I'm definitely taking this up with whoever is managing the sound board at SVR because I can almost guarantee they will (like always) being playing music at a dangerous volume and I'd like to not go deaf before I graduate from college. My ears should be physically in pain when I go down to the queuing area. smh