I feel like the music playing at champs (or at least on Roebling) is unnecessarily loud.
It’s very difficult to communicate in the stands, and I see tons of people pulling their masks down to talk to people directly next to them as a result.
Is it possible to lower the volume of the music so people don’t have to shout or pull masks down to communicate?
I noticed that on the stream. Definitely had to turn down the volume for Roebling.
Young man here, definitely too loud…
I’ve been on team Marshall about music at events since I graduated. As a student it was fun. Now it just hurts my ears. Covid makes it so much worse because no one can hear me between my mask and the music. The music has also been really weird this event imo.
The music has been too loud at FIRST events for as long as I can remember participating at FIRST events. People have been complaining about it just as long.
I can’t imagine HQ isn’t aware of the problem.
We had the same problem at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional last month, it was way worse there though. At the Greater Pittsburgh Regional, a few people on our team measured the sound level at a few places in the stands and it was over 115 decibels pretty much the entire time.
I think it’s because they don’t lower the volume while the ga or the mc are speaking. But it is also way to loud to begin with. I had to leave the stands to have a genuine discussion with someone. I think roebling is the worst off though.
I had a set of over-ear ear protection I’d gotten for dealing with the tilesaw at work for a while still in my backpack. It let me listen to the music at a comfortable level at DCMP. It was still far too loud for most of the event. Can’t imagine Champs…
As someone with ADHD and as a result, already struggles with loud sounds, i can certainly attest that the music played at FIRST events is way too loud. Not is it only just impossible to talk to people, but for people like me who are hypersensitive to loud sounds, it also makes it very hard to just function without having to step into the quite room every 5 minutes.
At San Francisco Regional - we tracked the noise level with people who had Apple watches.
It was 85-90db most of the time. We asked the safety crew to have them turn it down - based on the data measurements at various locations… After that, most of the time it was around 75-77.
I do not go to a competition with some form of hearing protection. These are my favorite:
Etymotic Research ER20… https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G0PPTAK?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share
Oh, crud. I’ll bring my earplugs. Ugh.
This has been a problem for over 20 years. Every year we have a thread about it and every year nothing is done. What’s it going to take?
At our second Regional I used my Organizing Committee Of A Different Regional Privilege to talk directly to Showready and got a full day of at least 5dB improvement out of it, but then it was back to normal the next morning and I was too tired to do anything more than shove some earplugs in and keep yelling to be heard. I swear all the yelling affects the emotional tenor of the events…
Not just the music, the end of match buzzers leave my ears ringing. It’s WAY too loud.
Yeah, I felt the music was okay but the buzzers and GA were just deafening. I normally get headaches at events but they set in pretty quick this weekend.
I would say that on Turing the volume is fine, but maybe that’s just because I wasn’t sitting in front of the speakers.
Michigan championship, however… Left my ears ringing. A significant portion of the people in the stands were wearing earplugs. And some of the announcers when talking hit all the sharp notes which makes it much worse.
Is it louder today? I’m in my hotel with a migraine, and I can hear the music from here. Confirmed to be the same music by the stream. I know my hotel is connected to the convention center and my ears are extra sensitive when I’m having a migraine, but this feels ridiculous.
Class-action lawsuit?