Sound System

[Uncle Rico]

My only complaint of the night - somehow the sound system has actually regressed from previous seasons.
Sounded like my dad's 1974 Dodge Dart 8-track blaring through 3 blown speakers. Good lord, I couldn't understand a word!

[wusphlash]

The sound system was a fail tonight, particularly the introductions. Loved the scoreboard but the sound needs fixed.

[AndShock]

Yep, something was definitely wrong. I hope someone just screwed up with a volume knob or something and it's not a permanent issue

[mickeylegal]

After the game was finished they were playing the intro again and trying to make adjustments. Towards the end it was much more understandable. Hopefully the next game will be better.

[mulligan]

Totally agree, the small JBL speakers installed up high were over modulated all game. During the introduction the speakers almost sounded like they were blown. I couldn't understand a word of the introduction. Most people I sat around said the same thing. One women was holding her ears during the introduction. When music was played or Don Hall spoke loudly they over modulated. Turn those pitchy speakers off.

[wusphlash]

Maybe the intros were Don Hall's fault.

[shock]

I think they try to push too much bass through with everything else. They need to have subs and regular speakers if they want to crank the bass. Otherwise, turn the bass down.

[ShockerFever]

I just cannot believe they don't go through a dry run with these things and test out everything before an actual game occurring in front of 10,500 people. Maybe they don't have time for it or it's not worth their time? I dunno. Just kinda sad and a waste of what sounds like pretty expensive, new equipment.

I guess we'll just have to chalk it up as another exhibition effort for the gameday production team. But I agree though. Don Hall might as well have been mute because you weren't hearing him during intros... which might not exactly be a bad thing..

[pogo]

This is just a question because I really don't know. Would it impact the settings of the sound system when the arena is full and semi noisy vs an empty arena? Do people/bodies absorb and distort sound in an environment like an arena? Thanks, I will listen off the air.

[Shocktoberfest]

The problem is that when doing a dry run they likely underestimate the volume necessary to power through the crowd noise. It sounded like the knob guy was panicked and turned it up to 11. There was so much distortion that my buddy and I just looked at each other in amazement. I was shocked that we couldn't do better. The video was good. Sound, awful.

[Shocktoberfest]

And Don had his headset on backwards with the mic on the back of his head. That was awful too. Lot's of room for improvement.

[wufan]

This is just a question because I really don't know. Would it impact the settings of the sound system when the arena is full and semi noisy vs an empty arena? Do people/bodies absorb and distort sound in an environment like an arena? Thanks, I will listen off the air.

Good possibility. Different materials impact a small area like a home theater or studio, so I would imagine that putting 10000 into an arena would have a similar effect.

[ShockBand]

Sound system definitely was having issues last night, but since I ran sound for most men's and women's games during the 89-90 and 90-91 seasons, I can assure you the crowd noise affects things. The roar of the crowd puts pressure back against the sound coming out of the speakers, and I remember having to push the mains when the crowd got going. My colleague that trained me said at the NCAA game against Iowa he was able to push the mains to the max and got no feedback due to the pressure from the crowd noise. On that old system, feedback would kick in around the 7 mark, if I recall correctly. While yes, they absolutely need to get the problems figured out, sound in arenas is always challenging. But not impossible.

Me and @HockeyShock: had some observations for improvement about the scoreboard, namely the score and stat panel. I think it would help if the score and game time were in yellow so the eyes can spot it faster when glancing up, and it would be nice if the stat panels would flash a few times when changing a player's score or foul numbers. HockeyShock thought the gridlines separating the stat rows and columns was too thick, and made it look excessively busy.

[pogo]

If they can change the score and stat panel to something other than black on grey/gray that would be great. It does take some time to focus the way it is now. I thought it was just me.

[SHOCKvalue]

Totally agree, the small JBL speakers installed up high were over modulated all game. During the introduction the speakers almost sounded like they were blown. I couldn't understand a word of the introduction. Most people I sat around said the same thing. One women was holding her ears during the introduction. When music was played or Don Hall spoke loudly they over modulated. Turn those pitchy speakers off.

The little speakers on the rear of the support beams up high were totally overblown. I assumed it probably sounded better lower in the bowl, but it appears I was wrong.

Sound is a fickle thing. I had heard the new system a couple of times prior to last night (open house and madness) and it sounded pretty darn sweet on those occasions - worlds better than the old system. Crazy the impact that 10,506 screaming, warm bodies have on the sound in Koch.

I think they try to push too much bass through with everything else. They need to have subs and regular speakers if they want to crank the bass. Otherwise, turn the bass down.

The new system does in fact have dedicated subs. I couldn't point them out to you in the new ceiling array specifically, but I was told such by an AD tour director during the open house a couple of weeks ago.

Me and @HockeyShock: had some observations for improvement about the scoreboard, namely the score and stat panel. I think it would help if the score and game time were in yellow so the eyes can spot it faster when glancing up, and it would be nice if the stat panels would flash a few times when changing a player's score or foul numbers. HockeyShock thought the gridlines separating the stat rows and columns was too thick, and made it look excessively busy.

Wholeheartedly agree. I'm no graphic designer, but I found the large game stats graphic to look kind of amateurish.