Embarrassing

[ShockerFever]

No, not the product on the floor.

1/4 of the speakers are working and it's a total screw-up. Can't even get the basics in place before a freaking opening game.

Thanks for draining the atmosphere outta this one WSU.

[Dan]

We need to fire the flip switcher.

[shock]

Levels are awful too. They need to drop the mid down quite a bit.

[Rosewood]

1/4 of the students didn't bother to show up

[wsushox1]

Boy Shamet is going to be good.

[Kung Wu]

I do have one complaint. With the parking situation the way it is and the fact that our average season ticket holder age is up there, I can't for the life of me see why they don't run shuttle service for 1.5 hours prior thru 1.5 hours after the game, EVERY game. This needs to happen.

[SHOXAAC]

I do have one complaint. With the parking situation the way it is and the fact that our average season ticket holder age is up there, I can't for the life of me see why they don't run shuttle service for 1.5 hours prior thru 1.5 hours after the game, EVERY game. This needs to happen.

I'm grateful to you for looking out for my interests K-dub.

[xazshox]

Shuttle Service

WSU has shuttle service to the Hughs Complex during the week but not on the weekends. Counting the game on Sat, WSU has 5 weekend games with no shuttle service.

[SHOCKvalue]

(Cross-posting this from another unrelated thread, into this thread where the post fits better.)

(Bit of a rant below.)

I believe we are starting year 3 with the supposedly upgraded sound system and video board that cost a combined $1.8M, and each year it sure feels like we start completely over with the soundboard knowledge base and acumen. The learning curve, and lack of operational performance, was totally to be expected at the beginning of year one, but now at year three (and last year as well for that matter) to still be having issues at the beginning of the season is professionally unacceptable.

Are there not a set of parameters that have been developed by now to baseline the sound tech? It doesn't appear to this layman there are, but maybe I'm wrong. Seems to me, all variables such as crowd size, crowd noise, human sound absorption/reflection, CKA sound absorption/reflection, et cetera should have by now become established, known constants, what with something like 30-35 mostly redundant game experiences under the belt of the new system and its operators. The only true variable left is the person or persons running the sound, and apparently every year it is a new someone who starts from knowledge base zero, so the first third of the season (or whatever) is beta testing. Every year, like Groundhog Day or something.

It is truly annoying, and should not be taking place on a product with the budget and support the scale of WSU MBB. Generally, the sound improves as the season progresses, but I guess my point in its entirety here is that process should have only been required in year one. Someone is completely dropping the ball, and apparently there is no one in the athletic administration that seems to really care. WSU MBB has become a "business" of such scale in the community that they essentially have inelastic demand for the product, which sounds great until you realize that such a situation destroys any incentive to either improve or even maintain the product (not referring to the team or staff here). One can only assume that at some level of the WSU athletic department there is someone whose "give a damn is broken", and assumedly that person earns a salary or contract from WSU, ultimately paid for by ticket buyers/boosters.

[Aargh]

I'd like to make a wild guess. They have the sound board parameters documented (that's part of the guess). Somebody plugged in a mic'ed headphone set. Talked into that, saw that all the readings were where they were supposed to be, heard it over the headphones, and thought everything was good to go without an actual check of the speaker output.

By the time they went live with the sound, it was too late to troubleshoot the system.

[1972Shocker]

The sound system was horrible at the Shocker Volleyball match on Friday night. It was better on Saturday both at the Men's BB game and Women's VB game. Part of the problem Friday night was the PA announcer I think. Ted Woodard did the PA Saturday night. I really didn't pay much attention to it at the Men's BB game Saturday afternoon. It was better than it was Friday night. When has it ever been really good? I have pretty much resigned myself to not expecting very much from any sound system in Koch Arena.

Friday was pretty bad. Saturday seemed pretty normal to me (normal relative to what is my usually experience). I suppose that experience can vary quite a bit depending on where you are sitting in the arena. I sat in a different area in each of the 3 events this weekend.

[Aargh]

With what 1972 added, my earlier post makes no sense. Sounds like a problem with some cabling and there's a lot of that in fairly inaccessible locations between the sound system and the speaks.

[ShockerFever]

(Cross-posting this from another unrelated thread, into this thread where the post fits better.)

(Bit of a rant below.)

I believe we are starting year 3 with the supposedly upgraded sound system and video board that cost a combined $1.8M, and each year it sure feels like we start completely over with the soundboard knowledge base and acumen. The learning curve, and lack of operational performance, was totally to be expected at the beginning of year one, but now at year three (and last year as well for that matter) to still be having issues at the beginning of the season is professionally unacceptable.

Are there not a set of parameters that have been developed by now to baseline the sound tech? It doesn't appear to this layman there are, but maybe I'm wrong. Seems to me, all variables such as crowd size, crowd noise, human sound absorption/reflection, CKA sound absorption/reflection, et cetera should have by now become established, known constants, what with something like 30-35 mostly redundant game experiences under the belt of the new system and its operators. The only true variable left is the person or persons running the sound, and apparently every year it is a new someone who starts from knowledge base zero, so the first third of the season (or whatever) is beta testing. Every year, like Groundhog Day or something.

It is truly annoying, and should not be taking place on a product with the budget and support the scale of WSU MBB. Generally, the sound improves as the season progresses, but I guess my point in its entirety here is that process should have only been required in year one. Someone is completely dropping the ball, and apparently there is no one in the athletic administration that seems to really care. WSU MBB has become a "business" of such scale in the community that they essentially have inelastic demand for the product, which sounds great until you realize that such a situation destroys any incentive to either improve or even maintain the product (not referring to the team or staff here). One can only assume that at some level of the WSU athletic department there is someone whose "give a damn is broken", and assumedly that person earns a salary or contract from WSU, ultimately paid for by ticket buyers/boosters.

Perfectly stated and 100% agreed.

I think ultimately it falls on the very top, as it is consistently a problem every year.

[ShockerFever]

The sound system was horrible at the Shocker Volleyball match on Friday night. It was better on Saturday both at the Men's BB game and Women's VB game. Part of the problem Friday night was the PA announcer I think. Ted Woodard did the PA Saturday night. I really didn't pay much attention to it at the Men's BB game Saturday afternoon. It was better than it was Friday night. When has it ever been really good? I have pretty much resigned myself to not expecting very much from any sound system in Koch Arena.

Friday was pretty bad. Saturday seemed pretty normal to me (normal relative to what is my usually experience). I suppose that experience can vary quite a bit depending on where you are sitting in the arena. I sat in a different area in each of the 3 events this weekend.

I'm gonna venture a guess and say you were seating on the east side of the arena on Saturday. I made a point to look at the crowd and the east side was much more engaged than the west side. I'm on the northwest side and the speakers were not audible. There was nothing Don Hall stated throughout the entire game that was actually heard. Music was also not heard. Atmosphere was thus muted. Unbelievably annoying. So annoying in fact that I bullrushed into the new not-working wifi service and started a thread about it. I usually refrain from Shockernet during games.

[1972Shocker]

it is consistently a problem every year.

Which may indicate that it is simply an inherent downside with the acoustics of the venue. The upside is that the arena allows the Shocker fans to perhaps be much louder then they otherwise would be if the were in an arena such as IBA for example.