Noise Pollution

[robthelightman]

I do sound and lighting at my school, every year we have sports day. we have one problem, old people living over the road complain when we whack them tunes on! Is there any way we could get round this?

 

perhaps pushing notices through their doors?

 

Please Help!

[Andrew C]

A few ideas:

 

a) Negotiate BEFORE the event

b) Invite them to participate

c) Ensure the speakers face away from their houses and are as directional as possible, but beware of reflection of hard surfaces, like the school walls. Get the speakers high, and pointing down, if you can.

d) Turn it down

e) Mix in some tunes early on that they will find less objectionable than "Kickin' D&B"

 

Bear in mind that noise pollution is a statuary nuisance, and the local authority could be called in, and could confiscate your kit.

[robthelightman]

Cheers Andrew!

[Yorkie]

Obviously, keep the bass down, due to its wavelength it travels further. Treble is probably less of a problem, if it's exclusively older people, they can't hear treble as well generally.

[Bobbsy]

All of Andrew C's suggestions are very good...but at the risk of sounding like the boring old git I am....

 

...pay special attention to point "d".

 

Remember, this is a sports day, not Reading Festival, and even the people attending would probably prefer to be able to hear themselves think, the coaches would want to talk to their athletes, etc. etc.

 

Bob

[StevieR]

And.....

 

Another way to bring the overall level down while still allowing everyone to hear is to use more loudspeakers! If you are only using a couple of cabinets at one end of the field then they are going to have to be cranked somewhat to allow people to hear at the other. More and smaller cabs is a possible option.

 

S.

[mac.calder]

Well improving your grammer may help...

 

On a more serious note: I would first look into getting speakers better specced (ie narrower spread), then adjusting your volume to a reasonable level.

 

More speakers at a lower level is certainly a good way to go - Especially with outdoor events.

[paulears]

what is the system for?

 

Announcements?

Background Music?

Featured Music?

 

If the need is for announcements, then full range isn't needed, and actually makes the system worse. Horn loudpeakers are effecient, and using 100V line distribution can be dotted arround where they are really needed. This lets you keep the noise away from the people nearby.

 

You can play background music through them too, but it is really that - background.

 

If you want to play full range music, loudly, then it is going to need a fair bit of power, and this will certainly annoy folks around. For every person who likes a particular track, there will be at least 10 who hate it! Speech through systems like this is deafening close up, but amazingly diffcult to understand, just a small distance away. With low spec kit there is no practical (as in cheap) system that allows 'steering'. Big boys use line arrays to focus the sound where it is wanted, but this isn't practical with MI kit.

 

 

As has been said, lots of speakers, at a low level are what is needed if you need a little control over where it goes.

[robloxley]

Well improving your grammer may help...

If you're going to be picky, at least get your spelling right :)

[Mr.Si]

I'm sure you already know it, but if you don't... I think you'll find that it was a deliberate error. But hey, that's