Dealing with echo while giving a speech.

[babtrumpet]

I am looking for help with our High School Graduation speeches.

I wish I were asking advice about equipment but, unfortunately while our district is normally very supportive of our events, they have decided that we won't be spending any money or making any accommodations to solve the problem.

We normally have graduation in our auditorium, but thanks to the pandemic, we will be moving the ceremony to our stadium. The decision has been made to have the stage setup in the end zone, have the graduates sit on the field and have visitors sit in the bleachers on both sides of the field. I have already asked that we move to the 50 yard line to help with the echo, but that was shot down. To give you an idea of the sound system arrangement (pictures included), we have 6 speakers placed on the home side of the field. Two of the speakers face side to side along the length of the home seats (made of brick from the 1940's). Two are front fill from the press box to the home seats, and two of these speakers are facing across the field to provide sound on the field and in the away team bleachers, so they will need to remain active for the event. To add more hard surfaces to the fun, the 3 story school building is approximately 25 yards behind the away bleachers.
The latency experienced from the speaking location is significant. To "solve" this latency issue it was decided that the 3 students and administrators that will give speeches should just wear ear plugs.

We won't have a chance for them to practice until the day before graduation. I am looking for any suggestions to help, that don't require buying any significant equipment. I am also open to any speaking advice that I could give to the students to help them ignore the echo.

Thanks

p.s. - Thanks to all of you, for all the knowledge you have provided me over many years of reading the posts!

 

[FMEng]

What portable sound equipment do you have at your disposal?

 

[DrewE]

My gut feeling is that using earplugs will cause as many problems as it will solve. Not hearing the echo also means not hearing the audience reaction (well), and not hearing ambient noise makes it a lot harder to modulate one's own speech volume. I'd guess most would speak more quietly than desirable, and you may have difficulty picking up their voice in the microphone well--doubly so if they have less than stellar microphone technique.

Maybe you could set up a studio simulator environment with a microphone, an effects processor, and a monitor speaker to give some idea of what speaking with a noticeable delayed echo is like, and have the speakers practice there a bit. I'm not suggesting trying for a perfect recreation of the actual stadium's acoustics, just something to give a bit of a head's-up as to what they'll be up against and let them start to get used to ignoring the echoes.

 

[babtrumpet]

What portable sound equipment do you have at your disposal?

I will be using a Yamaha MGP32X on the field and running a single feed to the mains. We will use 2 Earthworks gooseneck mics for the two lecterns. I have access to at least 4 QSC K12.2's as well as 4, K8.2's.

 

[babtrumpet]

My gut feeling is that using earplugs will cause as many problems as it will solve. Not hearing the echo also means not hearing the audience reaction (well), and not hearing ambient noise makes it a lot harder to modulate one's own speech volume. I'd guess most would speak more quietly than desirable, and you may have difficulty picking up their voice in the microphone well--doubly so if they have less than stellar microphone technique.

Maybe you could set up a studio simulator environment with a microphone, an effects processor, and a monitor speaker to give some idea of what speaking with a noticeable delayed echo is like, and have the speakers practice there a bit. I'm not suggesting trying for a perfect recreation of the actual stadium's acoustics, just something to give a bit of a head's-up as to what they'll be up against and let them start to get used to ignoring the echoes.

Thank you for the advice, I will pass along the earplug suggestion and I will get started on the simulator.

 

[Malabaristo]

I haven't actually tried this, but if you're setting up a simulation anyway... I wonder if having a monitor speaker near the lectern(s) will help them better hear themselves and ignore the echo? It depends on the relative loudness of the sources, and also what you can get away with in terms of feedback. Headphones/earbuds are maybe an alternative that reduces the feedback issues at the expense of more per-person complexity. But yeah, just play with the idea of providing a closer/louder sound with zero delay to focus on instead of all the echoes.

The other approach is where I think FMEng was leading with their question: use the powered speakers that you have, arrange them in a more sensible fashion, and ignore the stadium system entirely.

 

[Calc]

Did you steal our commencement setup?

In my experience the delay isn't hard to work past, but they 100% need to be aware of it and hear it before the ceremony. I stressed to our speakers that they needed to come out and hear it, and they all ignored me except for our President. After he heard it, all the Deans were suddenly asking for a run-though the next day.

For our indoor setup we normally do exactly what the others are suggesting- set up stage wedges to provide a louder, cleaner sound. I didn't even try that here- ~200ms is beyond what you'll be able to trick the brain into not hearing.

 

[TimMc]

I haven't actually tried this, but if you're setting up a simulation anyway... I wonder if having a monitor speaker near the lectern(s) will help them better hear themselves and ignore the echo? It depends on the relative loudness of the sources, and also what you can get away with in terms of feedback. Headphones/earbuds are maybe an alternative that reduces the feedback issues at the expense of more per-person complexity. But yeah, just play with the idea of providing a closer/louder sound with zero delay to focus on instead of all the echoes.

The other approach is where I think FMEng was leading with their question: use the powered speakers that you have, arrange them in a more sensible fashion, and ignore the stadium system entirely.

It takes a significant amount of acoustic energy in foldback to "ignore" the stadium system. Our gray "wet-ware" processor will sense that delayed signal and try to pay attention to it. Also the foldback SPL levels needed to even begin to help will prove very challenging in a typical "speaking at a lectern" use.

Here is a different take: if you had a budget, I'd spec an in-ear monitoring system with receivers for each presenter. In broadcast this would be called "IFB". For you, though... we call it "ADA compliance for assisted listening." If you have a ListenTech or Williams or other RF system in your auditorium, see if you can temporarily move it to the stadium. Give receivers to the presenters, drive the transmitter from a separate mix (lectern mics, choir/band/music, and a mic or 2 aimed at the audience/graduates for "ambience"). Have other receivers available for guests who request them and you'll have solved 2 problems. Note the presenters may want to use earbuds that fit snugly to achieve acoustic isolation, and hence using ambience mics so they can hear and respond to the audience.

 

[MNicolai]

Ear plugs won't do jack.

At a minimum you need monitor wedges on stage for the presenters. They need to practice in advance so they are familiar with what it will be like. It takes a bit of skill to put your eardrum blinders on and ignore the main system but if in doubt, look down your prepared speech, project your voice, and just keep reading. Do not concentrate on how you sound.

If you have students as musical guests such as for a national anthem, they should practice in advance on the field as well. You don't want them biffing it the first time they realize they will be 100-200 ms ahead of the main system.

Also be prepared with windscreens for any microphones.

If you have a ListenTech or Williams or other RF system in your auditorium, see if you can temporarily move it to the stadium.

Assistive listening systems as IEM's won't be very helpful here. You need isolation and most assistive listening earphones/headphones/etc have very little isolation. You'll still hear everything from the main system and the ALS system won't have enough horsepower, isolation, and clarity to help the presenters out.

 

[TimMc]

Assistive listening systems as IEM's won't be very helpful here. You need isolation and most assistive listening earphones/headphones/etc have very little isolation. You'll still hear everything from the main system and the ALS system won't have enough horsepower, isolation, and clarity to help the presenters out.

That's why I also mentioned that different ear buds would be needed. The ones that come with the receiver packs are designed for... repeated use over isolation.

edit ps - I suggested the assistance systems because 1) it's likely the school system already owns them; 2) if #1 is false, for the school administration to rent the needed system for ADA compliance is a pretty easy argument to make and 3) with better sealing ear buds, this goes a long way to remediating the presenter echo issues. Everyone wins.

 

[macsound]

If you're also in the role of coaching the talent, remind them to not alter the rate they speak, only alter the rate they pause between statements.

I usually tell people that they're going to have the inclination to slow down but don't. But DO take a longer than usual pause at the end of paragraphs because you want the feeling of scilence to actually happen and because there's that 200ms delay, they need to pause for longer than they think in order for the audience to truly hear the power of the pause. (is that a book title?)

Another way you can test is using 2 cell phones and make sure wifi calling and VoLTE is turned off to maximize latency. Wear the headphones of the receiving phone.

 

[FMEng]

Chances are that the district doesn't have any idea what the problems caused by that layout and expansive seating are, or they got quotes from some sound companies and couldn't comprehend why the bids were so high. Everyone will learn from the experience.

 

[David Ashton]

Preachers in English cathedrals use a technique of using short sentences then a long pause to overcome the echo, it sounds weird but has been proven over centuries

 

[Malabaristo]

Everyone will learn from the experience.

You're more optimistic than I am...

 

[babtrumpet]

Thank you all for your guidance. I have created a simulator in our auditorium using our reverb equipment. This has given me 200ms of delay to simulate the stadium. I also forwarded the speaking tips to our speech coach. We have one week until graduation so hopefully that will be enough time for the students to build confidence in presenting.

Thanks,

 

[Ben Stiegler]

Wait ... I can't believe none of you (yet) suggested the Milli Vanilli / Times Square NYE approach - just lip sync it. The distances are so great that I doubt the attendees will know / see the facial details of the speaking humans. Put a monitor in front of the lectern(s) for non-delayed playback of your pre-recorded speeches and presentations. Get the kids in the auditorium or studio and get those tracks down. The playback operator will need a bit of finesse to pause things in case of thunderous applause, but you'll likely know when that is coming. Then, except for any emergencies, forget entirely about having live mics open on the scene, and just run with playback.