Sound system complaints

Times Reporter  

 

Town administration and councillors have received numerous complaints over the years about the sound system at the Civic Centre. At the regular council meeting on March 19 Councillor Bob Sobol brought the issue up for discussion.

“About a year ago or so previous council approved some monies to be spent on upgrading the sound system in the Civic Centre, I guess my question is what’s our status on that,” said Sobol. 

Chief Administrative Officer for the town Dwight Stanford said that approximately $5,000 had been budgeted for the Civic Centre, and $30,000 was budgeted for the Family Centre. The upgrades for the Family Centre have turned out well and there have been no complaints there. 

As for the Civic Centre: “Our IT person (Dan Wilchowy) had two professional sound system companies come out from Calgary, and evaluate the sound system. Both of them left and reported that the sound system is good in the Civic Centre,” said Stanford.

“We have all had lots of complaints about it, I sure have, but basically our IT person says it is the way people are operating and running the unit.” 

Stanford mentioned this past Remembrance Day when the sound quality was horrible. Wilchowy was going to fix it, but was unable to reach the controls that day. He did suggest that if there are major events and if he is informed ahead of time, he will go and adjust the sound system for the user group. 

“If the situation is that we need somebody to go down there and set this up, then there’s something wrong with our system,” said Sobol. 

Sobol said he has been in Strathmore for over 10 years and has never heard an adequate sound system coming out of that building.

Councillor Brad Walls said that the Lions Club had used the Civic Centre system until they had bought their own, and they had never had an issue. He suggested contacting Fred Rappel who had always gotten the system working great for the Lions. 

Councillor Pat Fule wanted to know if the system was being tested while the Civic Centre is empty, or in a full room, because the sound amplified could be different depending on what is in there. 

Council left off with the suggestion that maybe Rappel and Wilchowy should get together and write out instructions for future users.