Suggestion: Avoid audio system upgrade during stake conference

For possible benefit to other stakes in the future, I would like to raise a suggestion that it would be helpful if stake center audio system upgrades could be scheduled so they don't happen during stake conference.

It was announced a few weeks ago that the stake center audio system would be upgraded so that the process would straddle stake conference. Stake conference was held with the new system only rough-tuned by the contractor, because the fine-tuning by the consultant was not yet done. One of the mike channels had apparently not been adjusted, and that mike was way too weak during the leadership meeting. If one of the DSP units had been defective (which I'm told happens fairly often and I have seen in a previous stake), the conference would have been seriously impacted.

If there is nobody from the relevant department who reads this forum, does anyone here know a way to get this suggestion to that department's suggestion box?

I'd think that would be the FM group. And it would probably fall to the Stake President to ask them to re-schedule.

RussellHltn wrote:I'd think that would be the FM group. And it would probably fall to the Stake President to ask them to re-schedule.

The local FM group does have some involvement in arranging for an audio system upgrade. However, it would appear there's a level above the local FM group that coordinates scheduling with the contractors and consultants. It is with someone in that organization that I hope to plant the suggestion.

In this case, I'm told the request was made to re-schedule, and the stake folks thought the upgrade would be delayed until after stake conference. They were surprised to arrive and find the operation underway.

rmrichesjr wrote:The local FM group does have some involvement in arranging for an audio system upgrade. However, it would appear there's a level above the local FM group that coordinates scheduling with the contractors and consultants. It is with someone in that organization that I hope to plant the suggestion.

Having been a contractor working on LDS sound systems, I can say that almost 99% of the scheduling is handled by the individual FM group responsible for the building. Most FM’s when scheduling any large scale project will first confirm with the stake president the schedule, but if in doubt make sure your FM manger know what’s going on in the building, as you, he, and the contractor will all be happier if there are no major events coming up.

I can pass this on to the group in charge of the audio and suggest they mention this to the FM group.

The DSPs shouldn't be defective very often, although sometimes there are software bugs with new releases. I would think they are testing them thoroughly before spec'ing a new version. But they should certainly schedule the install and the tuning in the same week.

Of three or four building audio system upgrades I have been acquainted with since 2004, one had a defective DSP that had to be replaced. It caused pretty serious distortion for the two or three weeks between installation by the contractor and fine-tuning by the consultant. The contractor said in 2004 that the DSPs had significant reliability issues and defective units were not very rare.

I agree that it would be good if the time between installation and fine tuning were a week or less, rather than the two or three weeks I have seen.