Sound issues inside Council Chambers solved with mics

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Listeners who thought the Jan. 19 Township Council meeting seemed easier to hear were not mistaken. After more than a year of complaints from residents upset about the sound quality inside Council Chambers, the township added two microphones to the speaker’s podium and council dais last month.

Township Chief Financial Officer John Gross confirmed to the West Orange Chronicle that the two new microphones were purchased from Audio Visual Associates for approximately $624 prior to the Jan. 19 meeting in an effort to improve the sound clarity for audience members, who have expressed frustration in the past about not being able to understand exactly what speakers are saying due to acoustic and feedback problems. Gross also said that having additional microphones eliminates the need for sharing them, an ongoing problem since council members would sometimes be too far away from the microphones, adding to the audio issues.

And while the township previously decided against purchasing new wireless microphones out of fear that they would interfere with the sound transmission of video recordings, Gross said it does not expect that the new microphones will cause such a problem.

Overall, the CFO said he believes the new microphones have improved the sound quality inside the Council Chambers. As a result, the new sound system residents have called for — and that the township at one point was considering — will likely not be added any time soon.

“At this point, there are no additional improvements anticipated,” Gross said in a Jan. 29 email. “We feel that the (current) sound system is performing well.”

Clare Silvestri, a resident who has been particularly vocal about the need for sound-quality improvements, said the two new microphones will make a difference. Though she wishes Gross had made the improvements a higher priority after she first raised the issue in August 2014, she told the Chronicle she was happy the microphones were added and was impressed by their effectiveness during the Jan. 19 meeting.

“I thought they made a tremendous improvement in the overall sound quality in the room,” Silvestri, whose husband is Councilman Joe Krakoviak, said in a Feb. 1 email. “Sitting in the last row of the chambers for the meeting, I had no trouble hearing the public speakers and council members and staff, who now appear to each have his or her own mic.”

Silvestri is also far from disappointed about not getting a new sound system. In fact, she said she was thankful that the township has found a way to resolve the problem without having to implement a more elaborate and costly solution.

Silvestri said she is just glad that residents will now be able to hear clearly everything that goes on inside the chambers, which she said is necessary for anyone who wishes to follow local government.

“The primary reason residents come to council, planning board or zoning board meetings is to get information on what our local government is doing or not doing,” Silvestri said. “An up-to-date, fully functioning sound system is a vital element of our municipal public meetings.”