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 Acoustics Isn't the Problem in New York Subways' P.A.SystemPublished: October 1, 1992

To the Editor:

Regarding your news article announcing $75 million to be spent

upgrading the subway public-address system (Sept. 13) by, among

other things, hiring an acoustics consulting firm: Have you already forgotten what

"acoustical consultants" did to Lincoln Center? More important, how was it decided to

misspend this huge amount of money on acoustics and rewiring?

The problem is not an acoustic one, unless the transit system plans to customize the

sound reverberation characteristics of each station. Addressing riders in the subway is

not different from many other industrial and military environments -- for example, the

engine room of an oceangoing vessel. This problem has long been solved with existing,

relatively cheap hardware utilizing good fidelity and volume, not by applying the science

of acoustics.

Grand Central Terminal has, from a public announcement point of view, one of the worst

acoustics problems in the city. It has never resorted to acoustic consultants to solve this.

In addition to having an adequate public address system, its managers simply train their

announcers. This is a substantial part of the subway's problem as well, to which you

allude.

But the problem runs much deeper than "rewiring." Why do you suppose so many ex-

Soviet cities are leaping to cellular communications? It is largely due to the cost of 

rewiring. There is no question that a wireless radio system is the method that should be

used in the New York subway, and not only for the considerably lesser expense.

 With a radio system, fire and police -- without waiting for a central switchboard, a

frequent source of subway emergency response problems today -- could patch into locally defined subsections for emergency announcements. An individual policeman could

instantly switch to his platform's or train's segment and give a message. An obstacle to

this method is that it is installed by technicians and not union electricians.

Moreover, any question of wiring needs to be considered in conjunction with upgrading

the subway's many other antique systems for train control. Compared with the subway 

systems I've used around the world, including those in East Europe, the Transit Authority 

has not even begun to pay attention to its low-tech problems, such as systematic signage

identifying all lines by color rather than local dialect, such as "BMT."

Let's spend a 75th of that money to hire a group of the world's best engineers and give

them authority to make a coherent 10-year technical plan, overriding the unions and

 bureaucracy and listening to the rider. It is transit headquarters where the public-address

system is needed! DOUGLAS HOPKINS New York, Sept. 13, 1992

Page 1 of 1Acoustics Isn't the Problem in New York Subways' P.A. System - New York Times

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