The influence of audience participatory noise on sound levels at live events.

The 'audience verbal appreciation' for a worldwide known artist can raise the decibel levels during a show. This can lead to limit violations if there is a decibel limit for the show. In this publication the effect of a yelling audience, known by almost all sound engineers, will be described. The research was done at 18 large live shows in Belgium and the Netherlands in the years 2015..2019. The measurement setup was a single channel measurement with a class 1 sound level meter at FOH. The data was stored as LAeq,1sec and LCeq,1seq and also the 1/3 octave band information per second was logged. The outcome gives more information about the frequencies of yelling, but more important the effect on the decibel level of the total show. Besides measuring at FOH (front-of-house) position, two alternative measurement methods are discussed (2-channel setup and multiple measurement points in the hall).