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South Africa 140 db loudspeakers Megatron
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15 dB whisper softly
60 dB common dialogue
70 dB urban roads
Train whistle 120 dB
Drill 130 dB sound
Jet taking off 140 db
Chinese Professional Baseball League treble steam whistles 150 db
After only three days of World Cup games, international players in South Africa were already complaining about the drone of the vuvuzela.
One Person’s Noise is Another’s Inspirational Tune; Leave My Vuvuzela Alone!!!
It appears the only noise that can drown out the buzzing VUVUZELAS at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa are the calls from some broadcasters, players, and coaches to ban the ubiquitous plastic horns. Ideally, with a sound level of 127 decibels – louder than a drum or even a referee’s whistle at 122 decibels – might not be a pleasant experience for some. However, this is South Africa, and there is a lot different about this World Cup in case you have not noticed. Like most people, I do miss the singing, cat-calls, chants and drumming which usually creates the fanfare at football matches. That was the experience and atmosphere at other World Cups in the past.
South Africa 140 db loudspeakers Megatron pack
South Africa midfielder Pienaar responsible for the important task of lost transmission, but also to maintain unbeaten team warm-up hero. Agence France-Presse
2010 World Cup countdown 9 days, the landlord in the warm-up matches in South Africa yesterday to 5 to 0 win over Guatemala, warm-up 2 wins and 1 and remain unbeaten the body, in addition to outstanding performance of players, fans landlords interference play, each holding a can issue more than 140 db long horn "Vuvuzela" to help out, other teams has become a nightmare.
Warm-up match undefeated
Vuvuzela mystery weapon Africa Tradition trombone, Zulu means "making noise", is said to be a collection of ancient times used by African tribes for. In fact, the last Confederations Cup, European and American players and coaches, on the right "Vuvuzela" very offensive, Spain midfielder Alonso (Xabi Alonso) said: "This thing is not sent to the voice-comfort，Internationa lFA ban is long overdue. "
This situation, even the World Cup organizing committee chief executive Michael Jordan (Danny Jordaan) is also worried: "Our position stands to be taken into account, if the court issued an emergency evacuation warning, fans can hear, it is clear that if the full field fans 』『 Vuvuzela struggling blowing, warnings would be useless. "but FIFA did not intend to prohibit the Secretary-General Walker (Jerome Valcke) also jokingly said:" The fans will be ready ear to the admission. "
Total income almost equal to 100 000 000 000
South Africa World Cup this year, in addition to the totalBonus420 million U.S. dollars (about 13.4 billion NT) Innovation-high, the total income including the amount of broadcast rights and sponsorship, also speaking three billion U.S. dollars (about 96.3 billion NT), not including ticket revenue, but also wrote the previous highest World Cup sky-high price.
According to the World Cup rules of FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee South Africa does not need to pay for the stadium construction, but must be deducted from the fare box revenue, a certain percentage of the amount of feedback to the stadium where the city or the golf course owner. In addition to television revenue, the International Football Association also co-sponsors, and 6 large, it is learned that the current threshold is 65 million U.S. dollars sponsorship (about 20 billion NT dollars), is no wonder that South Africa will purse.
South Africa wanted to have a landlord that off, the fans have to first overcome the big horn. Agence France-Presse
Soccer fans, are those vuvuzelas driving you to drink (or at least running for earmuffs)? There's not much you can do to drown out the bumblebee-sounding plastic horns if you're in the stands at one of South Africa's World Cup soccer venues. As one ABC News writer put it, vuvuzelas are to soccer (in South Africa) what hot dogs are to baseball (in this country).
The South African fan's instrument of choice -- the so-called vuvuzela -- is causing debate and consternation among organizers, players and audiences alike.
But you might wonder, as I did, if ESPN which is broadcasting the World Cup in HD and 3D to US viewers, can apply some technical wizardly to suppress the noise?
Though the feed comes from international soccer's governing body FIFA, ESPN spokesperson Colleen Lynch responded: "We do mix the audio for World Cup matches, just like we do for other events ESPN covers (NASCAR races, football games, etc). Our goal is to find the right balance of natural sound with the calls of our commentators. We do put a premium on the natural sound because it helps tell the story of the event for viewers at home. We have not asked FIFA to ban vuvuzelas. We believe they are part of the experience and the flavor of soccer in South Africa.
The vuvuzela is a plastic trumpet, up to a meter in length, that costs around 20 rand and makes a noise that has been described as everything from a giant swarm of bees to an elephant in distress to a terrific, tuneless din and "stadium tinnitus."
World from Berlin: Vuvuzela a 'Global Synonym for Mood Killer'
The World from Berlin
Vuvuzela a 'Global Synonym for Mood Killer'
The plastic 'vuvuzela' trumpets so popular with South African football fans at the World Cup are causing considerable debate abroad. Players, officials and viewers have been critical and, after only three days, some are calling for a ban. German commentators say the debate is a sign of deeper cultural issues at play.
One of the biggest controversies of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa so far focuses on the South African fans' cheerleading instrument of choice -- the vuvuzela. The vuvuzela is a plastic trumpet, around a meter (about three feet) in length, that costs 20 South African rand (€2.10, $2.50) and makes a noise that has been described as everything from a giant swarm of bees to an elephant in distress to a terrific, tuneless din and "stadium tinnitus."
After only three days of World Cup games, international players in South Africa are already complaining about the trumpet, which has been a regular facet at the country's football stadiums since the 1990s. Players on the French national team say the noise keeps them from sleeping -- the horns start at dawn -- and that they cannot hear one another while on the field. Other players, including Argentinian team captain Javier Mascherano, have echoed those complaints. And at a press conference, Portugal's superstar Cristiano Ronaldo agreed, saying: "It is difficult for anyone on the pitch to concentrate." Finally, the president of the Japanese football association called the vuvuzela noise "unbearable."
Other criticisms of the vuvuzela include the fact that no other noise, like the sound of national anthems, can be heard above their drone, and that they ruin the atmosphere.
Vuvuzela Complaints Spread around the World
German television channels have received numerous complaints about the vuvuzela, with some viewers thinking the noise was due to a technical fault. The biggest problem for German broadcasters is that they receive the signal from another firm working in South Africa, Host Broadcast Services (HBS). A spokesperson for the French company told SPIEGEL ONLINE: "Eliminating or filtering the vuvuzela noise levels technically is not possible without affecting the whole signal."
Asked whether it might help to have game commentators sitting in enclosed rooms, in order to lessen the vuvuzela noise, Dieter Gruschwitz, the head of the team at German public broadcaster ZDF responsible for World Cup broadcasts told SPIEGEL ONLINE that this would detract from the ambience. "Not transmitting the atmosphere is not an option for us," he said.
Addressing calls for a vuvuzela ban in an interview with the BBC, Danny Jordaan, the head of the World Cup organizing committee in South Africa, said that the vuvuzela would only be forbidden if fans started throwing the trumpets onto the pitch.
On Monday, German commentators offer mixed views of the vuvuzela noise. Plenty find it irritating, with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describing it as "nerve-killing fanfare". But others feel the discussion about the plastic trumpets has wider implications, stressing that acceptance of the vuvuzela is also an issue of Germany's, and Europe's, tolerance of other cultures. Just as the debate over the vuvuzela is heating up, South African media are reporting that supplies of a brand of earplugs called "vuvu-stop" have almost sold out.
The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes:
"Is it really appropriate to get annoyed about this fanfare now? The arguments against the vuvuzela started last year at the FIFA Confederation Cup (of 2009). They culminated in a demand to ban the tubular plastic instruments, and fast. But FIFA chief Sepp Blatter decreed that that the traditional instruments of South African football would be tolerated. He didn't want to alienate the hosts."
"Critics are far overestimating the affects of this concerto on the game. No team will lose just because 80,000 fans are making a lot of noise. If the television audience feels violated, they can just turn the sound down."
"The only reproach with any kind of validity is that the vuvuzela has become so popular because of commercial pressures. The brand 'Vuvuzela' has long been trademarked, and in Cape Town and in Germany, hundreds of thousands of the noisemakers have been produced by the company Masincedane Sport."
The conservative daily Die Welt writes:
"Let's not kid ourselves. Of course the ongoing trumpeting of the vuvuzelas in South Africa's stadiums gets on your nerves. It has only been three days but it seems that many foreigners are already sick of one of the elementary components of South African football-fan culture."
"Will the South Africans give in (to a suggested vuvuzela ban)? They should not. At the very least because this problem had already been acknowledged. Over a year ago, the FIFA Confederation Cup was held in this same place ... with eyes wide open, the international governing body of football FIFA decided against banning the noisemakers."
"Banning the trumpets now would be the worst signal that FIFA could send to the organizers. Anyone who gives South Africa the World Cup to host and then raves about the vitality and enthusiasm of the place must also live with the consequences. If the special atmosphere in this location is sacrificed to the intolerance of those who are annoyed by the vuvuzela, that would mean that future football World Cups would also have to function according to European tastes. Vuvuzelas belong to South African football like battle songs belong to German games. We should accept this."
The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"There is music in football. The game has spawned its own choirs, hymns, coloraturas and celebratory calls. It's just a pity that, at the moment, we are not hearing any of these atmospheric sounds. Vuvuzela: The word has quickly become a global synonym for mood killer."
"Everything else is drowned out. Suffering through 90 minutes of a vuvuzela concert (during a game) is something of an achievement."
The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:
"At the start of the football World Cup it was supposed to be the buzzing of swarms of bees, the trumpeting of elephants and the clamor of life in South Africa that would make this competition -- aurally at least -- a whole new experience. The horns blown by fans, known as vuvuzela, were to be a symbol of the World Cup in South Africa ... a sign of the joie de vivre on the Cape."
"The football tournament is now three days old. The usual discussions about teams, tactics and goals are taking place -- but there is also an astonishing debate developing about the trumpets on the terraces. The bees have become angry wasps and the elephantine trumpeting in the stadium does not seem so friendly anymore -- instead it is an aggressive advance into the living rooms of those watching the game at home."
Cathrin Schaer -- with wires
SPIEGEL Online International - 03.06.2010
Only days before the start of the World Cup, South Africans seem as anxious about the planet's biggest soccer festival as they are excited. In a torn country, threats of strikes and uprisings by the poor have put a damper on euphoria. Some groups may use the spectacle to further their own interests.
Lynch goes on to say that ESPN has gotten some viewer feedback on the topic "but not an overwhelming amount of criticism." But complaints aren't hard to find on Twitter. As one tweeter put it, "Which was bigger? The campaign against vuvuzelas or the campaign against apartheid? Safrica needs better PR."
Update: For more on World Cup at usatoday.com, you can check out our photo gallery and full coverage.
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