Why is it on some stations that the automated announcements are perfectly clear but ones done "manually" sound garbled and unclear?
Why is it on some stations that the automated announcements are perfectly clear but ones done "manually" sound garbled and unclear?
That's been my experience too, often staff speak too loudly and their voice is distorted
Why is it on some stations that the automated announcements are perfectly clear but ones done "manually" sound garbled and unclear?
I find that timing of manual announcements is too often poor, i.e. just as a train rattles in/out of the station, meaning few can hear them. This is most annoying at times of disruption/alteration when people really need to know, and only one or few announcements is/are made. City Thameslink, being enclosed/under-ground, was especially bad for this, but it can happen anywhere.
There must be cases where the person making the announcement is too remote from the platform to know about ambient noise at the time.
Over a year ago I was on a train stuck at Gatwick during disruption. It was a 319 with many windows open. The driver kept making announcements at exactly the same time as those on the platform, as a result nobody heard either piece of information. Some time later there was another announcement from the driver (alone this time) which showed he was very agitated with the passengers for ignoring everything he had said!.
It is not always the fault of the poor passenger
I find that timing of manual announcements is too often poor, i.e. just as a train rattles in/out of the station, meaning few can hear them. This is most annoying at times of disruption/alteration when people really need to know, and only one or few announcements is/are made. City Thameslink, being enclosed/under-ground, was especially bad for this, but it can happen anywhere.
There must be cases where the person making the announcement is too remote from the platform to know about ambient noise at the time.
Over a year ago I was on a train stuck at Gatwick during disruption. It was a 319 with many windows open. The driver kept making announcements at exactly the same time as those on the platform, as a result nobody heard either piece of information. Some time later there was another announcement from the driver (alone this time) which showed he was very agitated with the passengers for ignoring everything he had said!.
It is not always the fault of the poor passenger
And I really don't think the automated announcer is "really sorry for the delay to my journey"
...
And I really don't think the automated announcer is "really sorry for the delay to my journey"
Or too quickly. Or too quietly. Or not clearly. Or with a strong local accent.
I have a particular bugbear with one announcer at Wolverhampton station who has a strange style where he speaks slowly and deliberately, but then reads station names so quickly as to become unintelligible. Birmingham New Street becomes "birnewstree" and Birmingham International becomes "birternatnal".
I think the short answer to the question is "because people are variable, and computers are not".
Or too quickly. Or too quietly. Or not clearly. Or with a strong local accent.
I have a particular bugbear with one announcer at Wolverhampton station who has a strange style where he speaks slowly and deliberately, but then reads station names so quickly as to become unintelligible. Birmingham New Street becomes "birnewstree" and Birmingham International becomes "birternatnal".
I think the short answer to the question is "because people are variable, and computers are not".
That annoys me at London Waterloo as well. Whenever I'm there, no matter what time of day, the same person is doing the manual announcements. He has a strong accent and speaks too quickly as well, so I really struggle to understand what is being said. A shame when the Phil Sayer auto announcements are very clear.Or too quickly. Or too quietly. Or not clearly. Or with a strong local accent.
I have a particular bugbear with one announcer at Wolverhampton station who has a strange style where he speaks slowly and deliberately, but then reads station names so quickly as to become unintelligible. Birmingham New Street becomes "birnewstree" and Birmingham International becomes "birternatnal".
I think the short answer to the question is "because people are variable, and computers are not".
The same happens on Class 455 units as well, always annoys me :P.Over a year ago I was on a train stuck at Gatwick during disruption. It was a 319 with many windows open. The driver kept making announcements at exactly the same time as those on the platform, as a result nobody heard either piece of information. Some time later there was another announcement from the driver (alone this time) which showed he was very agitated with the passengers for ignoring everything he had said!.
It is not always the fault of the poor passenger
I first heard that a month ago at East Croydon (it has the new voice also used at Brighton, Gatwick Airport, Victoria etc) and reasons were given. The most amusing thing was them being spoken quickly in one breath and long-winded too, like "Following signal staff instructions to run at a reduced speed whilst inspecting the line".The auto-announcer on Southern stations no longer says sorry, or gives any reason, unless the delay is significant. We just get something like "the hh:mm service to xxxx will now arrive/depart at hh:mm". Saves electricity I suppose.
So that's why the acoustics change from clear as a bell to a mash of echoing nonsense?To answer the OP, the reason is mostly physics. The position of speakers and the amount of substances off of which the soundwaves bounce, will all factor into the quality of the sound. Computers have the clipped robotic buzz of programming, reducing the coming together of breathing, words clashing together, hurrying up at the end because you want to sneeze, natural vibrato...
There's one guy at Swindon who always amuses me with his excessive cheerfulness, "Platform number twoo°°°°°ooo". Perfectly understandable though.
It's the announcements that include the name of the train that irritate me though, I don't care that it's the Merchant Venturer, I'd rather be able to clearly hear the time of the service being referred to. If I did want to know the name of it I'd have a look as it went past.
The autoannouncements at Newport (South Wales) are completely bizarre, or rather the volume of them. They're okay if you are on platform 2 or 3 but on platform 4, they are so quiet you can barely hear them, even without a train at a platform. When I was last there (waiting for a service to Manchester Piccadilly), it seemed someone was experimenting with the volume. It was reasonable on platform 4 but was horrifically loud in Utterly Crusty. When I changed at Newport again on the way back, it was quieter than it was originally!
The thing that amuses me with autoannouncements, is when you can obviously tell when the TOC has shoe-horned bits in. When waiting in Upper Crust I heard this:
The same happens on Class 455 units as well, always annoys me :P.