Amphitheater Faces More Sound Tests

Recordings suggest that the April 7 Alabama concert at the Pacific Amphitheatre may have exceeded some recommended noise levels, but officials stressed that more tests will be needed to see whether the new sound system installed there to help reduce noise can indeed help solve a prolonged dispute.

With that in mind, Superior Court Judge Richard J. Beacom Friday ordered that the county continue to monitor the sound levels at the Costa Mesa arena at least through June 30, when attorneys for all sides in the dispute are to report back to him with more data.

“It’s really just too early to tell what kinds of sound levels we’re talking about. These things take time,” said Ellwyn Brickson, a noise control specialist with the county Environmental Health Division, after the session with Beacom and the lawyers.

Last weekend’s concert by the country-rock band Alabama was the first time the new digital sound system at the arena, provided through arena operators and intended to do a better job of confining noise, was used. However, the band used some of its own audio equipment as well, according to Richard L. Spix, an attorney for a group of Costa Mesa residents who have been trying for 6 years to have the noise from concerts at the arena reduced.

Preliminary readings indicate that the effect was mixed, county officials said. In a letter to Beacom dated April 12, county environmental health chief Robert E. Merryman said that for most of the 2-hour concert, the noise levels recorded exceeded recommended limits as measured at the berm within the amphitheater. Merryman said noise from a nearby motorcycle race on the night of the concert made obtaining an accurate sound reading difficult.