Chitchat Sports Hub Again - Leaky roof, sound system not up to standard

http://themiddleground.sg/2016/09/06/viral-views-refund-petition-jay-chous-concert/Viral Views: A refund petition for Jay Chou’s concert
Sep 06, 2016 03.31PM | The Middle Ground

A PETITION is circulating online asking Multimedia Entertainment – the organiser of Jay Chou’s “The Invincible” 2016 concert in Singapore – for a full refund for the concert that took place last Saturday (Sep 3). It was not that Chou put on a disappointing show; rather the sound system at the National Stadium where the concert took place was beyond dismal.

As of this afternoon (Sep 6), 1,445 angry fans have signed the petition posted on GoPetition on Sunday (Sep 4).

In the petition, author Goh Ying Sheng highlighted the poor sound standards of the concert venue and said that “even seventh month getai has better standards”. Furthermore, he noted that the speakers that organisers had promised would be placed around the stadium were not seen on the concert day.

The promised speakers turned out to be dustbins. Image from the petition page.
Angry fans also took to Singapore Sports Hub’s Facebook page to leave negative reviews of the venue. Facebook user Daphne Tay said that “the whole 2.5hr the sound system was crap” and another user, Serene Chua said: “Great performance by Jay Chou that was, unfortunately, marred by the poor acoustic features of the stadium.”

Ms Tay’s post garnered a total of 45 reactions.

Both the petition and the reviews left on Singapore Sports Hub’s Facebook also mentioned that this was not the first time complaints have been made about the two-year-old venue, and that no improvements have been made since Chou’s last concert in 2014. Chou’s “Opus 2 Jay” 2014 World Tour in Singapore was also met with complaints by disappointed and angry fans, who cited the bad sound system and even water leaks from the roof of the stadium.


The poor sound quality could be blamed on the design of the venue and the environment, said sound engineering veteran Shah Tahir, 56, to The Straits Times after Chou’s show in 2014.

“The National Stadium has a bowl-shaped, closed environment, so there will be a lot of acoustic problems. In that situation, the type, amount and design of the speakers that you use can counter the problems,” he added.

As for the leaks, a Sports Hub spokesman told TODAY that it was “a result of heavy rain” and thus “water was seen dripping in isolated areas from the roof of the venue.” The Sports Hub issued a refund for those in the West End of the stadium, where the roof was leaking.

The state-of-the-art Stadium also disappointed during the National Day Parade (NDP) this year when a projection of the Singapore flag during the pledge-taking, singing of the National Anthem, and the finale failed to materialise.

Senior management-level staff from the Sports Hub have also been making their departures. The first wave of resignations came in December last year, and again in recent months. Several ex-Sports Hub staff anonymously told TODAY that there was “low morale among their colleagues”, caused by a lack of communication and leadership

It was mentioned many times all over social media that the new stadium is not designed for concerts or any high quality acoustic entertainment event. The dome-shape and material used inside the stadium is really bad for such event. The echoes will give everyone inside a bad headache.

For sports and games are ok as cheerings and screamings are not synchronized and basically, just loud noise.

Even the shopping mall, the NTUC Foodfare food court had reduced number of stalls and floor space, as well some of the eatery shops had closed, ahead of expiry of their individual lease. More may be expected as their 3-year lease starts to run out from mid-2017.

Then Kallang Wave Mall will be an huge white elephant.

What was wrong with the old National Stadium?

Again where's the accountability-these people attack WP as though they have committed the most some serious crimes while they get away with the long list of problems besetting this place.
How can people earn the highest salaries in the world and yet be not held accountable for the cockups under them-normally can happen only in family owned companies.
This place is family owned?

Before tender, the design called for appropriate acoustics to handle concerts. This was an important point as complaints about acoustics was an issue for the previous indoor stadium. There was even a lawsuit over the indoor stadium acoustics. Even for Sports events, the roof is leaking. They had to refund those seated in certain sections where the leaks occurred.

For the malls, it reminds me of Singapore Flyer. The rentals were so high that tenants ended up with empty restaurants and shops. Too greedy. The same with Terminal 3.

Brightkid said:

It was mentioned many times all over social media that the new stadium is not designed for concerts or any high quality acoustic entertainment event. The dome-shape and material used inside the stadium is really bad for such event. The echoes will give everyone inside a bad headache.

For sports and games are ok as cheerings and screamings are not synchronized and basically, just loud noise.

Even the shopping mall, the NTUC Foodfare food court had reduced number of stalls and floor space, as well some of the eatery shops had closed, ahead of expiry of their individual lease. More may be expected as their 3-year lease starts to run out from mid-2017.

Then Kallang Wave Mall will be an huge white elephant.

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On hindsight, they should have just renovated the thing, built the pools and be done with it. Its now a colossal failure with never ending disasters after every event. We are handing over $197m every years for rubbish.

It also shows that we struggle to handle foreigners when it comes to big projects. In the first 30 years, we built the infrastructure with our engineers and local construction firms with advice form selected foreigners who numbered may be 2 or 3. We built power stations, airports, ports, etc with locals and they were World Standard. Suddenly we can't even build a bloody sport stadium or even lay down the turf for football.

zhihau said:

What was wrong with the old National Stadium?

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scroobal said:

Before tender, the design called for appropriate acoustics to handle concerts. This was an important point as complaints about acoustics was an issue for the previous indoor stadium. There was even a lawsuit over the indoor stadium acoustics. Even for Sports events, the roof is leaking. They had to refund those seated in certain sections where the leaks occurred.

For the malls, it reminds me of Singapore Flyer. The rentals were so high that tenants ended up with empty restaurants and shops. Too greedy. The same with Terminal 3.

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Wow, amazing if acoustic is one of requirement in the tender! The final building with so many metal structures supporting the dome, 55,000 plastic chairs.....etc, would had been a big red flag even for the un-informed as far as acoustics are concerned.

Not to compare to concert halls, even cinemas have padded walls and chairs to absorb the echoes. Compared to the old open air stadium, there's not much echo within the structure other than the speaker placement themselves. So much better in acoustics.

I attended the orchestra concert on soft-opening event and Stephanie Sun's concert. Both I got a really bad headache bombarded by the noise. Cannot hear a decent sound, even when Sun was just talking in between songs!

And the rent in the mall.... You won't believe the $psf they charging for F&B there!

I was there at Jay concert.
Paid to listen to bad sound system.
Seventh month ko tai is better.

It seems preparation is done poorly.
Concert started late . every one rushing for parking lots.
Jay singing is bad.no climax for concert .
Like rushing to end concert.
$300++/pax. is definitely not cheap.

Who is Jay Chou??

Why would anyone want to go to his concert?

Leongsam said:

Who is Jay Chou??

Why would anyone want to go to his concert?

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He compose the song three blind mice.

Why is the CPIB not called in to investigate the contracts given out for this colossal flop?

Will the minister in charge answer the questions?

zhihau said:

What was wrong with the old National Stadium?

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Nothing wrong. PAP wanted to show the world that our Foreign trash can built a state-of-the-art stadium and managed by a group of top-notch foreign goon. The rest is history.

I missed jogging in the old national stadium during the evening when my ICT was nearing in those days.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...inimise-obstruction-of/3105894.htmlSINGAPORE: Organisers on Tuesday (Sep 6) acknowledged complaints about not quite invincible sound quality at Jay Chou's latest Singapore concert over the weekend, but said that "from feedback, many had a positive stadium concert experience".

Nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition asking Singapore Sports Hub and Multimedia Entertainment for refunds due to "unacceptable standards" at the concert on Saturday night. The petition's organiser, Goh Ying Sheng, said audiences who were not seated in line with the speakers "only heard muffled sounds and strong bass throughout" the night.

Mr Goh added that this is despite feedback given to organisers after Jay Chou's last concert in Singapore, held in December 2014.

"Feedback was given back then, Singapore Sports Hub acknowledged the feedback and (said they) will contact the organisers for improvements but there was NO improvements seen (sic)," he wrote on the petition. Mr Goh also pointed out that organisers had illustrated that speakers would be placed at certain locations on the seating map, but on the day, "only dustbins were seen".

In response to queries, a spokesperson for Multimedia Entertainment said efforts were made to improve the overall concert experience from Chou's previous gig that was part of the Opus 2 Jay 2014 World Tour.

For his latest concert on Sep 3, sound engineers were engaged to provide advice on the sound system and set-up, including speaker locations, a spokesperson for the organisers said. "The quality of speakers was also improved from Opus 2 and some of the speaker locations were changed from the seating map in order to minimise obstruction of view."

Multimedia Entertainment further explained that the speaker positions shown on the seating plan were "broadly based" on speaker locations during Chou's 2014 concert.

"These speakers which were placed on the running tracks of the stadium may obstruct the view of patrons and hence were relocated to the sides of the stage as well as the console section. Relocating the speakers was found to improve the sound quality," the spokesperson added.

Some concert-goers also griped about Chou's repertoire this time round, noting that he did not include classics such as his hit song, Silence.

The Mando-pop king's last concert - Opus 2 - was dogged by issues as well. Originally slated to be held on Nov 8, 2014, it was postponed to Dec 27 to keep the National Stadium's field ready for the AFF Suzuki Cup tournament. And audience members at his 2014 show complained about a leaking roof, on top of the sound issues.

Sinkies should just boycott the damned place.

scroobal said:

On hindsight, they should have just renovated the thing, built the pools and be done with it. Its now a colossal failure with never ending disasters after every event. We are handing over $197m every years for rubbish.

It also shows that we struggle to handle foreigners when it comes to big projects. In the first 30 years, we built the infrastructure with our engineers and local construction firms with advice form selected foreigners who numbered may be 2 or 3. We built power stations, airports, ports, etc with locals and they were World Standard. Suddenly we can't even build a bloody sport stadium or even lay down the turf for football.

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Cannot be done. Construction is tied in with management contract for the whole facility. You assume private sector is motivated by profits and will run it more efficiently than the government. In theory yes especially if a simple project. In practice consortium group was not a partnership amongst equals. If you open a tender for casinos, operators call the shots. You do that for a stadium, the inverse is true. After the building is completed up to specs, developers made out like bandits and you are left with an uncommitted operator and a very anxious stadium owner. A novice mistake.

Leongsam said:

Who is Jay Chou??

Why would anyone want to go to his concert?

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Chou En Lai was his grandfather
people pay to see if he looks anything like Chou En Lai