Council ponders sound solution

They're cranking up the volume inside the Wanganui District Council chamber.

The council's strategy and finance committee has ticked off spending on a sound system that will vastly improve the audible output around the table.

Acoustics in the chamber are poor and often conversations bounce off the rounded interior walls and cannot be heard in some parts of the chamber.

If signed off by the council next month it means councillors will share eight wireless microphones, their words amplified through six small wall speakers.

Julian Harkness, the council's finance and corporate services manager, told the committee the equipment and installation would cost $6600.

Mr Harkness said audio specialists had assessed the chamber during the past 10 years and offered various remedies.

"These methods would have been very expensive and some would have changed the structure of the room," he said.

A local firm had been asked to advise on the problem and had come up with a cost-effective solution. The microphones and mini-speakers had been tested at a couple of council committee meetings and had made a significant improvement to audio reception in the chamber.

Mr Harkness said officers would also trial "resolution" screens. At times there were different interpretations on the wording of resolutions being discussed by councillors and having the wording shown on the screens would help.

Longer term, the chamber's air conditioning system will be on the agenda when council discusses its annual plan. He said the system had been in use since the council moved into the Guyton St building in the 1960s, was expensive to run and took up a lot of floor space.