The topic was a parking ordinance. The emotions were disproportionate. The town hall had a single handheld wireless mic that citizens were supposed to pass politely during the public comment period. Nothing about the evening was polite.

The first citizen grabbed the mic and held it at arm's length while shouting. No feedback, but no intelligibility either. The second citizen pressed it against their chin and whispered conspiratorially about municipal corruption. The gain was too low to hear. The AV volunteer cranked it up. The third citizen took the mic, stood directly under a ceiling speaker, and expressed their feelings about parking at full volume. Physics responded with a 2.7 kHz scream.

The mic was now being passed every 30 seconds. Each person held it differently, stood in a different spot, and spoke at a different volume. The AV volunteer was riding the fader like a rodeo bull — gain up, feedback, gain down, inaudible, gain up, feedback. The moderator asked everyone to please stand at the podium. Nobody did. Democracy is messy, and so was the audio.

A single gain setting cannot work when the mic-to-mouth distance varies from 2 cm to 60 cm and the mic-to-speaker coupling changes with every handoff. Without ringing out the room first, the volunteer was guessing.

The Moral: Ring out the room before the meeting starts. SonaVyx Problem Detection identifies and notches feedback frequencies in advance, giving you maximum headroom for the chaos that follows.