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The ideal solution (what' s your budget? :-) )  is to combine both  
Tom's suggestion of a visually obvious small speaker with the smart amp.

Related to this, one of my favorite experiments I ever did actually  
happened at an ASTC conference.  At the cocktail hour, with cocktails,  
there was a modest size room packed with people, all intent on and in  
conversation.   It was SO LOUD!!!    I happened to be standing next to  
one of the biggest and best science demonstrators, Mik Jacobs, when I  
proposed the experiment:  "What would happen if we asked everyone to  
speak in a whisper?"
Mik boomed his voice over the din (like a smart amp overcoming a  
schoolgroup?) "HEY EVERYONE!   LET'S ALL SPEAK IN A WHISPER!"   and  
everyone obeyed.  So what do you think happened?

Make your best guess and then scroll down for the reality.





























Let me stress that they really did try, but it took no more than eight  
seconds for the noise level to ramp up progressively  to EXACTLY where  
it was before.   My theory from this is that everyone of us knows  
instinctively how loud we need to speak in order for those of us we  
are talking to to hear us.  So for any given density of human beings  
in conversation there is a given noise level.
On the exhibit floor the density of humans of course varies, but if  
you have a sound problem often, and Tom's and the smart amp solution  
aren't enough to remedy it, then maybe the answer is to decrease the  
density of the exhibit.

Clifford Wagner
www.scienceinteractives.com

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