Someone at Heathrow Airport has spent a little too much time at Heathrow Airport. They have stopped noticing the ambient noise that is caused by people doing what you do at an airport. You know, hearing announcements, picking up your luggage, going through security, walking from A to B. So they thought “You know what would Spruce up this place? If it had a soundtrack of baggage carousels, planes taking off, announcements, people walking around, beeps and boops from security and other airport noises, all set to music! Brilliant!” and it was done!
Does anyone else see the problem with this? Those real sounds are already in the airport. We don’t need a second layer of them. That just causes chaos to anyone who might be relying on those sounds for clues about where they are or what’s going on. I don’t want to have to think “There’s a gate announcement. Is that a real gate announcement or one of those fake ones?”
This happens to me on a smaller scale whenever I enter a store with self-checkouts. When I was younger, I could walk into a store and listen for the sound of cash registers. Cash registers were manned by humans, so I could walk towards that beeping, find a human, and ask for assistance around the store. But self-checkouts make beeps and boops just like the old registers, so I can’t target the beeping things and get help. It sucks! Now amplify that by a whole pile at the airport.
I know that usually I’m getting help around the airport, but there are some crazy good frequent flying blind folks that walk through airports independently. And even if I’m getting help, I’d like to be able to trust my ears to give me clues about what’s happening. If my gate changes, for example, I might hear that announcement before my assistant notices the change on the board. Now, I’ll have to wonder if the announcement I’ve heard is a real one or a fake one.
I know the soundtrack of airport noise is set to music, so maybe that will be no big deal if real announcements stop the music when they talk, but what if they don’t?
Airports are noisy enough as it is. We don’t need double noise. I don’t think the effect will be exciting for travellers, even the ones that can see. Some people are sensitive to sound and don’t need more of it. I think what they will have done is make the experience unnecessarily overwhelming.
Is that music supposed to be unsettling? I can’t explain what it is, but that was my first reaction.
I don’t think it’s supposed to be, but the beginning definitely is.