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Hearing in Church ... or other public places

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Well I stand corrected on the cost. That’s a lot of money. I remember when t coils and a loop systems were going to be everywhere. Apparently they are in Europe. But if that’s what they cost I can see why they’re not as available as many thought they eventually would be. As far as music goes I’m amazed by how well my hearing aids handle music

My church transmits the microphones over an signal. Ask the ushers, and they have a basket…a tangled up mess really… of these little FM receivers made by listen technologies with old fashioned walkman style headphones.

Early on after I got my aids, I asked to look at them. Made a note of the frequency. I did a little research and found a receiver, newer style than what the church has. Mine comes with an amplified neck loop and works through my . I turn it on and it automatically i think scans the channels and lock on.

It’s not perfect. Static if I’m on the other end of the church from the sound board…but it helps me tremendously to cut through the echo. I can understand with just my aids maybe 98% when it’s a native speaker…but when we have our foreign priest speak I drop whole sentences sometimes… with teh neck loop I get pretty much all of it.

And even though it’s not stereo or even good quality audio, it actually helps I think with the music too!

Mine is a previous version of something like this. I can’t recall the model number just now

ListenTALK Receiver Pro - Listen Technologies9

A receiver with a display designed for participants that only need to listen to ListenTALK group conversations.

oh wat…mine is an LR-4200-072

Listen Technologies LR-4200-072 Intelligent 72mhz DSP RF Receiver for sale...9

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Listen Technologies LR-4200-072 Intelligent 72mhz RF Receiver at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

pretty good I think if your church has an FM broadcast and you have T-coil. Use headphones if no T-coil…

I don’t have , but I could plug the headphone adapter of my Roger On into one of the things maybe! I will have to ask and see. One more experiment to try.

WH

In reply to @Z300M

AMEN to the “vicious circle” comment!
I truly believe Looping is the best solution.

I live in Sun City Texas and when I moved here only one big facility was looped. Our Hearing Solutions SIG got on the ball and pushed for looping when floors were replaced and new facilities built and we now have most large rooms looped. The local Georgetown live theater is also looped, the county tax office has a portable loop, and many churches are also looped. Our biggest problem now, is convincing all the local providers to explain looping/ to their clients.

Recently some of the providers have installed loops inside their office so they can DEMO to clients and I think that is making a big difference. You can stand outside one provider’s office and hear the TV in his waiting room via T-coil when the SPEAKER volume is OFF !!!

SOME DAY, Bluetooth may be viable. But for now it is not even reliable across phone brands. I use an iPhone which I HATE because it is the most reliable connection to my hearing aids. My brother has the same aids with an Android phone and about 1/2 the time, they do not connect.

I tried Phonak demos since with Classic Bluetooth they should work regardless of phone, but they were not reliable with my iphone and since I stream a lot, battery use was a killer.

It is up to US, the people who need it, to push for Loops as an solution!!

In reply to @sufhl

@sufhl said:

I’m curious about no need to pair @d_Wooluf. Do you anticipate hearing aids will have a program dedicated to public BT? How will users control their audio input in these settings?

I think we’ll do most of our controlling from other devices. Smartphones and smart watches I guess. I think it will be too laborious in the real world to control that kind of stuff from the aids. You’ll probably arrive at the venue and scan a vr code at the door. Ifi you’re a regular there will probably be rule based systems. So maybe a voice prompt? “One of your favourite broadcast streams is now available. Tap your left hearing aid to connect”.I’m thinking creatively here. I’ve got no inside knowledge.

What I do know is that there will be broadcast streams (connectionless, like radio) and one-to-many streams where there might have to sign in somehow. For pay-to-listen or confidential content.

That’s probably the kind of stuff they’re working on right now. I think most of the low-level specs have been done.

In reply to @hass5744

Here in the UK loop systems are common and work reasonably well. I’ve just checked with a local AV installer and they sell a loop amp good for 1,000 sq m coverage for £395. Ideally, you get a pro to design your loop layout but it’s not rocket science and there are various website which tell you how to do it. You can get a gadget for around £50 for checking the field strength. Actually laying the cable is a low-skill job. For under-carpet or beneath a wall covering you can use copper foil tape for any part or all of the loop, but you probably need to solder wire-to-foil connections.

I would think that any from a multinational company would have loop capability though it may welll need to be enabled by your audi. It’s a perfectly adequate low-tech solution to a simple problem. Why use Bluetooth? There will inevitably be a certain latency. I once tried a Bluetooth microphone app on my iPhone to link to a Bluetooth receiver on the church hall sound system and the latency made it completely unuseable - hearing your own voice with a delay made it impossible to put two words together. Bluetooth is fine for listening to the TV but not if you’re partially hearing the speaker direct.

Well as has been stated previously. If the price is $10, 000 that’s a lot of money to expect a church to shell out for something that will help a limited number of parishioners.

A very complex problem. I have dealt with the church audio team for years and still don’t have it right. Our church recently renovated during the Covid-19 shutdown. The new Hearing assist systems are the latest by Listen. I don’t know the details, but I am sure that it is the top of the line. The basic system is . The usual user gets a small clip on receiver and a single earpiece. I won’t discuss the earpiece, but I do use the receiver. I have Resound and their mini-mike. I marry the two systems by a simple audio cord from the Listen receiver to the streaming input port of the minimike which talks to my HA via . Basically, a reasonably decent arrangement. However, there are still the details to face. I sit with my phone in hand, constantly adjusting volume and/or switching from one HA setting to another as a given speaker’s voice rises and falls. The good news is that, because of the pastor’s full voice, I get pretty much everything, but with some others, not so much.

BTW, unreIated, think the BT system is currently limited to around 30 feet between transmitter and receiver, so it seems unlikely that a simple BT system will work in a large situation.

Sorry for the length of this dissertation, but it has taken me a long time to get the background. I have been using HA over 30 years.

LGPiper – You might contact Old North Church in Marblehead, which isn’t far from you.

I had an amazing experience a few years ago, zoning out with bad acoustics, exhausted because I couldn’t understand the minister. I sat, idly fiddling with my hearing aid buttons out of boredom. I must have hit one of the program buttons instead of the volume control, because all of a sudden, I could hear. Every word. Perfectly clearly. Turns out, I had hit my program.

It was so exciting. I talked to someone on the staff a few days later – it seems a member of the congregation had pushed for the loop a few years before. They never advertised it or put up one of the signs indicating availability.

I was involved with a project for another group in Boston that I thought might benefit from a loop and did a little research. My recollection is that the loops are NOT expensive; I think some people even install them at home. I don’t recall the limitations – it’s possible that the sound must be transmitted through a connected microphone, so it would not pick up someone who stands and speaks. But I’m not certain.

Some googling might yield more info, but check out LoopAmerica.com13. They have a map showing looped locations by state – there are other locations in Massachusetts – and a list of installers. There’s a company in Lowell that does them.

What is great about loops is that they are invisible, discreet, and require no staff intervention or special requests. I’m not going to ask for an transmitter from someone who probably doesn’t know what I’m talking about. Who wants to draw attention to themselves and take up time before an event? Not to mention such equipment is probably never cleaned.

Looping is such a simple, effective technology. It’s common in the UK. I believe NYC requires it in theatres and certain other public spaces.

Edited

Again. When t coils and hook systems first came out it was assumed that almost everything practical in the United States would eventually be looped. Europe certainly jumped on the band wagon and bravo to them. It never happened in America. If you can name the places that are looped then you’re talking about exceptions and not the norm. Unfortunately we missed the boat on this one. When I come across a loop system I an astounded. Works great, really helps. That’s twice now in the past 20 years, not counting landlines.

In reply to @hass5744

hass5744, Not sure if that was directed to my earlier comment, or to someone else…
if it was me you misunderstood. My Listen device powers a neck loop and interfaces with my telicoil.

but yes, my loss isn’t so bad yet that I can’t get by without my aids or can use headphones

On another note…
I have yet to find a place that was looped. I have wondered about the idea of encouraging places to loop a room…but I really wonder how many aid users actually even have . I would not have had them had I not researched and asked my audiologist for aids with it. I have the feeling a lot don’t have it.

A lot of places in the USA don’t have it and considering the number of people that would use it, and a lot of hearing aids no longer support it, it’s not worth the cost

“Loops” are the answer to this one, as some here have said. They can be pricey to install, but funds can be raised and the results are worth it. Bluetooth only works for limited distances, not far enough to help in most churches which are fairly large. Read more on this forum about loops.

Edited

Thank you all for your replies. It helped me sort my thoughts.

It turns out, that we already had some kind of fm transmitter hooked into our church’s sound system. Who knew? So, I bought a bunch of little receivers, sort of Walkman size. The receivers can either be hooked into headphones, or into a neck loop that goes around one’s neck. The neck loop connects to that have been outfitted with .

So far, two of us are doing the telecoil thingie and find it a great help. In the next few weeks, I’m hoping to help a few more folks with “mature” hearing to try out the system. I have one recruit who doesn’t have telecoil, but is willing to try headphones if they don’t create horrible feedback. My guess is that the feedback will subside once the earphones are in place. We’ll see.

Anyway, this seems to be a great option that is more universal that installing a $10K loop around the sanctuary, that will only work for a select few who have telecoil HAs. I’ve spent less than $1K, and we have a system that should work for about 10 people. When more folks step up, I can easily buy a few more sets of receivers/loops/headphones.

Nope, FBC is across the street from us. We’re FCCR (i.e. First Congo).

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading through this thread, and the frustrations about hearing in churches and large halls are incredibly common. The mix of echo, distance from the speaker, and background noise makes it one of the hardest environments for hearing aids.

Full disclosure: I work with Avantree. We have been developing wireless audio solutions for years, and we have recently focused heavily on broadcast audio, specifically to solve this “public venue” problem.

While induction loops are great when they work, we know they are expensive to install and easily broken. Traditional Bluetooth doesn’t work for groups.

We have developed a system (the AuraPlex MX) designed to be set up in a church in about 5 minutes. It uses Auracast to stream directly to newer hearing aids/cochlear implants, and we also have receivers for anyone who doesn’t have compatible hearing aids yet.

We know that churches and public venues are very hesitant to spend money on new technology unless they are 100% sure it works in their specific building.

Because of this, we have started offering a 90-Day Free Trial program specifically for venues like churches.

We want to let you install it, run several Sunday services with it, gather feedback from your congregation, and see if it actually helps. If it doesn’t work for your space, just send it back.

If anyone is on a church committee or is frustrated with their current venue’s setup, I’d be happy to answer technical questions about how Auracast handles these environments. - Auracast Venue Program | 90-Day Free Trial - Avantree7

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