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Auracast church broadcast setup

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Edited

We recently set up an broadcast in our church. I bought an Avantree Audikast 4 transmitter ~$60, plugged it into the headphone jack on our sound system and that was it. Clear, echo-free audio that covers the entire church sanctuary (big and old) and then some.

I had my Oticon Intent’s firmware updated to v1.3.0 a few months ago and the Companion phone app immediately recognized the update and finds all available broadcasts to choose from (similar to choosing a WiFi)

Others in the congregation that are waiting for their ’s makers to deliver their promised Auracast update are able to try a pair of HomeSpot JM320 headphones we got that simply link to the last Auracast station when turned on; 60 hours of on-time. There is no limit to the number of connections so non-HA people are considering Auracast earbuds too.

We considered installing the old tech at one point but that would have triggered historic building restrictions and cost tens of thousands of dollars. And is obsolete tech anyways.

I encourage other churches to go down this path and people to start emailing their customer service people to prod for Auracast firmware updates. The broadcast tech is simple, cheap and works great!

AuracastLogo_100x127

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It’s large, stone, built in 1878. I think it has a capacity of 630 but also has a balcony that may seat 100 more. The little transmitter has a small antenna and sits on the balcony railing and covers the entire sanctuary and entrance hall under the balcony just fine. It actually reaches past the front into the meeting room beyond but breaks up when blocked by the elevator and pipe organ.

It’s rated for 100ft and seems to easily give that in an open space like a church. The standard itself goes up to 330 ft but that’s probably with a higher-powered transmitter. No limit on the number of connections; we have an open system so anyone can connect their ’s, earbuds or whatever as long as they support Auracast.

There are more Auracast powered speakers coming out now and we are also considering adding more to our sound system without having to string wires.

Sacctuary_02

Thanks for sharing, I just gotta say that this is proof that /coils system is truly dead in the water, Sonova’s way is lost, as this will work in the classroom as well, LEA Bluetooth microphone’s will probably need some improvement to truly take over tho.

We are piloting an system at the museum I volunteer at in Colorado Springs. We meet last week with representatives from the Independence Foundation who works with people and organizations to help all types of handicapped folks. We wanted to show them how simple and cheap it was to implement Auracast. (we have a $50 HomeSpot transmitter and a wireless mic system). They pointed out that we really should have a system that our museum’s PA can patch into so visitors using Auracast through hearing aids or head sets could hear anything emergency announcements our instructions coming over the PA system (since their ears are blocked by the Auracast broadcast). We will be looking into an Auracast transmitter that can take multiple inputs. I understand there are (or will be) tyrannies on the market that will have separate volume settings for multiple inputs so we could have emergency messages from the PA system be heard louder than our docents or educators voices through the wireless mic.

Great to hear this — really glad our transmitter helped make work well in your church.

We’re seeing more churches try this because it’s such a simple way to get clear audio directly into hearing aids, headphones, or receivers without installing expensive loop systems.

If other churches are interested but not sure where to start, two tools may help:

• Free 90-day Auracast Venue Program
https://venucast.com/pages/auracast-venue-program47

• 30-second self-service planner to estimate what system you may need
https://venucast.com/pages/auracast-venue-planner34

Thanks again for sharing your experience — it’s great to see Auracast working well in real church environments.

I’ll have to link to your post next time I see someone tell us that won’t be relevant for another five years. So, hearing accessibility for an entire congregation for 60 bucks. Not bad! Every project like this resonates beyond the project itself. Word gets around.

I’m not inclined that way myself, but lovely church you’ve got there.

In reply to @Lour

Great to hear you are piloting in a museum environment.

We believe Auracast can do much more than emergency announcements — it can also support guided tours, assistive listening, and other visitor experiences.

We are Venucast / Avantree, and we would be very interested in working with you on this project.
Please feel free to contact us if you’d like to explore this further.

I’m sorry I wasn’t clear enough. We are using our wireless mic system to allow our docents to give tours independent of the general PA system.(as you suggested). The folks at the Independence Center recommended that we also connect the general PA system into the transmitter so visitors can also hear any announcements or instructions over their Auracast receivers in case of an emergency. Also, just as a point of interest, the Colorado Springs airport (COS) has been using Auracast in the terminal since December.

Edited

Lour – we have an audio mixer to balance the inputs of 8 microphones (some are ) before passing the audio to the speaker system and AudiKast 4 transmitter. We originally used the mixer’s headphone jack (which worked fine) but decided to put the transmitter on a separate “line out” from the mixer.

Line out is different than a headphone jack in that it has no volume control – it’s intended to go to an amplifier - so the broadcast wasn’t quite loud enough that way. We added an inexpensive little “headphone amplifier” and that provides more than enough volume now. You can see in this photo that the input from the mixer is currently set at 7 and the output to the Audikast 4 is also set at 7 (there are 3 unused outputs)

So, additional inputs from your museum PA system could just go into a little audio mixer leaving the Auracast transmitter to just do its job – take one input and broadcast it.

It’s still a simple system with multiple inputs that works well.

HeadPhoneAmp

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We haven’t gotten to the point that we have a need for the translation capability, but that would certainly be a “growth” (phase 3) consideration. One thing we did run into with our simple, wireless mic/receiver plugged into the HomeSpot transmitter was that we saw different hearing aid manufacturers processed the signal differently enough that we had to adjust the volume of the transmitter output broadcast to put it in a controllable range. We found that the volume through a Phillips Hearlink 9050 was much than the volume through a Jabra Pro 30 or Resound Vivia, and yet again different than we heard through the Auracast headsets we have for people, particularly youngsters, who have trouble hearing but don’t have compatible hearing aids (although the headsets have more individual adjustment range than the hearing aids we tested the system with). We are finding that if we locate the wireless mic receiver and Auracast transmitter in a central location in our Gallery, we get good coverage throughout the museum. Unfortunately, this location is not where there is a convent connection point to the PA system. Right now, we are providing a second wireless mic at our front desk where the PA system mic is located and can receive inputs to the wireless receiver from both microphones simultaneously. We’re in a learn-by-doing phase.

Edited

We’re probably getting too far into the weeds for most readers. I’ll direct message you.

In reply to @jsrustad

Here’s some real-world experience on range of an AudiKast 4. The 4 and look identical to me so I figure they have the same power. We got the 4 to experiment with but it works just fine for our needs. We leave it on 24/7 and it doesn’t even get warm.

Church experience

I’d greatly appreciate it if you could test the range a bit. What is the maximum range inside your church? Is it still working when it gets to the opposite wall from where it is installed? If so, how far is that? Real world experience is great!

In reply to @Lour

It’s true that different hearing aid brands expect different broadcast volume levels.

In particular, GN hearing aids tend to expect a much lower broadcast level for comfortable listening (around –25 to –30 LUFS if you want the technical reference). They likely followed early guidance from the Bluetooth SIG. Other brands generally expect a level closer to what is common in the mobile phone world (around –10 LUFS).

For churches we’ve worked with that have a mix of hearing aids (such as Oticon/Philips, GN, and Starkey), we usually recommend setting up two broadcast channels.

A practical way to do this is to use two HomeSpot BA210 transmitters, placed about one meter apart and fed from the same audio source using a simple 3.5 mm audio splitter. The BA210 is affordable enough that installing two is usually not a problem.

One BA210 can be dedicated to GN hearing aids or devices expecting lower broadcast levels. For that unit, the SQ volume offset can be set to –18 or –21 dB, while the other transmitter is left at 0 dB (no offset).

The broadcasts might be named something like:

Main Sanctuary – Standard
Main Sanctuary – Low Volume

I believe the same approach should work with the Audikast as well. The difference is that the Audikast uses a physical volume dial, so you would need to adjust and test the level manually. With the BA210, the volume offset is configured through the QK CastTool software, which makes it easier to set precise levels.

Disclosure: I work for QKAudio, and HomeSpot is a product brand of the same company.

@Lour said:

We haven’t gotten to the point that we have a need for the translation capability, but that would certainly be a “growth” (phase 3) consideration. One thing we did run into with our simple, wireless mic/receiver plugged into the HomeSpot Auracast transmitter was that we saw different hearing aid manufacturers processed the signal differently enough that we had to adjust the volume of the transmitter output broadcast to put it in a controllable range. We found that the volume through a Phillips Hearlink 9050 was much than the volume through a Jabra Pro 30 or Resound Vivia, and yet again different than we heard through the Auracast headsets we have for people, particularly youngsters, who have trouble hearing but don’t have compatible hearing aids (although the headsets have more individual adjustment range than the hearing aids we tested the system with). We are finding that if we locate the wireless mic receiver and Auracast transmitter in a central location in our Gallery, we get good coverage throughout the museum. Unfortunately, this location is not where there is a convent connection point to the PA system. Right now, we are providing a second wireless mic at our front desk where the PA system mic is located and can receive inputs to the wireless receiver from both microphones simultaneously. We’re in a learn-by-doing phase.

I expect (hope) that as the and Bluetooth SIG finalize their specifications/recommendations, Hearing aid manufacturers like Oticon/Philips, GN, and Starkey will put out firmwear updates so that we have a standard set up. It’s still early in the Auracast game.

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