Hearing Loop Design – Don’t waste money on a solution that won’t meet legislative requirements or your customers’ expectations.
Installing a hearing loop is not always as simple as putting some copper wire under the floor and connecting an amplifier. A hearing loop must cover at least 90% of the floor space, it must also meet the standards for Magnetic field strength.
Misconceptions about hearing loops:
“It’s old technology”
Not so, the use of hearing loops remains to be the only universal means of providing access to people with hearing aids or cochlear implants. Regardless of the brand of hearing aid, if you have a telecoil you can access a hearing loop.
Many of today’s hearing aid manufacturers have their own proprietary wireless communication systems. These are great and offer people better access to hearing their own TV or the voice of their partner when driving in the car, but they have their limitations.
A hearing loop is connected to the venues’ sound system and gives you the best possible signal – critical if you want to be able to understand what is being said!
“It’s just some wire in the concrete”
A hearing loop installed in conduit under a concrete slab is probably not going to perform adequately. Reinforcement mesh and the blue metal in concrete is very good at absorbing magnetic fields, particularly high frequency sounds that are critical to speech intelligibility.
A properly designed and installed hearing loop will take environmental factors into consideration. If you have a timber floor on bearers and joists a perimeter loop could be adequate. When you have a concrete floor the size of the room will determine if a more complex loop design is required.
This is necessary to ensure adequate magnetic field strength across the room/space. We will normally use a flat copper tape on top of the concrete (under the carpet).
Word of Mouth Technology has been providing these solutions to Australian customers for 21 years. It’s all we do, so if you need assistance with design, supply or even hiring a hearing augmentation solution contact us today on 03 9723 0660 or email
