Cinemark theaters and T-Coils

Cinemark states that all their theaters have loops. The t-coil symbol is displayed on every movie on their website.
I have Resound (Jabra) hearing aids and the Resound Multi-Mic that transmits to the hearing aids. This item has a T-coil. I couldn’t get it to work.
The manager of the cinema has no knowledge whatsoever. A neighboring cinemark manager found some neck loops but has no idea what they do. She also found a box of AudiLinks model 2. The neck loop can be plugged into the AudioLink or maybe my Multi-mic.
Should I even need the neck loop to use my t-coil? I haven’t been to a movie in 20 years and would love to start going.
Any help would be lovely.

No, don’t know your aids but I have used Oticon aids a number of times in t-coil mode in their theaters in Texas and it worked great

Check with your Audiologist, you may need to have the T-coil enabled for loops. On the paradise aids there is one program for phone T-coil and another for loops for example.

Jim

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I think I figured it out.

The movie theater isn’t looped. They can provide neck loops that plug into the same box the headphones use. Then I could use the multi mic on my collar.

Better yet, I’d plug the FM (or IR) box into my multi-mic with a 3.5mm male-to-male cable.

I was wrong in assuming they had a loop. The symbol with the ear and line doesn’t have the “T” beside the logo. Some movie theaters are looped, but none around where I live.

Glad you figured it out. Just to clarify for others:

A room loop sends audio directly to an enabled t-coil within a hearing aid (or intermediary device). You just need the audi to enable it and then switch into your t-coil program. There’s nothing you need to pick up at a venue.

A neckloop allows you to receive the audio from a public sound system like FM (common in churches or theaters) or Infrared (common in movie theaters) and use it with your hearing aids if you have a t-coil. As you said, you plug the neckloop into the headphone jack on the FM or IR receiver and put your hearing aid in t-coil mode. Without a t-coil, you are stuck using these sound systems with standard earbuds, not customized to your hearing loss. Even if your community has no room loops, get a t-coil in your hearing aids if you use these other types of systems. Someday soon hopefully BT LE audio will provide a better solution.

Thank you for explaining that - I was sorely off base. I thought you just walked in, sat down and your HA’s picked up a T coil signal, switched on and all was glorious hi fidelity.
I must admit though that as I have yet to pick up my first set of HA’s I am becoming concerned.
Looks like I need to carry a Partner Mic (or several if I viewed the Roger video correctly), a Pen mic, maybe one of those disc mics, a portable charger or a handfull of batteries, and now I guess I need an FM and/or IR receiver, several sets of cables (M-M, M-F) and my own neck loop.
Will a moderate beach bag be sufficient or should I plan on just using rolling luggage?

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That’s how I hoped it would be.
It actually is that way in some places.
Alas.

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You should only need 1 or possibly 2 remote mics and only if you struggle a lot in noise. It all depends on your lifestyle and brand of hearing aids. Roger mics cost about $1500 and other brands cost about $500. The Roger Select is probably best in noise and you could use it with other brands but would need a Roger MyLink neckloop to interface with a t-coil. Compatibility matters so ask audi and be sure you can return things after trying them. If you need to hear tv computer or phone you should use BT streaming.

Public venues (not houses of worship) with 50+ fixed seats are required to provide receivers and neckloops (they have a cable for the jack). You don’t need to buy any of that.

@sufhl i didn’t know this hmn I wish I did I’m not even sure my local AMC cinema has loop systems in place. They do have captiview screens that allow you to read closed captioning/subtitles on a small screen that you position from a drink cup which in my experience the software is glitchy at best I’d say 30% of the time it works great then other times it’s either not connecting, the reader battery dies halfway through or the system just errors out and despite reboots won’t work. I’ve had to have numerous tickets refunded as it’s the only way I can watch movies at theaters. The employers suggestion was oh come in on x night we do the captions on the screen itself and gave a very limited choice. The timing didn’t work with my husband’s schedule which was a bummer too.

@LoubyLou I would love to know how many movie tickets have been refunded to people with hearing loss. It is a lot! I’ve even been to movies about including people with disabilities that had no captions. It was an indie film so captions were not required. The distributor told me it’s okay because I could just enjoy the beautiful visuals.

I am that determined person that uses both the captioning and a neckloop at the movies. AMC has receivers and neckloops and you need to ask at the service desk. I wish more people would use them so others learn how much we need them to work well.

I didn’t even know that open captioning was a thing until today!

As bad as it’s been lately (and likely continue to be) for movie theaters, they should offer services for more people.

I read a report that 91.5% of people do not mind open captions. And for those that don’t like them, they could simply choose a different showing time!

Once I have my new hearing aids and go to AMC I shall ask about loop systems I’m originally from England and it was common for them to be installed in banks, cinemas and various places where it could be noisy Ive missed it out here in the states, there’s pros and cons to both closed caption systems do allow me to read as it’s what I’m used to but I’d be curious to see how a loop system sounds vs regular theater speakers expeciallg with the newer technology.

I doubt AMC has a loop. It is likely Infrared and you can pick up a receiver and neckloop at the service desk if you have active t-coil just put aids in that program