Hearing in Church ... or other public places

#1

Hi All,
So, some of us have a problem with hearing what’s going on in church. I’m guessing it’s a problem that would appear in other venues, like theaters and public forums. In olden days, churches had little hand-held speakers in certain pews that folks could use to hear better, but I think those are mostly a thing of the past. My church allegedly has such things, but they’re off in a back room, unused, presumably because they’re no longer compatible with our current sound system.

In more recent times, I’ve read about churches that have a telecoil loop installed that will “stream” sound to people with telecoil-compatible hearing aids (perhaps other devices?). Does anyone have an idea how much it would cost to outfit a church with a telecoil loop? My impression is that telecoils are going out of style, so this doesn’t sound like a good option to me, but then I don’t really know. I do have telecoil-compliant HAs, but have yet to find a place — airport, church, dial phone — where the telecoil will actually work.

So, I’m thinking about bluetooth. It seems to me that one might connect some kind of bluetooth transmitter to the church’s sound system. Then, people could pair their HAs with that bluetooth connection and actually be able to hear what’s going on. Alternatively, the church might have a stash of BT head phones they could hand out to us hearing-impaired folks. Does anyone know if such a thing exists and how much such a system might cost?

TIA

2 Likes
#2

My church installed a Phonak Roger System.

It can be used with people who wear no hearing aids as well.

3 Likes
#3

Those handheld devices are FM receivers and they still exist but people don’t like using big visible receivers, often with earbuds. I use this system by plugging in a neckloop to the receiver and going to my t-coil program. You may want to try that. The transmitter might actually still be tied in. Looping a church depends on size but is likely to cost over $10K. In the US, not enough people know what a t-coil is, if they have one and if it is enabled. Loops are wonderful if all these things get sorted out. Bluetooth LE Audio is emerging that will feature “broadcast” audio and be much less expensive than a loop. BT can bring connectivity confusion and switching into the broadcast may require a device like a smartphone.

1 Like
#4

I would LOVE that.

WH

#5

Our church does have the loop System installed and it works great. Also the movie theaters in this area have loop systems that work.

1 Like
#6

Hi Larry,
Until recently, I lived near you. >30 years in Lowell. I’ve moved an hour north and west.

I haven’t been wearing HAs long, but I have had the struggle for a long time. Haven’t always sung in worship because I felt like I couldn’t be sure I wasn’t off key. Not understanding everything. I just thought the acoustics were bad. I somehow thought it was never my hearing that could be bad!

I didn’t see my church going telecoil and so when I was being fitted this summer I didn’t push for telecoil in my HAs. Without knowing anything about Roger I went with Phonak HAs and then later found out about Roger On.

I’ve only had my Roger On a week. It didn’t help in music worship time. It seems to focus on speech and distorted everything else. I used the HA music program. But for the announcements, morning prayer, and sermon I used locked pointer mode on the roger and it was great. I propped a book to aim the roger where I wanted to hear, I could sit back and listen comfortably. Best experience for those parts of service so far.

@Zebras mentioned a Roger system for the church, I would love that if it didn’t distort the music!

Blessings,
WH

1 Like
#7

My understanding is that installing a loop system is not expensive and pretty simple to do. It’s basically just running a wire around the perimeter. But I don’t know about cost. You probably can get info on line about how to do it

#8

Here is an example of a solution you can contract to have installed.

American Hearing Loop - Installation and Cost

People usually still need to have had their HCP turn on telecoil capability. Sometimes they need to enable it in the situation as well.

We JUST had new carpeting laid down recently at church while there was no in-person attendance, and no loop was installed. So I’m not holding my breath there. I didn’t pick an HA with telecoil capability.

WH

#9

Well if your hearing aid doesn’t have telecoil than a loop system isn’t going to work

#10

An example… I had the audi activate a particular program on my aids for Bluetooth. Then I have to manually switch to that program to activate Bluetooth

#11

I live in W. Michigan, one of the most looped areas in the USA – thanks most notably, I think, to the advocacy of a college professor who suffers from severe hearing impairment. Many of the older, larger church facilities are looped, but my own church is renting a smallish space and does not use a sound system at all. In many European countries, on the other hand (according to what I have read), public buildings are required to be looped.
When I first started investigating hearing aids, I read claims that loop systems and T-coils were going to be replaced by Bluetooth; but at least one manufacturer claimed that everyone would have to be using the same brand of hearing aid.
In my opinion, a problem with Bluetooth is that intervening human bodies would tend to attenuate the signal, so it might work only in a comparatively small space or, in a larger space, would require the BT transmitter to be mounted high up so that the signal path is direct to the users’ hearing aids without any intervening bodies.

1 Like
#12

Zebras, can you tell us more about that Roger system? What kind of equipment is installed in the building? What device do people use if they have no hearing aid, a telecoil hearing aid, a non-telecoil Phonak hearing aid, or a non-telecoil non-Phonak hearing aid?

#13

I’ve seen people promoting some sophisticated FM-based systems for this but a few years later they seem to have sunk without a trace.

I hate to be the human broken record, but the answer is Bluetooth. Just not right now unfortunately. The latency of current generatioin Bluetooth Audio makes broadcast audio uworkable. It’s also a 1-1 system. Even more unworkable.

LE Audio is almost ready for release (it has been for a while now, admittedly) and replacing loop systems was one of its design goals. First, LE Audio has to be ratified by the Bluetooth SIG, then we wait for hardware. Chipsets that support LE Audio on smartphones and earbuds are already available, so maybe the wait won’t be long for support on those devices. Broadcast systems probably rely on a critical mass of people carrying the right hardware, so that’s more problematical.

A single transmitter in the ceiling of a church is probably all you’d need. No need for the user to pair.

#14

@stevepriceloco

We have the Roger Touchscreen and lots of myLink’s with headphones attached.

1 Like
#15

I sympathize with you, on all counts.

Either with or without my hearing aids, music now sounds so distorted and off key that I can’t enjoy it. In church, from the radio and TV, my CDs, none of it sounds right. I was a musician, but no longer.

And I found I have 2 options for worship: I can either attend in person, have no idea what is said, and go up for Communion, or sit at home and watch on TV, follow along using both my hearing aids and closed captioning, but not get Communion. The pandemic has made this second option the only safe one for me, for now.

It is so frustrating.

#16

Do you feed an output from the sound system into the Roger Touchscreen? Or is it at the front with the person speaking?

WH

#17

@WhiteHat

We have 1 x Touchscreen and then lots of Mics (I’ve just search what the real name is).

It’s called a Pass Around Mic.

https://www.deafequipment.co.uk/product/11079827/3PRPAM/Roger-Pass-around-Mic

1 Like
#18

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?

#19

The larger the space, the more complex and costly. The $10K is based on experience with two public installations.

#20

I think there is a vicious circle: In areas where loops are not common, people don’t bother with aids that have a T-coil option; and where few people have aids fitted with T-coils, facilities don’t consider it worth the cost of installing loop systems.