Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
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Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
1–10 of 47 posts
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#2A 20 year old friend recently had a hearing aid fitted. Despite the aid, audio quality remains crappy in many of the places we gather.
Curious around the technology and value of Audio Induction Loops.
Would love to hear anyone’s experiences, insights and thoughts on the tech.
One of those niche technologies that you don’t use, unless you do use it.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#3They are a pain in the arse to set up properly and you really need a (edit: very patient, thank you for putting up with all my sine tones, Tommy) deaf person with a suitable hearing aid to help you set it up. If the loop is the wrong length and has the wrong impedance you'll never get the amp balanced up properly, and you can't just take the installer's word for it.
Beyond that I have very little experience of them.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#4IIRC a lot of NYC Taxis have them? (or at least, a mark on the side saying "Induction Loop")
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#5Hearing aids are at a frustrating crossroads at the moment, IMO. In my experience, a lot of the recent hearing aids don't seem to support induction loops. It often seems to be a choice between that or Bluetooth... and Auracast isn't ready yet.
I've had Phonak bilateral hearing aids for 5 years, and Starkey unilateral for ~5 years before that. None of those have supported induction loops.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#6They are a pain in the arse to set up properly and you really need a (edit: very patient, thank you for putting up with all my sine tones, Tommy) deaf person with a suitable hearing aid to help you set it up. If the loop is the wrong length and has the wrong impedance you'll never get the amp balanced up properly, and you can't just take the installer's word for it. Beyond that I have very little experience of them.
FWIW, it is also possible to get standalone induction receivers that you can plug headphones into, which can be useful for "is this working" checks (for example https://www.ampetronic.com/products/ilr3-audio-induction-loo...). However you really need someone with hearing aids to tell if it's useful or not.
I visit the theatre a lot: ~50 West End visits in 2025, plus several regional venues. It's amazing how many times I've had to abandon the hearing assistance system because it doesn't work well... too quiet, distorted, delayed, poor balance between voices and instruments. Sometimes it just isn't functional at all, and nobody's noticed.
While I'm on the subject: saying "it's a loud show, you'll be able to hear fine" is a bit like telling someone who's short-sighted but has no glasses that "it's a bright show, you'll be able to see". It's not just about volume, but clarity and understanding.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#7This is a potential public good category that could be (mostly) provided at-cost or fixed profit by a multi-country non-profit consortia. Hearing aids and assistive devices are too damn expensive and proprietary, way too expensive for most poor, disabled, and elderly people worldwide.
Edit: I honestly don't know how I will function when I get older because I'm likely to be alone and blind from ARMD.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#8I see them less and less.
Recently an acquaintance got hearing aids and when asked about the T functionality (to listen to induction loops) they didn't even know about it.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#9A 20 year old friend recently had a hearing aid fitted. Despite the aid, audio quality remains crappy in many of the places we gather. Curious around the technology and value of Audio Induction Loops. Would love to hear anyone’s experiences, insights and thoughts on the tech. One of those niche technologies that you don’t use, unless you do use it.
We have one in our church, as all churches in the UK are legally required to have I think (many other venues too). As another commenter said you can get separate receivers, so I got one at one time to help with audio quality for live streaming. The loop signal comes straight out of the church PA, so from all the microphones and so the audio quality was very good, but there was a lot of hiss. I don't know if that's always the case with induction loops. At one time it stopped working - someone cut one of the connections back to the loop amp - so I was able to test it, which is handy.
We have several people who depend on it, including the church organist, so we soon hear if it's not working. He says it's working really well.
My Grandmother says the one in her church (which is nearby) doesn't work well at all and she usually doesn't hear much. I'm not sure why. She also finds the one in our church good, so I think they must have some problem.
I would think it could be worth contacting someone in charge of the venue(s) if it's somewhere you go regularly. I would imagine it heavily depends on how the whole thing is set up though - quality of microphones etc. We have lectern mics, singer mic, lapel mics for priest and a wide field mic. on the altar, so pretty good coverage, and they all go into an auto switcher thingy. I think it would need to be set up by someone who at least half knows what they're doing.
Re: Anyone have experiences with Audio Induction Loops?
#10Hearing aids are at a frustrating crossroads at the moment, IMO. In my experience, a lot of the recent hearing aids don't seem to support induction loops. It often seems to be a choice between that or Bluetooth... and Auracast isn't ready yet. I've had Phonak bilateral hearing aids for 5 years, and Starkey unilateral for ~5 years before that. None of those have supported induction loops.
Why is Auracast not ready yet?