How do I feed audio into a laptop from the chapel audio system?

[jrgorman]

We have a sister who cannot hear but has an app on her phone and laptop that will convert audio to text. The problem is that there is too much noise around her for the software to be effective. If I could wire audio directly to hear device (laptop seem easier), that would help. Any suggestions?

[rmrichesjr]

I'm aware of two practical options:

On most reasonably recent systems I have seen lately, there is a 1/8" phone jack labeled "record out" or something similar somewhere in the chapel. I have seen it under or near the sacrament table or next to the pulpit. You'll want to make sure the signal level is right for your application.

You _could_ take the output of one of the radio receivers intended for assisted listening. You should be able to adjust the level with the volume control on the receiver.

[lajackson]

If I could wire audio directly to her device (laptop seem easier), that would help.

rmrichesjr beat me to it. I would just add that the direct method probably would work best. If you use an assisted listening device you will regularly be changing batteries.

You can also look for an output near the clerk's table, if your meetinghouse is old enough to have one of those.

[russellhltn]

While the suggestions above would work for sacrament meeting, they're not likely to work for Sunday School or Relief Society (unless it's held in the chapel).

I'd suggest experimenting with a plug in microphone. A better mic with some directionality and gain might be enough to get it to work, be more portable, and more useful in different situations.

I posted in another thread about Google's Live Transcribe for Android app. Maybe I'll remember to give it a try on Sunday. As I recall, it works pretty well as long as things are loud enough.