Auracast for hearing impaired

[ldsrussp]

So, I'm about to do a test with an self-purchased Auracast transmitter for hearing impaired in the Chapel. We don't have a stake tech clerk at present so guess as a former one myself it's up to me. Anyways, supposedly our building just got an audio system upgrade but I don't know where to go to find out what they did? Is there a standard upgrade being done in buildings in the US? I'm hoping there is still an easy way to get audio out of the mic that I can feed into the auracast transmitter. No idea if it will reach over the entire chapel but we will find out. This seems to be the far superior method going forward as I would expect things like Apple earpods to soon support Auracast and several hearing aids already do. I'll report back on any success but wondering if anyone else has tried this?

[russellhltn]

I've heard that the church is piloting Listen Technologies ListenWIFI. But I haven't heard much lately.

[ldsrussp]

Sounds like a terrible idea given how poorly the wifi tends to work in all of our buildings. I can't say for sure Auracast will be the future everywhere but pretty sure it will be so I don't know why they would bother with a point-to-point complex solution like that. Ug. I hope it goes nowhere unless someone can show Auracast to be a bust. I guess I'll have some real-world experience soon to relate.

[russellhltn]

I think the major attraction to ListenWiFi is it supports multiple languages.

[ldsrussp]

Auracast can easily have one channel per language but you still need the translation of course. Right now we solve the language issue using Microsoft translate. It works 'decently'. We clip a small mic to the podium mic to pick up the speaker and feed that to an ipad or whatever running a Microsoft translate session and then send out the session code on circles. Maybe this Listen Wifi product offers some of that integrated, dunno. I still think they should forget it and go to auracast as just simpler in the end.

[The_Earl]

Standard should be a Listen Technologies LT-800 72Mhz transmitter in your audio rack. We also got 8 LR-5200 recievers, neck loops and earpieces. The recievers came with a charging tray. These recievers are compatible with OTC headphones. The recievers were just left with the rack in non-decript boxes. A basic user guide was in the box.

This was all for one meetinghouse and one stake center upgrade in the last 2 years. I would expect any church-owned building in NA would have the same system. Our leased meeting space does not have this equipment.

The transmitter is only on when the pulpit mic is on. Any 72mhz reciever should work on channel A (72.1Mhz)

[The_Earl]

The 'record' jack next to our pulpit has been the best place for us to get audio. The back of our amp has line-level balanced outputs. These are not compatible with most equipment, but we have connected baluns to them for direct feeds at cameras and TVs

[russellhltn]

Standard should be a Listen Technologies LT-800 72Mhz transmitter in your audio rack.

Either that or the COMTEK brand. Yes, that has been the standard for well over a decade now.

Bu the church is experimenting with some new technologies that do away with requiring special receivers and use what most members already own.

[vjohnson]

Currently the only assisted listening support for those of us with hearing aids is to use the neck loop to couple to a tcoil in the hearing aid. But, technology has moved on and hearing aid manufacturing companies are putting more capabilities into their hearing aids so they need more space and most are now omitting tcoils. They focus on only bluetooth. It would be easy to just plug an inexpencive small commercial bluetooth transmitter into the current Comtek receiver, and I think it would work, but while the neckloop or earbuds will turn the Comtek receiver on, every bluetooth transmitter I have tried will not turn the Comtek receiver on. They probably have too high input impedance. Can someone talk to comtek and find a way to turn the receiver on?

[rmrichesjr]

Just a guess, but most likely the Comtek receiver's power control is based on detecting a DC path across the connector. It's fairly likely that your bluetooth transmitters have a blocking capacitor on the input. Adding a resistor in parallel with the connector might solve the problem and turn on the Comtek receiver. Pending any technical specifications from Comtek, a little experimentation could find a range of values that would work without reducing the signal level significantly. The resistor could be added either by splicing into a short extension cable or by using a Y adapter and putting the resistor in a plug body.