Hearing Assistance

A couple of years ago BMPCNC made the transition from hearing assistance amplifiers to a t-coil, or induction coil system. The cost was borne by a generous (hearing-impaired) member of our congregation. It has worked quite well (though persons using hearing aids without the t-coil setting have not benefited from the switch). Here is an article about a t-coil user in New York, a composer of some renown. I think what is most interesting is the slow up-take on the part of US businesses and institutions making use of a t-coil system. I figured we were a little behind the times in getting our system installed; come to find out we're sort of on the cutting edge!

After he lost much of his hearing last year at age 57, the composer Richard Einhorn despaired of ever really enjoying a concert or musical again. Even using special headsets supplied by the Metropolitan Opera and Broadway theaters, he found himself frustrated by the sound quality, static and interference.

Then, in June, he went to the Kennedy Center in Washington, where his “Voice of Light” oratorio had once been performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, for a performance of the musical “Wicked.”

There were no special headphones. This time, the words and music were transmitted to a wireless receiver in Mr. Einhorn’s hearing aid using a technology that is just starting to make its way into public places in America: a hearing loop.

A hearing loop, typically installed on the floor around the periphery of a room, is a thin strand of copper wire radiating electromagnetic signals that can be picked up by a tiny receiver already built into most hearing aids and cochlear implants. When the receiver is turned on, the hearing aid receives only the sounds coming directly from a microphone, not the background cacophony.