Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Soundfield systems/induction loops: easier listening

[Allison Tom (allisonrtom]

I am really appreciating and learning from the responses to my question
about sound enhancement in meetings & common spaces.  I see my audiologist
this morning and look forward to learning more from her as well.

I absolutely agree that there are people other than me who have trouble
hearing what's going on and would love to find a system that will help
everyone, whether or not they need or invest in hearing aids.

Allison Tom

On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 4:14 AM Laura Polich via Cohousing-L <
cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org> wrote:

> I see that people are discussing how to improve the acoustics in meetings
> and other large and noisy rooms. Wonderful.
>
> I see some people here are advocating for induction loop systems. Looping a
> room is often a good idea and can improve ability of people to hear, BUT,
> you have to have a telecoil switch on hearing aids or another device to
> pick up the signal and get it into the listener's ears. The loop itself
> does not put out an acoustic signal. It sends out a magnetic signal which
> hearing aid telecoils can pick up and translate to acoustic energy that is
> processed by the hearing aid. The problem is that telecoils are not so
> common nowadays. You can usually order a telecoil program or a switch when
> buying hearing aids (or cochlear implants), but for some companies you have
> to choose between the telecoil and some other feature (can't have both
> features). Often people choose the other feature because they don't know
> how useful telecoils can be. So I hesitate to recommend loop systems
> because they might not be available to some hearing aid users and they do
> very little for people who could use some acoustic boost but are not yet at
> the stage of getting hearing aids.
>
> A better option (in my humble opinion) is a sound-field amplification
> system. This is a system that transfers the signal from a microphone to
> speaker(s) placed around the room. Just like loop systems, the speaker
> talks into a microphone but the sound is amplified for everyone (acoustic
> to acoustic, rather than magnetic to acoustic). The goal is simply to make
> the signal (what you want to hear) louder than the ambient noise (what you
> don't want to hear). It does not take that much volume to do that. A signal
> 5 dB louder than ambient noise (5 dB signal-to-noise ratio) will sound a
> bunch better, and a signal-to-noise ratio of +10 (signal is 10 dB louder
> than ambient noise) is usually sufficient for almost everyone to hear
> easily (people with severe hearing loss might need a higher signal-to-noise
> ratio). The amplified signal is available to everyone -- those with hearing
> aids, but also those not using hearing aids. Everyone in the room hears
> with less effort. These are recommended for classrooms which are rather
> noisy environments. Daybreak Cohousing has been using a sound-field
> amplification system for at least five years. At first we had many members
> who did not want to spend the money on the system because they felt that
> they personally did not need amplification so it would be a waste ("we hear
> just fine without an extra piece of equipment.") With persistence, we did
> get the system, and after a few weeks of using it, people kept coming up to
> me saying how much easier and less stressful it was to sit through meetings
> -- and they were the ones with "normal" hearing! The people with hearing
> loss were even more ecstatic. Now we use the soundfield system at every
> plenary, and we have also used it at many community functions, and even
> outside groups using our Common House use it, and it always gets rave
> reviews. It is portable, so it can even be taken to off-campus events.
>
> We bought a "Redcat" system from the Lightspeed company in Tualatin, Oregon
> (suburb of Portland) (https://lightspeed-tek.com/about/). The Redcat is
> easily set up, easily portable and easy to use. It is commonly used in
> elementary classrooms (where teachers want a trouble-free, easy-to-use
> system) and one of the people who benefits most is the teacher because they
> no longer have to shout to be heard by the students (a lot less fatigue at
> the end of the day). The loudspeaker plugs into an electrical outlet, but
> the microphones have to be charged with a charger. The biggest problem we
> have with the system is when someone forgets to charge the microphones
> before the meeting.  We chose Lightspeed because it was a company close to
> us so it would be easier to get troubleshooting or repair support, and it
> was less expensive. There are multiple good companies making soundfield
> amplification systems all over the US (and internationally) so there are
> many options to choose from.
>
> Laura Polich
> Daybreak Cohousing
> Portland, Oregon
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