I Got "Looped" Last Night

December 19, 2011

Judy and I went with another couple to see the Irish Tenors last night.  Our local performance art theatre, Van Wezel, was recently looped.  I am a member of the Hearing Loss Association of Sarasota (HLAS) which has been advocating looping. Only western Michigan under the impetus of Professor Myers at Hope College has been as successful as Sarasota has been (http://www.hearingloop.org/).

This was the first time attending Van Wezel this season (Frankie Valli and Seinfeld on the docket next month for us) so I switched to my T-Coil setting.  The microphone and speaker are OFF--no outside noise--and loop transmits stage sound system in an FM like manner right to my inner ear--plenty loud and clear--misses a little richness and similar to a good transistor radio. I can now enjoy plays and the spoken word again—even though deaf in one year as I labor through the eight week “gestation” period for activation of the Envoy Esteem implant in the left ear.  Interesting in that when audience claps (I can't hear that—no hearing aid microphone), the three guys speak to each other and I can hear the comments BUT the audience cannot!

I quote from the newspaper account on looping of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Center



“The "induction loop" system magnetically transmits sound to hearing aids and cochlear implants with telecoils (T-coils). The hearing loop system transmits performers’ voices from the stage microphone directly into a hearing aid or cochlear implant equipped with telecoils for clear sound, allowing wearers to use hearing aids as wireless loudspeakers.

The copper wire of the Van Wezel’s hearing loop is placed at floor height of the hall. A loop driver drives the electromagnetic field, which allows a hearing aid or cochlear implant’s T-coil to function as an antenna directly linking the listener to the Van Wezel’s sound system. This system complements the hall’s existing infrared hearing system.”

I sure hope the copper thieves don’t figure a way to steal the loop!

More good news.  HLAS obtained a grant last month from a local foundation to loop 13 theatres in our area.  One of the reasons we chose Sarasota over Naples or Tampa as our Florida home was the dedication to the arts in the community.  There are five Actor’s Equity stages and eight community and special event stages.

More quotes from the HLAS press release:

“The hearing loop is the only system that sends clear, clean and interference-free sound from the stage’s microphone directly into the hearing aids or cochlear implants of the hearing impaired in the audience.

The 10 theatres includes 13 stages, which will receive the grant: Asolo Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre (Keating), Florida Studio Theatre (Gompretz), Manatee Player’s Theatre, Neel Performing Arts Center (Main), Neel Performing Arts Center (Pinkerton), Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Orchestra, The Player’s Theatre, Venice Community Center, Venice Theatre (Main), Venice Theatre (Pinkerton) and the Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

Each stage will receive a hearing loop system that transmits the sounds of the performance through an amplifier and induction loop to any hearing aid or cochlear with a T-coil, which is a tiny wireless receiver. Virtually all new hearing aids, and some 75% in use today, are equipped with a T-coil. Each theatre will also receive a box office loop system and 5 loop receivers that hearing loss individuals without T-coils or hearing aids can use to access the loop system”.