Tourtalk TT 40 hearing system
The Tourtalk TT 40 hearing system is a personal wireless audio system, which can help hard of hearing people to hear in noisy environments or over long distances.
A system comprises of a lapel microphone connected to a transmitter worn by the presenter, and a receiver with earphone or inductive neck loop worn by the hard of hearing person.
How it works
Example 1
The problem
A person who is hard of hearing wants to attend a lecture at a village hall with poor acoustics. The lecturer needs to be able to walk around the front of the hall during her presentation and remain hands-free so she can describe her topic in more detail. The lecturer also wants to show a video which has a commentary, during her presentation.
The person who is hard of hearing knows that they will struggle to hear the lecture, as the hall doesn’t have an induction loop fitted. By relying on the integrated microphone on their hearing aid, the lecturer’s voice will be mixed with other noises within the hall e.g. people walking and chairs moving on the wooden floor, traffic noise each time the door is opened, the projector fan noise, people chatting, etc. The lecturer’s voice will also be degraded, as the reverberant acoustics make the speech intelligibility very poor.
The solution
The presenter wears a lapel microphone connected to a Tourtalk transmitter. This gives her the freedom to move throughout the hall. When she wants to play the video she simply mutes the microphone and connects the (supplied) aux lead, either to the laptop headphone output or the hall’s sound system.
The person who is hard of hearing wears a discreet receiver with either an inductive neck loop (to work in conjunction with their hearing aid on the ‘T’ setting) or earphone/headphones. They can then listen to the lecturer and adjust their volume to a comfortable level. As the system has a range of approximately 60m indoors they can sit wherever they like. As the person is hearing the lecturer’s voice directly, they do not hear the background noise.
If there are any questions from the floor during the lecture, the lecturer can either repeat the questions before answering them, or un-plug her lapel microphone and pass the transmitter to the person asking the question. This person can then speak into the integrated microphone on the top of the transmitter before passing the transmitter back. This ensures the hard of hearing person can hear what is said.
Example 2
The problem
A theatre company is staging an outdoor play in a castle grounds. A temporary sound system will be set-up to provide amplification to the audience. To enable the events company to comply with the Equality Act, they are required to provide a system to assist people who are hard of hearing.
A conventional induction loop would be expensive to set-up, could only cover a specific area and could cause Health and Safety issues, because a wire would have to be run around the perimeter. An infrared hearing loop system could not be used, as it is an outdoor event.
The solution
A Tourtalk TT 40 is a wireless FM system that can be used without any of the above issues. The transmitter can be fed directly from the sound systems desk and covers a distance of up to 120m.
The audience members who are hard of hearing can be issued with a receiver and inductive neck loop (or headphones) before the event. During the show they can sit anywhere within range of the transmitter, and adjust their own personal volume.
As the Tourtalk TT 40 system can accommodate up to twelve transmitters simultaneously, other transmitters can be used on different channels for audio description (for partially sighted or blind people) or simultaneous interpretation for foreign tourists. There is no limit to the amount of receivers that can be used.
A wide range of accessories is available for the Tourtalk TT 40 system including microphones, headphones, storage cases and chargers.
To see the equipment in more detail please click here Tourtalk TT 40.
For more information please contact us.
Downloads
Tourtalk TT 40 tour guide system
