First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, recently underwent a renovation that included components from Listen Technologies, manufacturer and distributor of assistive listening products.
The church’s floorplan of approximately 65 feet by 100 feet posed a challenge to providing comprehensive and consistent coverage for an assistive listening system. The use of two Listen Technologies MLD9 loop systems, whose cabling traversed the sanctuary floor more than 50 times underneath a complex combination of floor coverings, in addition to 23 Listen Technologies CMR3 calibrated receivers, assures that audio is available for all congregants.
“This was by far the largest loop project we have ever done,” observes Brent Everhart, sales engineer at Audio & Light, the Greensboro AV systems integrator that sourced the Listen Technologies system and installed it, in conjunction with Curtis Kasefang of the Theater Consultants Collaborative, the design consultancy on the project. The total square footage is over 6,500 square feet, and there was a unique challenge in keeping the cabling intact as the flooring was being installed.
“The materials are different in various parts of the room, with either carpeting or vinyl covering on the floor,” Everhart explains. “The concern was to avoid having the flooring installers damage the loop by cutting it as they installed the coverings. We trained them on the loop’s location, but we also set up an alarm system that would alert us via the Crestron touch panel control system if it was cut, so we could repair it before the floor was finished.”
Listen Technologies’ MLD9 loop system (with features such as Automatic Gain Control and Metal Loss Correction), provides an area of coverage of 13,990 square feet or can be used to drive two Perimeter Loop areas of 35,520 square feet, each with a clarity of sound for music and intelligibility of speech.
The MLD9 MultiLoop Driver provides a solution for situations where a simple loop around the room perimeter will not work.
Phased arrays, such as those used at First Presbyterian Church, provide a solution for buildings with metal structure or reinforcements by decreasing the spill of the magnetic signal outside of the room, allowing hearing loops to be installed in adjacent rooms without interfering with one another. Arrays can also be used to change the way two loops interact with each other, providing solutions to complex installation problems.
“Between improved signal strength and the control of overspill, we get a strong, consistent signal throughout the sanctuary,” says Everhart. “When the new systems were first used, at a service on December 21 of last year, everyone noticed the improvement. The Listen Technologies system made a huge difference in a very large space.”