How They Did It: The Loops

Our winner for Best Innovative System or Solution in the 2019 CEDIA Awards (Asia Pacific) developed a system that integrated devices called hearing loops, which provide a wireless signal to a user’s hearing aids.

The tech here is essentially invisible, but the photos give you a sense of the space.

We’ll let Smart Home Solutions explain in their own words:

“The unique objective here was to place hearing loops throughout the residence that integrated with the AV zones and house music system. The client asked that whatever was playing in that room or area, whether It be TV or house music, was to be broadcast into the hearing loop system. The owner wanted to be able to play a different source in each zone, walk between them and not have any overlap or ‘cross talk’ between zones.

“For this project we used the Crestron house music amp to receive all of the home’s music sources and audio from the TVs. We then sent the ‘loop’ audio to a processor — as well as amplified audio to concealed Sonance speakers.

“The audio received by the Crestron DSP (digital signal processor) was processed and distributed to each Contacta hearing loop zone amplifier at a set volume. The owner can then adjust the volume locally with his hearing aid volume controls.

“We added the ability to isolate and turn off the hearing loop zones from the Dynalite lighting control panels and Crestron remote controls. The reason for this was if the owner was entertaining and had background music on, he could turn this off quickly to better hear his guests.”

CEDIA’s judges noted that this  project is exactly the kind of assisted-living solution that member firms are uniquely suited to provide. Smart Home Solutions demonstrated their ability to "think outside the box" when presented with this unique engineering challenge.

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Equipment List:

Contacta
Crestron
Dynalite
Sonance