Make your congregations loopy! by Carol Agate

There is a big push this year in the hearing loss community to get more places looped, and churches are the places they are emphasizing.
 
So what's looping? First, here's how it works without looping. You go into an auditorium - or sanctuary - and sit through a lecture - or worship service - struggling to understand the words that often come through the loudspeakers as a garble. Or it might be like swiss cheese; you understand most of it but there are a lot of holes. Or maybe your church has assistive listening devices. The chances are that you can't find anyone who knows where they are. Or you get one and find the battery is dead. And if everything does work fine you first have to remove your hearing aids to put on headphones or an ear bud - hoping you don't lose the hearing aids and the ear pieces are clean.

Here's how it works if your church is looped. You enter, take you seat, flip the telecoil switch on your hearing aid, and enjoy all the sounds coming right into your ear. There's none of the distortion you get with a loudspeaker. There are no devices to maintain.

Looping can be expensive, depending on the size of your sanctuary. But once it's done it's practically maintenance-free. Almost everywhere you go in Western Europe you find auditoriums that are looped. In Michigan, too. Wisconsin's on its way. Contact me (carolagate at mac.com) if you want more information on installing a loop around the perimeter of your sanctuary.