Hi Danielle,
The Art Institute uses ALD's for occasional public gallery tours and regularly for specific educational gallery programs.
• What brand do you use? Do you like it? Hate it?
The Art Institute uses the
Group Tour System (GTS) by
Antenna Audio. Sound quality is great and they're built to last. Since they're charmingly analog (a big knob to turn on and control volume), operation is fairly easy for guests to learn. Our devices are a few years old and no longer in production, so I'm not sure how useful this info will be. Some comparable current technologies would include:
As other respondents indicated, newer technologies permit two-way communication or party-line. One-way communication has served us well enough, since gallery guides typically repeat the questions and comments.
• How intuitive are they to charge in-between uses? Is charging/getting ALDs ready for use usually completed by docents/paid guides or sales/service staff?
We have a couple 36-unit suitcases. Units recharge when placed in the suitcase. The suitcases are stored in the education office. They are heavy, but have wheels. Most of the time we simply transfer the units to a tote bag. Each unit takes two AA rechargeable batteries and recharge when placed in the suitcase. After about 6 years of constant use and charging, I began replacing batteries. Now after about 8 years, I have needed to replace all batteries once. Education staff, interns, and volunteers typically manage the GTS deployment and maintenance, which adds a non-trivial layer of administration.
• How well do the ALDs interface with hearing aids?
Standard headphones that easily fit over hearing aids. The industry-standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack is a blessing, because guests can use their own earbuds or "re-transmitter" for t-coil, if they have either.
Our tour guides generally prefer lapel mics over headset mics. It's mostly a vanity thing. I've found sound quality of the headset mics to be superior, though.
Cheers,
Lucas
------------------------------
Lucas Livingston
Assistant Director, Accessibility and Lifelong Learning
Art Institute of Chicago
llivingston@artic.edu------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 04-18-2019 10:08 AM
From: Renee Birk
Subject: Portable assistive listening devices
Hi Danielle,
We use Listen Equipment at the aquarium. It has worked well for us over the years. With all of the water and concrete that we have in the building it can be difficult for us to find equipment that will transmit, but this equipment has been successful.
As Douglas mentioned, we clean the ear pieces off with alcohol between uses. Our sets include encrypted two-way communicators and over-the-head earpieces with built-in boom mics. We also have charging stations for these, so you just slip them into the slots and they are good to go. We have had both volunteers and staff prep or clean the equipment after tours experiences.
They also work well with some hearing aids. They're compatible with T-coil compatible hearing aids, which is the standard for this sort of equipment and uses Bluetooth tech. To do this, you cannot plug a headset into the receiver. There are other types of hearing aids that don't use Bluetooth, where the best bet is to just use the headset with the headphones attached and adjust volume so it transmits through your hearing aid(s) comfortably.
Please let me know if you have any other questions.
Best,
Renee
------------------------------
Renee Birk
Assistant Director
John G. Shedd Aquarium
Chicago IL
Original Message:
Sent: 04-16-2019 01:20 PM
From: Danielle Schulz
Subject: Portable assistive listening devices
Hello everyone,
As part of a building renovation, the Denver Art Museum is reviewing many tools and resources we currently provide visitors with disabilities. In particular, we are looking at replacing our out of date and very cumbersome portable assistive listening devices (ALDs) that are used on public tours. I would love to hear from the group about the ALDs you use at your organization.
• What brand do you use? Do you like it? Hate it?
• How intuitive are they to charge in-between uses? Is charging/getting ALDs ready for use usually completed by docents/paid guides or sales/service staff?
• How well do the ALDs interface with hearing aids?
• Has anyone use wireless portable ALDs?
Any other information is very much appreciated!
Cheers,
Danielle
Danielle Schulz
Manager of Adult and Access Programs
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers (What are pronouns and why do they matter)
(720) 913-0074
dschulz@denverartmuseum.org
Denver Art Museum
100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
Visit www.denverartmuseum.org and sign up for our e-mail updates. The Denver Art Museum salutes the citizens of metro Denver for helping fund arts, culture and science through their support of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).