Hearing Every Word

In courtrooms, lecture halls, museums, and houses of worship, clear audio is essential. Assistive listening systems have long been associated with ADA compliance for people with hearing loss, but today the category is expanding well beyond regulation. From multilingual museum tours to smartphone streaming and emerging Auracast integrations, assistive listening is increasingly about accessibility, engagement, and improving the overall audience experience.

Assistive listening systems have historically been thought of in relation to regulation. Public venues with amplified audio systems were (and still are) required to provide listening assistance for individuals who were hearing impaired, and many facilities relied on the minimum number of receivers necessary to satisfy requirements established by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.

But the market is experiencing a shift.

AV professionals, integrators and facility owners increasingly recognize that accessibility should not be treated as an afterthought. Instead, it's becoming part of the overall user experience strategy—not simply as an accommodation, but rather a way to create more inclusive and effective communication experiences for everyone.

Beyond ADA Requirements

Today, assistive listening does not only benefit people with diagnosed hearing loss, but also aging populations, non-native language speakers, and even individuals who are seated too far from a sound source to clearly understand what’s being said in acoustically challenging spaces. Interference from background noise, reverberation, and even distance can impact intelligibility even in well-designed environments.

“It’s not always about hearing loss,” explained Kim Franklin, chief marketing officer with Ampetronic | Listen Technologies. “Sometimes it’s just the environment—because of how the building is designed, or the size of the crowd, the language that’s being spoken, or the surrounding noise. Having that audio clarity just helps everyone have an overall better experience.”

To that end, technology leaders in assistive listening such as Listen Technologies (founded in 1998) and Williams AV (celebrating its 50th anniversary) have considerably expanded their offerings over the years and now feature a variety of solutions that address almost every type of scenario. Solutions range from RF, IR, and Wi-Fi, as well as Bluetooth and induction loop systems. Another company, Bettear, launched commercially in 2020 and entered the U.S. market earlier this year.

While the conversation around assistive listening has expanded, compliance remains a critical consideration in many installations. ADA requirements are generally tied to occupancy levels and seating capacity, with the number of receivers increasing based on the size of the venue. Typically, a percentage of those receivers must be hearing aid compatible, often through the use of neck loops or other telecoil-compatible solutions that allow users to connect directly with hearing aids or cochlear implants.

While assistive listening requirements can apply across a wide range of facilities and environments, it doesn't typically include houses of worship. “It’s true, houses of worship generally aren’t required to meet ADA assistive listening requirements unless they function as public assembly spaces,” explained Tony Braun, VP of North American sales and marketing at Williams AV. “But accessibility is about more than compliance—it’s about making sure everyone can fully participate. And that’s where the moral part of it comes in. It's about doing the right thing and making spaces accessible, whether or not they're required to be.”

Braun said many conversations begin with customers seeking an inexpensive ADA-compliant solution, but often evolve into broader discussions about audience demographics, venue experience, and whether users should rely on venue-provided devices or their own smartphones.

Accessibility Systems

One of the biggest shifts occurring within the market is the growing distinction between accessibility systems and experience systems. While the technologies may sometimes overlap, the intended purpose of each integration can be very different.

Accessibility-focused systems are designed primarily to support people with hearing loss or auditory processing challenges, and are installed to satisfy ADA requirements. These solutions are typically induction loop systems, RF systems, infrared assistive listening systems, and neck loops and telecoil-compatible devices.

“For a long time, we really only had a few options,” explained Marty Fornelli, senior design engineer at Diversified. However, he noted that traditional options each come with tradeoffs. For example, induction loops can be costly and disruptive to install, since they are placed inside of the concrete flooring, and RF systems require infrastructure. Infrared is often favored in environments such as courtrooms where security is key, because it’s a line-of-sight solution that limits its expanse.

Accessibility systems are particularly important in spaces where speech clarity is essential, such as courtrooms, lecture halls, houses of worship, and theaters. For many users, these systems can dramatically improve participation and comprehension by delivering audio directly to a receiver, headset, or compatible hearing device while minimizing the effects of background noise and distance.

Listen Technologies offers a range of solutions, including its T-Loop hearing loop (or induction loop) system for those with hearing loss via their hearing aid or cochlear implant. Its Listen RF system wires audio sources to a transmitter, while listeners use ListenRF receivers to tune in to the audio source. And for applications where security is essential, its ListenIR (infrared) system transmits audio to anyone with a receiver in the line of sight of the emitter.

Similarly, Williams AV offers diverse loop systems for visitors with T-Coil-enabled hearing aids and cochlear implants, including its Digi-Loop counter, perimeter, and dual-loop systems. The company also offers wireless RF systems such as its FM+ systems and its SoundPlus IR systems for small and medium-sized areas as well as its IR+ systems for larger environments.

Experience Systems

A broader category of listening technologies has emerged that focuses less on accessibility compliance and more on enhancing the visitor experience. These systems are designed for all users, not just individuals with hearing loss, where audio becomes part of the storytelling experience itself.

This includes self-guided tour solutions, multilingual interpretation systems, group tour communication platforms, smartphone-based audio streaming, and newer Bluetooth broadcast audio technologies. The biggest shift comes from the latest Auracast technology, built on Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) audio that allows one audio source to transmit to many compatible receivers at the same time.

One of the most significant trends shaping the category is the movement toward personal device audio delivery. Rather than relying exclusively on dedicated receivers distributed on site, the newer systems increasingly allow users to stream audio directly to smartphones, earbuds, hearing devices, or other Bluetooth-enabled products they already own.

This approach offers several advantages. For venues, it can reduce the operational burden associated with managing, charging, cleaning, and distributing dedicated hardware. For users, it creates a more familiar and personalized experience, allowing individuals to control volume and listening preferences directly from their own devices.

Dawn of Auracast

Technologies such as Auracast broadcast audio are helping accelerate this transition. Because it enables audio broadcasts to be transmitted to multiple compatible devices simultaneously, Auracast solutions can potentially create new opportunities for public audio accessibility and engagement. Similarly, Wi-Fi-based streaming platforms allow facilities to deliver audio content directly to visitor smartphones through apps or browser-based interfaces.

“There were certain technologies that we had been using for years,” said Braun. “But what's changed over the last 10 years, and even more recently, is that we asked how we can make the experience even better by bringing that audio directly to somebody's own device.”

Braun said Wi-Fi streaming introduced the concept of personal device audio, but latency and deployment complexity limited adoption. Auracast improves on that with low-latency Bluetooth LE audio that doesn’t require pairing and supports broad interoperability. “Any compatible device can tune in,” Braun noted.

Williams AV offers its Infinium Auracast system, while Listen has its Auri solution and Bettear has a line of Auracast products. Some of the benefits of these Auracast solutions include improved audio quality, reduced power consumption, improved interoperability, easier development of hearing aids and TWS earbuds, new audio device types, and a much larger transmission range.

“The beauty of Auracast is that it has really long-term implications,” added Franklin. “The more devices that come on the market, including AirPods, earbuds, headphones and smartphones, the more people will be able to use Auracast. You can simply walk into any venue that has it, look for the channel you want to listen to, and you can connect your earbuds. We really do think that over the next five to 10 years, it's going to be the most widely adopted audio system because it offers such easy access.”

“Auracast checks all the boxes,” said Fornelli. “While you still need to think about every scenario as unique, Auracast has become the default for me. It offers the best coverage for most applications.”