Category: Projects

AWWA School @ Bedok, Singapore

Featured Project

Hearing Loop Installation at AWWA School

AWWA School @ Bedok, Singapore

AWWA School is a specialized institution that educates children between the ages of 7 and 18 with multiple disabilities and autism. The school caters specialized education with multiple disabilities and autism to grow the potential for independence and improve the quality of life of students with special needs.

 

Located at 50 Bedok Reservoir Crescent, AWWA School at Bedok is a focal point serving children with autism. The school also delves into collaboration opportunities with their stakeholders to expose the students to the various platforms in the community, whereby they could develop, adapt and establish the skills they have acquired.

 

Flat Copper Tape to be implemented on top of Metal Flooring of AWWA School’s MPH
Flat Copper Tape to be implemented on top of Metal Flooring of AWWA School’s MPH

Multi-Purpose Hall

One of the key features of the school is its Multi-Purpose Hall (MPH), which is designed to accommodate different activities and events. However, implementing a hearing enhancement solution in the MPH proved challenging due to the high metal loss associated with the metal flooring.

Before installation, it is essential to understand the type of flooring used to help us develop a solution for the construction needs. The type of flooring used in AWWA School’s MPH is metal flooring.

 

Our biggest challenge was to overcome the high level of Metal Loss while implementing Flat Copper Tape to provide the electromagnetic field as part of the Hearing Enhancement Solution.

 

What is Metal Loss?

  • The presence of metals near a loop will result in the signals being “bounced” back, resulting in a cancellation of the loop signal to a certain degree, affecting the Hearing Aid user with the Telecoil function.
  • Common Metals found in installation sites would be:
    • Rebars or wire mesh in concrete floor/walls.
    • Metal reinforcement in walls or ceilings.
    • Overhead metal support structures.
  • Metal loss results in a loss of high frequencies which causes the sound quality to be muffled.

When metal objects are present near a loop, signals are bounced back, causing some cancellation of the loop signal. Rebars or wire mesh in concrete floors and walls, metal reinforcement in walls or ceilings, and overhead metal support structures are all common metals in installation sites. Metal loss causes a loss of high frequencies, resulting in muffled sound quality.

 

Metal Loss Test

Why is Metal Loss Test required before installation?

  • Crucial to carry out Metal Loss Test, especially when there is a significant metal content in the construction.
  • To ensure that customers do not have to over-invest in a costly loop driver when it is unnecessary.
  • To have a guaranteed preliminary result, the designed loop system with the necessary factors will perform within expectations. Flat Copper Tape will be implemented on top of the Metal Flooring of AWWA School’s MPH.

To ensure that the school will not over-invest in a costly loop driver, a Metal Loss Test is required before installation. This test is essential when the construction has significant metal content. The designed loop system with the essential factors can perform within expectations by conducting this test.

 

AWWA School's MPH Metal Loss Test
Metal Loss Test carried out at AWWA School’s MPH to analyze preliminary results before installation of Flat Copper Tape.

 

Type of Loop: Low Spill Multiloop

 

To contain the signal spill not far from the loop boundary. Usually used to prevent the magnetic field generated by the loop from causing interference with electrical equipment like electric guitars and dynamic microphones around the stage area.

 

Challenges faced: High Metal Loss

 

Metal flooring of the MPH will result in a muffled or dull audio quality for Hearing Aid users.

 

Solution

 

To overcome this, the installation team used two sets of C14-2Ns amplifiers, which is a higher capacity driver that allowed the driver to compensate for Metal Loss and achieve audio quality and clarity on par with or exceeding the IEC 60118-4 standards, also known as the International Performance standard for induction loop systems.

 

Fat Copper Tape

 

 

Finished Hearing Loop Installation at AWWA School
Finished Hearing Loop Installation at AWWA School

 

Contact Us

 

If you are looking to improve the accessibility of your projects for people with hearing disabilities, consider our state-of-the-art induction loop system. Our system is designed to provide high-quality, clear sound to hearing aid users by creating a magnetic field picked up by telecoil-enabled hearing aids.

 

Don't let metal loss or other acoustic challenges prevent you from delivering an exceptional client experience. Contact us today at +65 6817 5100 or email us at hes@listeninglab.sg to learn more about how our induction loop system can help you create inclusive and accessible spaces. You can also ask for a quotation by providing us with the space requirements.

 

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The FM transmitter was set up to interface with the Movie server where it produced a balanced signal in output. However as the FM transmitter requires an unbalanced input, an adapter was needed to convert the signal from balanced to unbalanced as shown in the photo below.

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The FM transmitter was set up to interface with the Movie server where it produced a balanced signal in output. However as the FM transmitter requires an unbalanced input, an adapter was needed to convert the signal from balanced to unbalanced as shown in the photo below.

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The Listening Lab was awarded this project in Oct 2017 after its proposal to use a FM solution was accepted. The project was commissioned in Jan 2018.

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The Listening Lab’s Hearing Enhancement division very proud to be awarded the contract to build and implement a hearing enhancement system for the University Cultural Centre (UCC) of the National University of Singapore.

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The UCC renovation in 2018 provided a unique challenge to our team. It is a medium sized venue and has a hall for 1700 seats and a theatre for 455 seats and required hearing enhancement systems to be built in.

Hall:

New Flooring of UCC: Wood planks. Our approach was to implement Flat Copper Tape to provide the electromagnetic field as part of the Hearing Enhancement Solution.

Type of loop: Cancellation Perimeter Loop

The seating arrangement is not in a straight line. Moreover, the copper tape is embedded below the floor finishing, this could result in the chair installer bolting their seats onto the copper tape.

Challenges: The loop is very near to the stage, this could result in an “over spill” effect, which not only distorts signals but also could distort output from electrical musical instruments such as electric guitars or bass guitars.

Lots of coordination had to be done to make to ensure that during the chair installation, there is no damage to the copper tape that we installed.

Our solution involved installing a cancellation loop was installed before the perimeter loop, thereby reducing background noise was tremendously, avoiding the “overspill effect” mentioned above.

Theatre:

Type of flooring: Carpet – Flat Copper Tape

Type of Loop: Cancellation Perimeter Loop

Challenges: 

1. The cancellation perimeter loop is required to be installed onto retractable seating chairs. This can often result in damage to the loop when the chairs are retracted.

2. The installation of carpets might damage the copper tape as the carpet required to be cut after the installation process of the loop.

3. The installation of other fittings onto the retractable platform might also damage the copper tape as the copper tape was covered by the carpets, and therefore not visible to other contractors.

4. The copper tapes are installed on the different platforms therefore this could result in the field strength to be uneven.

Solution:

After an in-depth review, we provided this solution:

1. Holes to be drilled on the platform to connect all the copper tapes to the connecting cables below.

2. Detailed communication was conducted between us and the carpet supplier and warning tapes were placed on top of the copper tape before the carpet installation to ensure that the tape is not damaged.

3. Our team coordinated between the various vendors of UCC to ensure that anything mounted in the venue where our copper tapes were present, ensuring that other fittings did not damage our loop fittings.

4. Once the retractable chair drawing is received we had designed and repeated simulations for the cancellation loop to ensure that the field strength coverage is within the IEC 60118-4:2006. Our efforts were successful.

Our projects were successfully implemented and we're proud to have surpassed the IEC 60118-4: 2006 standards.

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Photo: theopentraveler

 

Madame Tussauds Singapore is a world famous Wax museum and tourist attraction at the Imbiah Lookout of Sentosa Island in Singapore. It officially opened on 25 October 2014 as the seventh Asian branch of the Madame Tussauds chain of wax attractions worldwide. Madame Tussauds Singapore is the only one in Asia that offers The Marvel 4D cinema experience.

 

 

The Listening Lab was awarded this project in Oct 2017 after its proposal to use a FM solution was accepted.  The project was commissioned in Jan 2018.

 

The FM transmitter was set up to interface with the Movie server where it produced a balanced signal in output. However as the FM transmitter requires an unbalanced input, an adapter was needed to convert the signal from balanced to unbalanced as shown in the photo below.

 

The hearing aid user will require to wear the FM receiver and neckloop around the neck. The neckloop will generate a magnetic field to communicate with the telecoil in the hearing aids, thereby allowing the user to hear directly from the audio source without surrounding interference

Madam Tussad diagram