About David Harmon and Equal Access Audio

In David’s words: what the work actually is

I’ve spent more than fifteen years on the hands-on side of hearing loops: walking the room before anything is designed, laying the wire, setting up the driver, and measuring the result across the seating. Most of that time I worked as a specialist subcontractor for established hearing-loop firms. They held the contracts. I did the installation, the commissioning and, often, the troubleshooting when something didn’t work.

The rooms have been churches of every size, theaters, libraries and senior living communities. Some loops went under carpet as flat copper tape, some into channels saw-cut in concrete, and some into a ceiling because the floor couldn’t be touched.

Most of what I know about loops I learned from fixing loops that failed. I’ve found tape that a carpet crew cut and then covered. I’ve found loops on slabs eaten from the inside by moisture trapped under vinyl flooring, a failure people still blame on the concrete. I’ve chased faults in wood floors that come and go as the boards flex. Each of those taught me something I now design around before the first wire goes down.

Since Auracast arrived, I’ve installed it too, again mostly as a subcontractor, in a large performing arts venue, a synagogue, a senior living community, a public library and churches. The one-transmitter rooms rarely give trouble. The larger venues are where design and testing earn their keep.

I use a wide range of professional test equipment for accurate verification and troubleshooting. Field-strength meters with frequency-response analysis referenced at 1 kHz show frequency response and background noise, not just a level. For Auracast I use a spectrum analyzer to see what else is crowding the 2.4 GHz band, plus test receivers that read a broadcast’s settings and lost packets, for tracking down failed joins and dropouts. Often I simply sit in a seat and measure at head height, because that’s where the listener is.

I bring a background in electro-acoustics, acoustics, electronics and physics, and a working knowledge of hearing loss: how telecoils and hearing aids behave, and what a listener actually hears. But I’d rather you judge the work by its measurements than by my résumé.

Experience, and whose projects it was

The experience behind Equal Access Audio is more than fifteen years of David’s field work: hundreds of hearing loop systems installed, commissioned and troubleshot, most of them as a specialist subcontractor on projects led by established hearing-loop firms. Equal Access Audio LLC was formed in 2026 to take that work direct.

We don’t present those jobs as Equal Access Audio contracts, and we don’t name those venues: the client and the project leadership belonged to another firm. When we describe that work, we use this wording:

Work Equal Access Audio does under its own contracts is described by venue type and region, never by name, and appears here once the venue agrees. Figures on this site are labeled: a field measurement, a model prediction, or an example with illustrative values.

How Equal Access Audio works

Four working rules sit behind every proposal, visit and report.

Evidence before claims

We describe what we can show. A loop we install is “measured against IEC 60118-4 at handover” because that’s what happened, and the report lists every reading. We try not to claim what we can’t show, and when a fact changes quickly, such as which phones can join an Auracast broadcast, we put a date on it.

Diagnosis before replacement

When a system disappoints, the first answer offered is often the most expensive one: tear it out. Most underperforming loops have a cause that can be found: a cut wire, the wrong feed from the mixer, metal nobody accounted for, a driver set up badly. We measure, find it, and only then talk about what, if anything, to replace. Here’s what we check when a hearing loop isn’t working.

The model is precise; the field is not

Design software calculates a room exactly as it’s described. Real buildings hide things: rebar heavier than the drawings say, a steel beam under the floor, a dimmer rack humming on the other side of a wall. So a prediction is where a design starts, never proof that it works. We check every system with a meter before handover, and when the model and the meter disagree, the meter wins.

The numbers are illustrative; the pattern is real. We don’t score the two feet nearest the wire, where every loop runs strong. Across the rest, our own design target, not an IEC rule, is 95% of seats inside ±3 dB, and 90% the least we’d accept in a difficult room, so one low aisle seat may be fine or worth a fix. Either way the report lists it by position, and you decide with us. See how we measure every system against IEC 60118-4.

One report, one version of the truth

Every project ends with one written record: what was installed, how it was set, and what the meter found. When a reading is corrected, the correction replaces it, so there is never a second, rosier version in a drawer. The report is yours to keep, to show your board, or to hand to whoever services the system next.

You talk to the person who does the work

David leads every project personally and does the design, measurement and commissioning himself, with a helper on two-person install days. There’s no sales layer between you and the measurements.

Why an installer builds software

David built Hearing Loop Designer because the field needed better design tools: faster to use, and drawn the way loops are actually built. It models rooms the way he installs them, with series-wound phased arrays, metal loss set area by area, the listening height you choose, and drawings where every wire has a dimension an installer can follow. BroadcastPlan Pro applies the same thinking to Auracast, from transmitter placement and the ADA receiver count to the walk-test record at handover.

The goal David holds both to, in his words: “Probably the most important thing in this whole program is that it will always give right answers.” The software is checked against known answers, installers and a manufacturer’s design team use it too, and the meter still has the last word on every job.

On our own projects, the software’s output appears in proposals labeled as a model prediction, and the commissioning report shows what the meter found. What the software does, and how it shows up in a proposal

Relationships and disclosure

Equal Access Audio is multi-brand. We choose equipment for the room, and we tell you about any business relationship that could affect a recommendation.

• Many brands. David has hands-on experience with Ampetronic, Contacta, Univox, Williams AV, Bettear, Auri and other systems. Loop drivers are chosen by the current and voltage a loop needs, not the watts printed on a box; Auracast transmitters by coverage, audio quality and how they connect to your sound system.
• No badges. You won’t find manufacturer logos, or dealer, partner or certification badges, on this site. Our case for a product is how it measures in your room, not a badge.
• Software licensing. Equal Access Audio licenses its loop design software to a hearing-loop manufacturer, and we may license our software to other equipment makers. That’s a software business, kept separate from the equipment choices on your project.
• Talks with Auracast makers. We talk with Auracast equipment makers about our planning software, and makers sometimes lend us equipment to test. None of that decides what goes into your room.
• Disclosed in your proposal. Any brand relationship that could affect a recommendation is disclosed in writing in your proposal. If you want to know why we chose a product, ask, and we’ll explain the choice.

Our independence policy

“Independent” is a word consultants and owners rely on, so we use it only when it’s true. These three rules are our policy.

In practice: because David has worked on hundreds of systems as a subcontractor, some loops we’re asked to check are ones he helped build. We’ll still measure them and tell you plainly what we find. We’ll also tell you that we worked on it, and we won’t call that review independent.

If you hire us to write a specification or check another installer’s work, you get advice that isn’t steering toward an installation contract for us. Integrators and consultants can read more about how we work on your projects.

How we write

The guides on this site are drafted with AI assistance from David’s notes, his field data and the sources cited, then reviewed, corrected and approved by David before they’re published. The judgment, the field lessons and the responsibility are his.

• Dated. Guide pages carry David’s byline and, once he has reviewed them, the date of that review. Anything that changes fast, such as Auracast device support or a new standard, carries an “as of” date and is reviewed every quarter.
• Sourced. We paraphrase the ADA Standards and IEC standards rather than quote them, and link to primary sources such as ada.gov. ADA content is general information, not legal advice.
• Labeled. Every figure says what it is: an example with illustrative values, a model prediction from Hearing Loop Designer or BroadcastPlan Pro, or a field measurement with its date and instrument.
• Corrected. If you spot an error, text or email us. We fix it and update the review date.

Short answers to the questions people ask most are collected in hearing loop and Auracast questions, answered.

If you work with a one-person practice

Owners reasonably ask who looks after a system in ten years. The answer is built into the handover.