Hearing loop, Auracast™ broadcast audio, or both? How to choose for your venue
An installer’s plain guide to choosing between a hearing loop, Auracast, or both, with the ADA receiver math and what each costs.
The short answer
Short answer
Where a loop can be built, our answer is usually both: a hearing loop for telecoil users and Auracast for phones, earbuds and newer hearing aids, fed from the same audio mix. Where a loop isn’t practical, Auracast with loan receivers and neckloops. Keep a loop that works and add Auracast. Measure everything before handover.
Hearing loops are still the only assistive listening system that works with nothing more than the telecoil already in many hearing aids and cochlear implant processors: no app, no pairing, no loan receiver, essentially no delay. A loop that serves every seat is also the only system that removes the ADA’s hearing-aid-compatible receiver count.
Auracast reaches people loops can’t: listeners with compatible phones and earbuds, people whose hearing aids or implant processors support Auracast, and lobbies, overflow rooms and second languages. It usually needs no floor work.
Its limits today: iPhones can’t join on their own yet and only some Android phones can; most hearing aids in use don’t support it; joining takes a menu or app step; there’s a delay of a few tens of milliseconds, depending on the settings; coverage needs careful design for walls, crowds and a busy 2.4 GHz band; a dedicated performance standard for streaming to hearing aids (IEC 60118-17) isn’t forecast until November 2027; and in the US, rooms built or altered still need the full ADA loan-receiver fleet, with neckloops on a quarter of the receivers, plus signage.
So our default: loop plus Auracast from the same mix where a loop is buildable; Auracast plus loan receivers with neckloops where it isn’t; keep a working loop and add Auracast; replace aging FM or infrared with Auracast and consider adding a loop. Every system is verified by measurement.
Loop, Auracast and both, side by side
The table compares a well-designed system of each kind. On a phone, each row stacks. Prices are typical installed ranges for our work; your quote follows a site visit.
| Hearing loop | Auracast broadcast | Our defaultBoth, from the same mix | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who it serves | People whose hearing aids or implant processors have a telecoil, plus anyone with a loop receiver | People with supported phones and LE Audio earbuds, hearing aids that support Auracast, plus anyone with a loan receiver | Both groups at once |
| What the listener needs | A telecoil, already built into many hearing aids and implant processors | A supported phone and earbuds, a hearing aid that supports it, or a venue receiver | Whatever they already have |
| Joining | Switch to the T or loop program | Pick the broadcast in a phone menu or hearing-aid app, or scan a QR code | Telecoil users press T; everyone else joins the broadcast |
| Delay | Essentially none | A few tens of milliseconds, depending on settings | None on the loop; Auracast fed ahead of any loudspeaker delay |
| Installation | Wire under carpet, in saw-cut channels, under pews or in a ceiling; usually 1–4 days on site | No floor work; transmitters mounted high; usually 1–2 days | The loop job plus about a day |
| ADA hearing-aid-compatible receivers | Neckloop share not required when the loop serves every seat (§219.3, Exception 2); the receiver count still applies | Full Table 219.3 count, with neckloops on 25% (at least 2) | The loop removes the neckloop share if it serves every seat |
| What the design must handle | Metal in the building, room width, spill next door, listening height | Distance, walls, the audience’s bodies, mounting height, busy Wi-Fi | Both lists, with one combined test record |
| Privacy | Spill controlled by the layout (low-spill arrays) | Private broadcasts use an access code; the signal passes through walls | Chosen room by room |
| Typical cost | Simple sanctuary to about 300 seats: $3,500–6,000, plus receivers ($160–310 each). Large or high-metal buildings: $9,000–25,000+ | About 300 seats with 12 receivers, 3 with neckloops: $8,000–12,000 | Loop plus Auracast for about 300 seats: from $6,000, plus receivers |
| Upkeep | Few parts; check yearly and after any flooring or renovation work | Receiver charging and batteries, firmware, broadcast names; walk-test yearly | One annual visit covers both |
| Standards | IEC 60118-4, a mature performance standard | IEC 63087:2026 sets requirements for every type of system; a dedicated standard for streaming to hearing aids (IEC 60118-17) is forecast for November 2027 | Loop measured to IEC 60118-4; Auracast walk-tested and documented |
| Best fit | Rooms with many telecoil users; counters and small rooms | Where a loop isn’t practical; lobbies, overflow, languages | Most sanctuaries, council chambers, theaters and senior living rooms |
The biggest practical difference is what a listener has to do. A telecoil user presses one button. An Auracast listener opens a menu or app and picks your broadcast by name. Anyone else asks for a receiver.
Hearing loopHearing aid or implant with a telecoil, anywhere in the looped seating
- Step 1: Switch to the T or loop program
- Step 2: Listening
AuracastSupported phone and earbuds, or a hearing aid that supports it
- Step 1: Open the phone’s Bluetooth audio menu or the hearing-aid app
- Step 2: Pick the venue’s broadcast by name, or scan its QR code
- Step 3: Listening
Loan receiverAnyone, with earphones or a neckloop
- Step 1: Ask at the desk or usher station
- Step 2: Plug in earphones or a neckloop; the receiver is preset
- Step 3: Listening
Our recommendation by situation
Short answer
For most rooms with a lot of hearing-aid users, a loop plus Auracast. Where the building rules out a loop, Auracast with loan receivers and neckloops. Never rip out a loop that works. Fix a loop that doesn’t before deciding anything else.
- Sanctuaries, council chambers and halls where a loop can be built: loop plus Auracast from the same mix. Our guide for churches covers pews, balconies and committee questions.
- Where a loop isn’t practical (heavy steel, historic floors you can’t cut, temporary or multi-use spaces): Auracast plus loan receivers with neckloops.
- Service counters and small rooms: a counter or small-room loop.
- A loop that works: keep it and add Auracast alongside it.
- A loop that doesn’t work: find out why before replacing anything. We diagnose and repair loops installed by anyone.
- Aging FM or infrared: Auracast as the replacement, and consider adding a loop.
- Senior living: loop first, because residents mostly wear hearing aids that predate Auracast; Auracast adds reach for visitors and newer devices. See assistive listening for senior living.
- Theaters: both, with Auracast also covering the lobby and carrying audio description or a second language. See assistive listening for theaters.
- Courtrooms and side-by-side meeting rooms: a low-spill loop or a private broadcast, with spill checked at handover. See councils, courts and libraries.
Same room, two technologies
Short answer
Both systems can cover every seat in a 300-seat room, but they behave differently. A loop’s coverage follows the wire and stops close to it, so the work is in the layout and the building’s metal. Auracast coverage follows distance, walls and people, and carries through walls into the lobby and beyond.
- Within target (loop ±3 dB; Auracast −70 dBm or better)
- Loop wire, channel A
- Loop wire, channel B
- Auracast below target
- Test position
In plain English: a loop stays inside its wire; a broadcast reaches wherever its signal is strong enough, including the lobby.
The left panel is why “a loop is just a wire” misses the point. A single wire around a room about 70 ft wide would leave the middle seats several decibels weak, so a room this size gets a phased array: two interleaved wire channels that keep the field even and limit spill. The right panel is modeled with every seat filled, which is the only condition that matters for Auracast. The same pair of transmitters tested in an empty room would look better than it really is. Read how we design hearing loops for the building and how we design and walk-test Auracast systems.
Hybrid systems: one mix, two systems
Short answer
A hybrid feeds a loop driver and an Auracast transmitter from one assistive listening mix. Telecoil users get the loop with no delay; everyone else joins the broadcast. Done right, both carry the same clear speech at matching levels, with signs for both and one test record.
What makes a hybrid work:
- A dedicated mix. Speech-first and separate from the house mix, so changes for the room don’t change what listeners hear.
- The feed comes before any delay. Large rooms often delay the rear loudspeakers to line up with the front ones; sound travels about 2.9 ms per meter (0.9 ms per foot). Auracast adds a few tens of milliseconds of its own, so feeding it after that delay stacks the two.
- Levels matched. The loop is set by measurement to IEC 60118-4. The broadcast level is checked on more than one brand of hearing aid, because brands play the same stream at different volumes.
- Signs for both, the hearing loop symbol and Auracast signage, plus a QR join card.
- One record. Loop measurements and the Auracast walk test in a single commissioning report you can show your board.
Every loop quote we write shows an Auracast line, as an option now or a planned upgrade, so the choice is visible from the start.
Adding Auracast to an existing loop
Short answer
If your loop works, keep it and add Auracast fed from the same audio. Telecoil users keep pressing T, the loop keeps its ADA advantage, and people with supported phones and newer hearing aids gain a way in. Have the loop measured first: a new broadcast next to a weak or buzzing loop leaves half the system failing.
What changes: a transmitter mounted high and aimed at the seating; a feed from the same assistive listening send that drives the loop; a broadcast name, join cards and signs; and a walk test added to your records. You need more receivers only if your ADA count calls for them.
What doesn’t change: the loop wire and driver, the telecoil experience, and the loop’s status under §219.3, Exception 2, if it serves every seat. One annual check can cover both systems.
Rough cost: from $2,500 for one transmitter, the feed, signage and a walk test. Balconies, side rooms or extra languages add transmitters.
Start with a health check. Our Loop Health Check visit takes spot measurements against IEC 60118-4 criteria at sample seats and gives you a short report plus an Auracast add-on plan. The visit is $500 locally, credited in full toward any repair or upgrade you book within 90 days.
Replacing an old FM or infrared system
Short answer
An FM or infrared system already depends on loan receivers, so Auracast is a natural replacement: its receivers do the same job, and visitors with supported phones or enabled hearing aids can use their own. If you’re replacing it anyway, price a loop too. It’s the only option that serves telecoil users with no receiver at all.
Whatever you choose, the receiver fleet doesn’t go away. A 300-seat room needs 12 receivers, 3 of them with neckloops. They have to be charged, cleaned and handed out by someone who knows where they are. Neckloops and earphones with standard 1/8-inch (3.5 mm) plugs may be reusable if they’re in good shape; we check. Use the ADA receiver calculator for your seat count, and read the ADA assistive listening requirements before you buy.
Four common myths
“Auracast makes loops obsolete.”
Not as of October 2026. Most hearing aids in use can’t receive Auracast, iPhones can’t join on their own yet, and only a loop removes the ADA’s neckloop count. A loop installed today will keep serving telecoil users for many years, and Auracast can be added to it at any time.
“A $60 transmitter is enough.”
In a small room it may pass audio to a few phones. It doesn’t provide receivers, neckloops or signs, and it may not send the Standard Quality stream hearing aids need. An Auracast system for about 300 seats that meets the ADA’s receiver count is a different project: typically $8,000–12,000 installed.
“A loop is just a wire around the room.”
A loop is a designed magnetic field; the wire is the easy part. As a rule of thumb from our design software, standard reinforced concrete absorbs about 3–6 dB of the signal at 1 kHz and 9–18 dB at 5 kHz, which dulls consonants; we measure it on site. A single perimeter wire around a long, narrow room sags in the middle: at seated ear height, about 4 dB in a room 40 ft wide and 7.5 dB at 66 ft, before any metal. That’s why larger rooms get phased arrays.
“Everyone has a phone that can join.”
As of October 2026, iPhones can’t join an Auracast broadcast on their own. Only some Android phones can, and their earbuds must support LE Audio. Plenty of listeners have neither, and the joining step itself is a barrier for some.
What listener groups and standards bodies say
Listener organizations broadly agree with the approach above: add Auracast, don’t tear out loops. The Bluetooth SIG, which manages the Auracast brand, takes the strongest position.
- Bluetooth SIG (the body behind Auracast) said in a May 2026 blog post and in its Auracast FAQ that Auracast can satisfy the ADA, because radio-based systems are recognized.
- Hearing Loss Association of America says venues can meet their ADA obligations with Auracast if the deployment meets the standards, and advises buying hearing aids with both a telecoil and Auracast.
- Center for Hearing Access says it’s “too soon to say” whether Auracast satisfies the ADA, and expects loops and Auracast to coexist for years.
- The Department of Justice and the U.S. Access Board have published nothing specific to Auracast that we could find.
Our reading: Auracast can be part of an ADA system, but the Table 219.3 receiver fleet still applies, with neckloops on a quarter of the receivers, and visitors’ own devices don’t reduce it under the current text. No regulator has addressed personal devices. On standards, IEC 63087:2026 (published September 18, 2026) sets requirements for providing assistive listening systems of every type, and IEC 60118-17, for 2.4 GHz streaming to hearing aids, is forecast for November 2027. General information, not legal advice.
Costs side by side
Short answer
Count the receivers on both sides and they land in the same range: for about 300 seats in a simple building, a loop with its 12 loan receivers and an Auracast system with its 12 cost about the same. Steel, concrete and size push a loop up; receivers and labor make up most of an Auracast budget. A hybrid costs the loop plus the Auracast add-on, plus the receivers.
| Project | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Small room: TV lounge, meeting room, chapel under about 60 seats | from $2,500 |
| Simple sanctuary or hall, up to about 300 seats | $3,500–6,000 |
| Our default: loop plus Auracast from one feed, simple sanctuary or hall up to about 300 seats | from $6,000 |
| Large church, phased array or high-metal building | $9,000–25,000+ |
| Auracast added to a working loop | from $2,500 |
| Auracast for about 300 seats, with a 12-receiver fleet (3 with neckloops) and signage | $8,000–12,000 |
| A free written range first; a fixed-scope written quote after a site visit. Every loop quote shows the Auracast option. | |
Have a hearing loss yourself?
If you’re asking your church, library or residence to add a loop, we’re glad to help by text, email or a captioned video call, and we can join a committee meeting by video or in person when we’re nearby. Text 847-212-4216, email dave@equalaccessaudio.com, or see how to ask your venue.
Questions about choosing
Will Auracast make a new hearing loop obsolete?
We don’t expect it to for many years. Telecoils are already in many hearing aids and implant processors people wear today, a loop needs no app or pairing, and only a loop that serves every seat removes the ADA’s neckloop count. As of October 2026, hearing-loss organizations expect loops and Auracast to coexist for years. Plan the loop with an Auracast feed in mind and you can add a transmitter whenever you’re ready.
Is Auracast ADA compliant?
Auracast can be part of an ADA assistive listening system, but it doesn’t replace the receiver requirements. When a room is built or altered, the 2010 ADA Standards still call for the receiver count for its seating, a quarter of them usable with neckloops, plus signage. As of October 2026, neither the Department of Justice nor the U.S. Access Board has said anything specific about Auracast. General information, not legal advice.
Can we install a loop now and add Auracast later?
Yes, and it’s a good plan if the budget is tight. We design the loop with a spare feed from the same assistive listening mix and a transmitter location in mind, so adding Auracast later is a short visit: mount the transmitter, connect the feed, set the broadcast name and signs, and walk-test it. Every loop quote we write shows an Auracast line, as an option now or a planned upgrade.
Do hearing aids come with both a telecoil and Auracast?
Some do, but as of October 2026 reports conflict about which models carry both, so we don’t publish a list. The Hearing Loss Association of America advises asking for both when buying hearing aids. If you’re advising members or residents, the simplest message is: ask your audiologist to confirm the telecoil is switched on, and ask whether your next hearing aids can receive Auracast.
Most of our members have iPhones. Will Auracast help them?
Not directly yet. As of October 2026, iPhones can’t join an Auracast broadcast on their own. iPhone owners can join through the app for hearing aids that support Auracast, or borrow a receiver. Members with hearing aids that have a telecoil will be best served by a loop. That mix of devices is why we usually recommend both systems from the same audio feed.
Which is better for a courtroom or council chamber?
Both can work, and privacy usually decides. A low-spill loop keeps the signal from reaching the next room; a private Auracast broadcast uses an access code, though its signal passes through walls. Courtrooms need assistive listening even without a sound system. One good plan: a loop for the public seating and dais, plus Auracast for overflow rooms. We check spill at handover either way.
Not sure which one fits your room?
Send a few lines, a floor plan or some photos. David will reply within 2 business days with a first recommendation and what he’d need to see to firm it up.
- Sending details is free and commits you to nothing
- You talk to the person who does the work
- A written budget range from your photos, free