Where we work: Chicago, Wisconsin and across the Midwest
Chicago-based, with most of our recent direct work in Wisconsin. Here’s what a visit costs by distance, how region days work, and where we’ve worked.
Chicago-based, across Illinois, Wisconsin and the Midwest
Short answer
Chicago-based. We work regularly across the Midwest, and farther for the right project. We’re based in Buffalo Grove, in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, and we group visits by area into region days so travel stays fair wherever you are.
In practice, “regularly” means northern and central Illinois, southern and central Wisconsin, northern and central Indiana, and southwest Michigan: the shaded area on the map.
“Farther for the right project” means exactly that. Larger installations, design work, commissioning and rescues of systems that aren’t working are often worth the drive, inside the four states and beyond them.
- About an hour’s drive: the local visit fee
- Where we work regularly
- Farther for the right project
- Our base, Buffalo Grove
In plain English: inside the shaded area, we’re probably near you on a region day already. Outside it, ask. We travel farther when a project needs us.
How travel works
We keep travel fair by planning around it: photos and a short call first, then a visit grouped with others in your area. Here’s the order things happen in.
Step 1: Send photos
The room from front and back, the loop driver or amplifier rack, the mixer, and any drawings you have.
Step 2: Short call
What people hear, where and since when. Many questions get answered right here, with no visit, and you get a written budget range.
Step 3: Visit on a region day
Surveys, health checks and service calls in your area are lined up on the same trip.
Step 4: Written next steps
A recommendation, a drawing and a flat price, or a one-page health check report.
Region days
When we’re in an area for one job, we line up surveys, health checks and service calls nearby on the same day. If your dates are flexible, a region day is the most economical way to get us into your building, and we’ll tell you when the next one near you is planned.
What a visit costs
The first call and a written budget range from your photos are free. A site visit is $500 within about an hour’s drive of Buffalo Grove, or anywhere on a day we’re already in your area; longer trips are quoted before you book. The full fee comes off the installation, repair or upgrade if you go ahead within 90 days, or within 180 days for grant-funded and board-approved projects when we agree it at booking.
| Where you are | Visit fee |
|---|---|
| Site visit or Loop Health Check visit | $500 |
| Site visit, about 1 to 2½ hours away (Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford, northwest Indiana) | $750 |
| Site visit, about 2½ to 4 hours away (Springfield, Peoria, Green Bay, Indianapolis) | $1,000 |
| Travel beyond about four hours | Quoted per project |
| Every dollar of the visit fee comes off the installation, repair or upgrade if you go ahead within 90 days. | |
For a loop you already have, that visit is our Loop Health Check visit, with a short report you keep.
Beyond the regular area
Travel beyond the regular area: quoted per project. Travel time and lodging at cost. It’s written into your proposal before you agree to anything, and every other price is on our price guide, with what drives each range.
Where we’ve worked
Most of our recent direct work has been in Wisconsin, from Madison to the Milwaukee suburbs, plus central Illinois: churches, senior living and community buildings. Before Equal Access Audio, David spent more than fifteen years working across Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana as a specialist subcontractor, in churches, theaters, libraries and senior living communities.
Wisconsin matters to us for another reason. It has a dense network of hearing loops, much of it built years ago through the work of local advocates. The Center for Hearing Access lists roughly 850 looped venues in Wisconsin, about 700 in Michigan and about 340 in Illinois (as of May 2026). Many of those systems haven’t been measured since the day they went in, which is why we offer a flat-fee health check.
If you’re in Madison, Green Bay or Indianapolis, “Chicago-based” can sound far away. In practice, a region day puts us in your building on the same terms as a venue in the Chicago suburbs.
What we do when we’re in your area
- Hearing loop design and installation for sanctuaries, council chambers, theaters and service counters
- Auracast™ broadcast audio systems, on their own or added to a loop that already works
- Hearing loop repair when a loop hums, fades or has gone quiet, whoever installed it
- Commissioning and verification to IEC 60118-4, with a written report you keep
By type of building: hearing loops for churches, council chambers, courtrooms and libraries, senior living communities and theaters and performing arts centers.
Farther away, or no travel at all
Some work is worth a longer trip: designing a large or difficult system, commissioning a loop someone else installed, rescuing a project that isn’t performing, and larger installations. Tell us about the project, and we’ll tell you plainly whether it makes sense for us to come.
Some help needs no travel at all. Integrators, consultants and installers anywhere can send drawings for a remote design review ($450 for a single room, $750 for a complex room or a multi-zone Auracast™ system); here’s how we work with integrators and consultants. And Hearing Loop Designer and BroadcastPlan Pro run in a web browser wherever you are: see the design software David builds.
Questions about travel and visits
Do you charge for travel?
The visit fee includes the travel, and it depends on the drive: one flat fee within about an hour’s drive of Buffalo Grove, or anywhere on a day we’re already in your area, and a higher fee for longer trips, shown in the table on this page. A day we’re already in your area brings the fee down. Beyond about four hours, travel is quoted per project: travel time and lodging at cost. Every dollar of the visit fee is credited if you go ahead.
Is the first step free?
Yes. The first call and a written budget range from your photos are free. A site visit is $500 within about an hour’s drive of Buffalo Grove, or anywhere on a day we’re already in your area; longer trips are quoted before you book. The full fee comes off the installation, repair or upgrade if you go ahead within 90 days, or within 180 days for grant-funded and board-approved projects when we agree it at booking. It’s the same visit, and the same credit, for a new system, a health check of an existing loop, or a repair.
We’re outside Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. Can you still help?
Often, yes. We travel farther for design work, commissioning, rescues of systems that aren’t working, and larger installations. Integrators, consultants and installers anywhere can send drawings for a remote design review, and many troubleshooting questions can be narrowed down from photos and a call before anyone travels.
How soon can you get here?
We reply within 2 business days. The visit date depends on where you are: the next region day near you is usually the quickest and most economical option. If there’s a deadline, such as a loop that died before a big service or a meeting, say so when you write, and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can meet it.
Are we coming your way?
Tell us your city and what you need. We’ll tell you when we’re next nearby and what a visit would cost.
- 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