Loop design packages, IEC 60118-4 commissioning, rescue on problem jobs and Auracast design, delivered in your format. Your client stays your client.
Short answer
We handle the part of a loop or Auracast job most AV crews see a few times a year: the field-strength design, the metal-loss call, the IEC 60118-4 commissioning and the fix when a system fails its test. You keep the contract, the client and the rest of the scope. We hand you drawings, schedules and reports your crew and your client can use.
The wire is the easy part. The design decides whether the back rows get a steady signal, whether speech stays crisp despite the building’s steel, and whether the room next door hears the meeting, all before the flooring goes down.
It’s how David has worked for most of his career. Over more than 15 years he has personally installed, commissioned and troubleshot hundreds of hearing loop systems, primarily as a specialist subcontractor on projects led by established hearing-loop firms. Equal Access Audio offers that role to integrators, electrical contractors, consultants and architects across the Midwest, and design reviews anywhere.
At a glance
Take the whole loop scope, or one stage of it.
We model the room in Hearing Loop Designer, the software David built, at the height it will be measured at (about 4 ft seated, 5.5 ft standing). You get the layout; drawings with every wire position dimensioned, and single-phase sheets so your crew lays one phase of an array at a time; driver sizing by current and voltage, feeder included; and a materials list complete down to the adhesive tape, because crews buy exactly what the list says.
We measure the installed loop against IEC 60118-4: field strength at 1 kHz referenced to 400 mA/m and held within ±3 dB across the listening area, frequency response from 100 Hz to 5 kHz within ±3 dB of the 1 kHz level, and background magnetic noise against the level the standard recommends. The test signal comes from a separate device at the rack, never from the meter. The report lists every reading. Commissioning a loop installed by others is priced from $950 per room, plus travel. See how we test a loop to IEC 60118-4.
When a loop fails its test or nobody uses it, we find the cause before anyone replaces anything. Usual suspects: metal loss guessed low, a perimeter loop too wide for the room, a phase error in an array, mixed driver models, tape cut under new flooring, or a feed with the wrong mix. Turning the driver up fixes none of them. How we diagnose and repair failing loops.
We plan Auracast in BroadcastPlan Pro for a full room; one person in the signal path costs about 10 dB at 2.4 GHz. The plan sets transmitter count and mounting (typically 6–10 ft high with about 20% overlap), the feed from your DSP or Dante network ahead of any loudspeaker delay, stream settings hearing aids can join, and the ADA receiver count. At handover we walk-test it stop by stop. How we design Auracast systems.
Before anything is built, we check a submittal or draft spec: the layout against the room width (a perimeter loop wider than about 33–39 ft approaches the ±3 dB limit in the middle on its own), the metal-loss assumption, driver headroom, the spill strategy, and whether measured IEC 60118-4 results are required at handover.
The loop must be settled before concrete is poured or flooring goes down. For pours we specify tough wire tied off the rebar, a spare set along the same paths, and tests before, during and after. For tape under carpet we brief the flooring crew and leave a cut-wire alarm on the circuit.
Before anything is covered, every circuit is proven on a test driver. During a pour, a nicked wire shows up as a small DC voltage against the rebar, which is why the choice between the two sets waits until the concrete dries.
Triage rule: lay two sets; after the slab cures, the set with the least leakage to ground becomes the working loop and the other stays as the spare.
On site or by video: floor prep so copper tape stays stuck, solder joints that last, star-quad feeder wiring, reading array drawings, and what a commissioning check involves.
We work for you, under your contract, on your schedule.
In plain English: you own the client relationship, from first email to closeout.
Consultants and owners need to know whose side a tester is on. Three rules apply to every job.
Independence policy
David has worked on hundreds of systems as a subcontractor, so we check before taking on a review. If he designed or installed the system, we tell you and don’t call the review independent; if he only serviced it, we tell you that too. Read the independence policy and our disclosed relationships.
A full package, by stage:
Never locked in
Standard manufacturer equipment, full as-built drawings and a commissioning report at handover, so any qualified installer can service your system.
A second opinion on a design doesn’t need a site visit. Send the drawings, room dimensions, construction details and the proposed equipment, from any brand. We model the design, check it against what fails in the field, and send back a written review with findings ranked by risk and specific fixes. A single room is $450; a complex room or a multi-zone Auracast system is $750.
Where the scope is clear, we quote a fixed price per room or job, in writing, before work starts. Open-ended site work is billed by the day; ask for the current day rate with your dates, and we’ll put it in writing with travel. Venue prices are in our pricing guide.
| Service | Price |
|---|---|
| Remote design review, single room | $450 |
| Remote design review, complex room or Auracast multi-zone | $750 |
| Commissioning only, loop installed by others, per room | from $950 |
| Specialist day for integrators | Day rate on request |
| Travel beyond about four hours | Quoted per project |
| Written scope and price before any work starts. | |
Every report names the instrument, its serial number and the date of the measurements.
A transmitter can show strong signal in every seat while hearing aids fail to join, because the stream is 48 kHz only or the source behind it is muted. At every walk-test stop we read the on-air settings and listen.
Most hearing aids join only Standard Quality streams (16 or 24 kHz); a 48 kHz-only broadcast locks them out.
For purchasing offices and prime contractors
If your firm designs its own loops, Hearing Loop Designer is available by request. For Auracast, BroadcastPlan Pro has a free guest workspace with no account needed. Both are the tools behind our own proposals. What each tool does, and how to try it.
No. As your subcontractor we don’t solicit your client, during the job or after it, and their questions about the project go back through you. It’s one of the three rules in our independence policy, and we’ll put it in writing for any job, on your non-solicit form or ours.
Yes. We scope our part as design, layout, supervision and commissioning: we mark out the routes, check the work before it’s covered, prove each circuit with a test driver, and measure the finished system. Tell us the labor arrangement when you send the job, and we’ll write the scope to fit.
Put your dates in the first message: bid due, pour, flooring and handover. We reply within 2 business days with when we can do the work. Design reviews don’t wait for travel, and site days are often grouped by region, so the earlier we know, the easier it is to fit.
Plans, room dimensions, construction notes and your dates are enough to start. David replies within 2 business days with a scope and a price.