Over the last few days I have been working on two separate tender documents produced for completion by electrical contractors that required the involvement of a specialist design company as part of the process. The specialism is in the design along with a quotation for the installation of hearing loops (HLS). One building is for a major University and the other as it happens for my own GP Practice. Both required hearing loops in rooms that were in the same location on two separate floors. The one for the GP practice was produced by the same company that has produced at least two others with almost identical challenges. The problem is that magnetic fields can be controlled horizontally but not vertically so that rooms can set out as adjacent to one another with hearing loops in each room and there will be no interference if the loop is designed appropriately. That said the design for adjacent loops is potentially more complex and may be more costly than for loops in rooms which are not alongside one another although in modern buildings with reinforced concrete construction the design and cost difference is much more modest. However the critical issue is to find ways to persuade architects and building designers to not locate rooms that need hearing loops installed to be on adjacent floors and in the same footprint to one another. Over several years we went around a number of Architect practices to carry out CPDs on this very theme. On one occasion at the end of our session an Architect explained how frustrated they were that we had given them this information six months after their latest building which conflicted with the information had been completed. On another occasion we were asked by an electrician who had won a contract to wire up a building, to quote for a series of loops in the building. That particular case did not involve conflicts between the rooms, but wheras the company had anticipated the cost of the loops being £3,000 – £5,000 in the whole building when they estimated the costs, our quote for £27,000 to match the requirements set out in the tender was something of a challenge. So along with Architects, builders and electrical contractors need to understand the nature and process involved in fitting hearing loops if buildings are going to be designed and constructed and fitted in a way that will give the 2m – 3m people with hearing aids in our nation the best experience when the users of the building choose to use audio systems for meetings and other purposes such as watching films and video conferencing.
If you find any of these posts relevant to some of the social or political issues of the moment do leave a comment or contact me directly (click on my photo for my contact details)
Blog Stats
- 74,489 hits
-
Join 1,981 other followers
-
Recent Posts
Archives
Top Rated
Categories
- Afghanistan (27)
- Brighton & Hove (621)
- Casey Review (5)
- Charities (493)
- Church Teaching (104)
- Community Safety (267)
- Data Retention and Investigatory Powers (17)
- Deaf & Hard of Hearing (60)
- Economics (541)
- Education (414)
- Environment (205)
- EU Referendum (541)
- Health Reform (115)
- Housing (78)
- Immigration (107)
- Journalism (128)
- Justice Issues (219)
- Lobbying Bill (65)
- Network Rail (63)
- Obituary (20)
- Parliament and Democracy (2,979)
- Phone Hacking (7)
- Planning Rules (56)
- Police & Crime Commissioner (203)
- Policing (392)
- Scottish Referendum (21)
- STEM (46)
- Syria (90)
- Think Tanks (15)
- UK Riots in August 2011 (15)
- Ukraine (14)
- Uncategorized (48)
- Welfare Reform (72)
- Yemen (44)
- Youth Issues (382)
Twitter Updates
- The Government needs to be made accountable in the same way that they have held Liverpool under accountability… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 12 minutes ago
- 5 Years ago more than 250 people in #Wealden signed a proportional representation petition. There is now a new PR p… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 21 hours ago
- 5 Years ago more than 400 #Lewes people signed a proportional representation petition. There is now a new PR petiti… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 21 hours ago
- 5 Years ago nearly 300 people in #Hastings signed a proportional representation petition. There is now a new PR pet… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 21 hours ago
- Amber Rudd
- Andrew Griffith
- Boris Johnson
- Brexit
- Brighton & Hove
- Brighton & Hove City Council
- C-19
- Caroline Ansell
- Caroline Lucas
- Charities
- Charity Commission
- Charity Commission for England and Wales
- Chris Grayling
- Conservative Party
- Coronavirus
- COVID-19
- Daily Telegraph
- Daniel Hannan
- David Cameron
- David Davis
- Democracy
- Department for Education
- Donald Trump
- Eric Pickles
- EU Referendum
- European Union
- FareShare
- Foodbanks
- George Osborne
- Gillian Keegan
- Government
- Green Party
- Henry Smith
- Home Office
- House of Commons
- House of Lords
- Huw Merriman
- Iain Duncan Smith
- Independent Candidates
- Jacob Rees-Mogg
- Jeremy Corbyn
- Jeremy Hunt
- Katy Bourne
- Keir Starmer
- Labour Party
- Lib Dem Party
- Lloyd Russell-Moyle
- Lobbying Bill
- Local government
- Maria Caulfield
- Matthew Hancock
- Member of Parliament
- Michael Gove
- MPs
- NHS
- Nick Gibb
- Nigel Farage
- Nusrat Ghani
- Parliament
- Peter Bottomley
- Peter Kyle
- Police and Crime Commissioner
- Priti Patel
- Sajid Javid MP
- Sally-Ann Hart
- Small Businesses
- SME
- Sussex
- Sussex Police
- Syria
- Theresa May
- Tim Loughton
- Tony Blair
- UKIP
- YMCA Downslink Group