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Can you other (small, and otherwise) exhibitors tell me what you are using as hearing aids for the hearing challenged? Are you happy with what you have and are your customers happy, as well? And does anyone know what the ADA requirement for these systems, like how many units per number of customers? Thanks for your help. Paul

I can't remember exactly what our hearing impared system is called at the moment, but it's the one which sets up FM radio stations in each theater. It was the cheapest system at the time we added them (about $150 per system. I am not very happy with it. The band width that it covers is so crowded with real radio stations in our area that it's hard to tune it in. We've had not customer complaints except when the employee handing them out forgets to check the battery in the radio. We ususally have to tune them in for the person. Don't remember what the code is, but we have about 5 radios available for our five auditoriums and that's about 4 more than we have ever used at one time. we have maybe 3 or 4 people that use them regularly.

In Belfast, maine we have the summer home of The National Theatre Workshop for the Handicapped. Seen them on 60 Minutes? We have no hearing assits but I'll ask what they'd like best and report back. It's pretty wild, they bring in about 200 mildly to sverely handicapped people every week. In a town of 6000 it makes quite an impact. They are very easy going and there's no activism: they get along with everyone in this old town that wasn't build very handi-friendly. Be back.

I'm in the process of installing 5 Phonic Ear infrared systems in our theatre. they work well. It's best to hook them up to the output of your center channel amp. We mount them to the rear wall pointed at the screen and the infrared bounces off of the screen for good coverage.

For "deaf & dumb" systems I've installed the Ultra Stereo units (infrared). I have also experimented with the FM radio stuff too and have had good results with both systems.

Check out the WGBH "Media Access Project" website:
http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/mopix/index.html

You've probably heard of their work on captioning, including the "rear window" closed captioning technology.

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John P. Pytlak
Senior Technical Specialist
EI Worldwide Technical Services
Research Labs, Building 69
Eastman Kodak Company
Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Telephone: 716-477-5325
Fax: 716-722-7243
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