ListenWIFI, a platform developed by the Utah-based Listen Technologies earlier this year, should be operational at USC by the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, Mikey Shaffer, the company’s consultant liaison, said in an interview last month. He said the system functions by accessing beacons near lecture halls and other spaces on campus that cover specific ranges. This represents an upgrade of the Listen Everywhere platform already available in the school's Digital Creative Lab and e-sports arena, where users must select a channel to access streamed audio.
Both technologies filter out background noise and work with Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids or cochlear implants, Shaffer said, but ListenWIFI also comes with the option of not using a smartphone. USC will provide assistive-learning LWR-1050 receivers to those who don’t have phones or prefer not to use one. Anyone on campus will be allowed to access the system, not just those who are diagnosed with hearing loss.
“It enhances the experience for everyone,” Shaffer said. "It will touch so many students.”
She said the system for managing ListenWIFI’s receivers, beacons, mobile apps and servers is cloud based, and managers can password-protect audio channels, track inventory and generate QR codes that smartphone users can scan to access audio and language-translation apps if needed.
Shaffer added that this technology is fully compliant with the American with Disabilities Act and international compliance requirements for serving the hearing impaired.
Listen Technologies spokeswoman Marybeth Roberts explained that, while users don't have to know them, channels are still involved in the process. The beacons tell the receivers or smartphones what channel to connect to when the user is within a specific range of the unit.
“Imagine a student with hearing loss entering a classroom …” Roberts wrote in an email last month. “Her smartphone or LWR-1050 receiver will automatically trigger to connect to the channel streaming the audio for that space. She walks into a biology classroom that has a beacon and immediately hears the instructor's voice or the audio coming from a TV screen via her smartphone or receiver. She does not need to find the channel on her smartphone or receiver. The audio stops streaming to her device when she leaves the space.”
This technology will also support communication on campus tours, in performing arts centers, fitness and student centers, and for sporting events, Roberts said.
Chi Hang Lo, an AV/IT solutions architect at USC, said he was unaware of any other U.S. university campuses that have implemented this technology. He could not estimate how many campus facilities will have access to a system of beacons with Wi-Fi connectivity for the hearing impaired, noting that this project is still in the design phase.
“This is an excellent opportunity to consider digital signals instead of implementing hearing loops,” Lo wrote in a Nov. 14 email. “The digital signals provide better sound quality and give us more flexibility to roll out in different spaces.”
