To all you hearing aid users - the Dolphin Theatre is looped. Simply use the "T" switch, button, or toggle on your aid. There is a powerful microphone hung on a lighting bar over the front seats in the audience. It points towards the stage and picks up these sounds - the actors, - the music, - the sound effects etc. The microphone feeds these into a strong amplifier, which converts them into an electromagnetic signal. This is "broadcast" around coils of wire looped around the auditorium. When your aid is switched onto "T", the telecoil pick-up only those signals on the loop.

Advantages? All background noise from the audience is cut out. Your aid only picks up those stage sounds "broadcast" on the loop. Hearing aids are personally tuned to best compensate for your individual hearing loss. You get the same matched performance in either position: "T" telecoil or "M" microphone. Some aids have a combination "M/T". So this is a double bonus; the looped signals are not only better and louder, but are also amplified to best suit your hearing loss. You can also turn UP the volume of your hearing aid - with no risk of acoustical feedback - that loud, annoying (and sometimes embarrassing) high-pitched whistle.

At intervals, switch back to "M" for Live Voice chatting to your friends and other patrons. Sid Yarrow, Technical Adviser to Dolphin Theatre, is very familiar with loop systems, having installed one in his local church. He has seen how much success and joy his wife experienced when using hers. Sid built the amplifiers for the Dolphin, supervised the installation of the loop around the auditorium, and test-drove the system. Many of the larger sized in-the-ear hearing aids and most behind-the-ear and remote-controlled models have this feature. If your hearing aid does not already have a "T" switch, it can often be easily installed or reprogrammed. Ask your Audiologist.

We have also raised the stage floor to improve visibility, built wheelchair ramps and a toilet for the physically disabled.