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Topic: Opinions on Phonic Ear Hearing Devices?

Donna Siegwart
Film Handler

Posts: 63
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-30-2006 06:14 PM

Recently I have found out that my theatre has decided to order a new hearing device called "Phonic Ear". It's a hearing device for the Blind, it describes things that are happening with in the movie.

Now for my question....

Does anyone else have this in their theatre? And whats the feedback on them? Do they work well? Do you get a lot of demand for them? And what issues have you had with them (if any)?

I personally have gone into one of our theatres that they are installing it into for about 5 minutes and watched 'You me and Dupree' and found it very interesting and am looking forward to releasing the phonic ear to our visually impaired guests.

Hopefully they will be a success in my theatre.

~Donna [thumbsup]

(ANY FEED BACK IS HELPFUL) [Big Grin]

[ 07-31-2006, 03:41 AM: Message edited by: Aaron Sisemore ]

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-30-2006 07:11 PM

Don't spend a ton of money on such a device, because the half dozen or less people a year who will use it aren't worth that much money.

We have ALDs, complete with signage in the lobby, and they probably get used one or two times a year, if that.

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 07-30-2006 07:57 PM

In many locations this type of technology is being legislated so it may not be an option
I beleive the DTS CSS supports a feed for it if the disk is encoded for it

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Donna Siegwart
Film Handler

Posts: 63
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Jun 2005

posted 07-30-2006 08:25 PM

I personally am excited about this feature because we have guests who come in often to listen to the movie (due to a seeing diability) and now we can have this for them. Even if its twice a year, I think this is a great option to have for our diabled guests.

Other than them not being used too often, is there any negative feedback, such as them not working too well, are there any restrictions on movies they play with (like do all movies support this?) Thanks.

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Aaron Sisemore
Flaming Ribs beat Reeses Peanut Butter Cups any day!

Posts: 3061
From: Rockwall TX USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 07-31-2006 03:39 AM

What Gordon said: there are a number of ADA lawsuits (some legit, many are scams) going around and not having all the latest assistace devices is simply asking for trouble (been there done that). Always best to cover all the bases. [Smile]

The only trouble with Phonic Ear's IR ALD units is the emitters will shut down or go into 'super-low-power mode' (read: practically non-working) if the LED's in the IR array begin to fail. (the power-on LED on the front panel will flash if this happens). Otherwise they are fine. DO NOT get the receivers that are worn around the neck and use regular Walkman style headphones. Nobody ever wears them properly. The receivers that are headphones with the IR receiver on the top are the best.

Another bonus is the Phonic Ear units and the USL Ultra-Phonic units are compatible with each other: you can use either brand's receivers on either brand's emitters. [Smile]

And Donna, I changed the title to make it look less like a technical problem (acoustic feedback) than asking for opinions.

-Aaron

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 07-31-2006 09:50 AM

I've installed several Phonic Ear systems and they work fine. Make sure the emitter panels are located properly. The purpose was for hearing impaired assistance; centre channel audio was fed to the headphones. You can get this from any processor.
Descriptive Audio for visually impaired people is very different, there's no such audio source on a standard print (not in analog/SRD, doubtful in SDDS). If the film has DA available, you will need a DTS system with DA capability or some other DA audio source. Not all films have DA audio at all though. maybe some ADA lawsuit will force all new releases to provide it but I don't think this has happened yet.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-31-2006 10:03 AM

Many theatre locations find a large and appreciative audience among the hearing impaired. For example, Rochester is the home of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID)at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and so has many college-age hearing-impaired theatre goers:

http://www.ntid.rit.edu/

quote:
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf sponsors and encourages research designed to enhance the lives of deaf and hard-of-hearing people. The following is a list of resources related to deafness and/or research at RIT/NTID...

The National Technical Institute for the Deaf has become an international model for educating and preparing deaf students for technology-related careers. NTID at RIT is the only college in the world that offers deaf and hard-of-hearing students a variety of degrees in a wide range of technical and business fields.

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Frank Angel
Film God

Posts: 5305
From: Brooklyn NY USA
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-31-2006 11:03 AM

So who is responsible for supplying the narrative information? The theatre or the studio that produces the movie? How in the world would a theatre be able to produce a running narrative on its own if it didn't come with the film itself? And if it is not a digital print which presumably has the capability of carring a separate narration channel as well as information for subtitles, how is this to be accomplished with, say a print that has nothing but analog tracks?

We have a very wide auditorium -- 100'wide x 65' high x 150ft deep. The system that was installed for IR never worked right. They just couldn't get coverage over all the seating area and so we had a kind of footprint map and had to put anyone asking for the system into certain seats, which doesn't comply with the ADA requirements. After our renovation two years ago, they are still trying to figure out what system would cover such an area. At the moment we have NO system in place. Hopefully over the summer this will get resolved. But I have to tell you, in the two seasons that we have been without, not a single person asked for the headsets. But as has been said, the number of requests has nothing to do with the requirement to have it standing by ready for deployment. I don't know what we would do if someone actually asked for a unit other than calling up the center's lawyer and telling him to dust off his briefcase. [Eek!]

Of course this only deals with hearing impaired, which for films is easy enough to pump a center channel into the IR system, but how does one deal with the running commentary for the visually impaired? Again, who is responsible for providing this service? I mean, the theatre can provide the hardware easily enough; who provides the software?

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John Hawkinson
Film God

Posts: 2273
From: Cambridge, MA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 07-31-2006 11:41 AM

The narration track is called the Descriptive Video Service (DVS), and it is technology that is pushed by the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) which is part of the WGBH Educational Foundation. (WGBH is the public broadcasting television station in Boston, and they do a lot of outreach.)

DTS-CSS has supported DVS for years (from the get-go), and I assume Dolby Screentalk also supports it. So the information is synchronized to the digital sound track. Just like captions are.

Of course the studios are involved in the process, though I don't know to what extent they actually approve the narration or simply trust their folks who do the captioning/narration to do a good job. But in many cases the people hired to do the captioning and narration are provided with copies of scripts and sometimes copies of movies in advance of theatrical release.

--jhawk

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Louis Bornwasser
Film God

Posts: 4441
From: prospect ky usa
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 07-31-2006 11:52 AM

This is done through the same system as close captioning. If the studio or its contacts don't provide it; it is too bad.

As far as coverage if I.R. is concerned. This should not be a problem. Senheiser has (expensive) high powered systems. Others have a main with multi-boosters possible. This includes Williams Sound and others. Louis

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Mark Hajducki
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Edinburgh, UK
Registered: May 2003

posted 07-31-2006 11:53 AM

Most cinemas which offer description publish a list of films that are supported (along with showtimes if not all screens are equipped)

quote: Frank Angel
we had a kind of footprint map and had to put anyone asking for the system into certain seats, which doesn't comply with the ADA requirements.

I have seen this done, why does it not comply with the ADA requirements? I would have thought that as long as there is some provision that would be enough (do you have enough headphones for every customer) just as access for mobility impaired customers is not avaliable for every seat.

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John Pytlak
Film God

Posts: 9987
From: Rochester, NY 14650-1922
Registered: Jan 2000

posted 07-31-2006 12:34 PM

http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/access/access.html

quote:
The Media Access Group at WGBH

Captioning and Video Description

Captioning
Get the inside story on captioning from the folks who invented it: The Caption Center at WGBH. Info for users and technical types alike.

Descriptive Video
Learn about WGBH's Descriptive Video Service (DVS®) for people who are blind or visually impaired. Browse the DVS TV schedule and home video catalogue.

CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)
Check out how the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media is working to make Web sites accessible, and learn about other media access projects.

Access Symbols
Download access symbols for closed captioning, descriptive video, and Web access. Provided copyright free.

http://ncam.wgbh.org/mopix/

quote:

Making Movie Theaters Accessible to Disabled Audiences

Rear Window® Captioning and DVS Theatrical®, developed by The Media Access Group at WGBH, make theaters accessible to audiences with disabilities. This site provides information to consumers, industry members and others interested in learning more about motion picture access. View background information about these systems and the Media Access Group's efforts in this area.

http://www.insightcinema.org/

quote:
InSight Cinema is a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing the big screen movie-going experience to the 30 million deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) audiences in the U.S.

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Steve Guttag
We forgot the crackers Gromit!!!

Posts: 12814
From: Annapolis, MD
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 07-31-2006 05:48 PM

Frank,

For singles...we generally use RF instead of IR...with RF you can cover a room such as yours and not worry about interference with another theatre. Nowadays there are many frequencies to choose from in both narrow and wide band.

If one does do IR one would need to be very careful about emitter arrays to ensure coverage without multipath.

Steve

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Dave Macaulay
Film God

Posts: 2321
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: Apr 2001

posted 08-01-2006 09:35 AM

I've never had a multipath problem with Imax PSE/3D glasses sync emitters or Sonic Ear type audio emitters. I doubt if the path length in a practical theatre is long enough to cause problems at the carrier frequency used.
Sonic Ear headsets will activate near flourescent lights and produce an amazingly loud noise in one's ears. Other than never being used and the theatre staff being unaware they even exist - let alone where they are - that's the biggest problem I have with them.

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