An opportunity to experience Auracast at St Paul’s Cathedral shows the strength of the technology.
Ask any hard-of-hearing person if they enjoy tours and they will probably say no. Why? Because trying to keep up with what the tour guide is saying is nearly impossible.
It’s not just the hearing on the go, it’s all the background noise, the jostling for position, and trying to be in the line of vision of the speaker. And you’re meant to be looking at what they’re talking about, be it a statue, a painting, a view or a monument.
A sensory overload that can be frustrating and exhausting.
But Auracast has the power to change that, and a special event hosted by Samsung, Ampetronic, hearing aid manufacturer GN, and the RNID proved just that.
Held at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday, May 16, the event was an opportunity for people to go on a tour of the famous place of worship and join an Evensong service. The guide wore a GN Multi-Mic+, a remote microphone with Auracast built into it, before switching to a Samsung S25.
A team from Ampetronic set up an Auri system for the Evensong broadcast.
The event aimed to showcase the strengths of Auracast in a busy setting, and few can be busier than one of London’s top tourist attractions. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the cathedral is a vast space with plenty to see.
To fully understand it, a guide is a must.
But in a noisy environment stuffed with tourists from all over the world, narrow spaces and so much to look at, navigating a tour is a feat for anyone with hearing loss, or just wants the guide to be a little clearer.
Enter Auracast.
Samsung provided participants with an S25 set up for Auracasting and Galaxy Buds3 Pro to wear. Others in the group wore GN hearing aids, all of which had been paired to the phone.
My hearing loss is such that I couldn’t hear enough sound through the Galaxy Buds3 Pro, nor was I convinced the ear buds were a snug fit in my ear, so I used my personal S25 and my Starkey Edge AI hearing aids.
Samsung said ahead of the event that with the guide speaking into an Auracast-enabled microphone, those on the tour would benefit from “a unique journey of shared listening”. And they weren’t wrong.
The sound from the GN Multi-Mic+ was loud and clear, but as it was worn on the guide’s body, there was inevitably some rustling from her clothing as she walked and talked. However, the speech easy to understand even with our backs turned or when our guide was around the corner.
Towards the end of the tour, she switched to the microphone on the S25. She held the mobile phone close to her mouth and the sound was even clearer.
It is hard to describe just how much of a game-changer this is. Being able to fully participate in a guided tour is a new experience. Having everyone able to hear the same audio so clearly means this is a shared experience too.
The Evensong service was an opportunity for Ampetronic to trial its Auri system. The Bluetooth boxes are about the size of Wi-Fi router and can broadcast multiple channels of audio: handy if you want to broadcast a second language or an audio-described experience.
Here, we were given the option of two streams, a normal one and a high-quality one. Unfortunately, my Starkeys wouldn’t connect to the high-quality one, and the regular stream just wasn’t loud enough for me to follow what was going on. It was almost as if I was tuning in to a loop system.
Don’t think this was a disappointment; this was a trial event, and those around me who could pick up this high-quality stream were complimentary.
The event was part of Samsung’s third Accessibility Festival Week, which the company says aims to reinforce its commitment to accessibility and foster collaboration across departments and regions.
Charlotte Grant, Head of People Experience, Samsung UK, said: “At Samsung, we are proud of our ongoing commitment to increasing the accessibility of experiences through our innovation and we were delighted to partner with GN and Ampetronic to showcase Auracast at St Paul’s Cathedral.
“It was fantastic to take people through an innovative experience with inclusive technology and a great way to end our Accessibility Festival Week in the UK.
“We are committed to directly involving our customers and employees in our decision-making by taking on their feedback to improve our products and services, and help support our mission to inspire a culture of inclusive design across our organisation, into our products and beyond.”
For more on Samsung’s Accessibility commitments, visit: https://www.samsung.com/uk/sustainability/accessibility/overview/
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