03 Apr Olympic commitment to hearing accessibility at new leisure centre

Kingsland Leisure Centre is a brand new, £24m community hub in Houghton Regis in Bedfordshire.

As well as swimming pools and squash courts, the new two-storey facility includes a large fitness suite, an immersive experience group cycle studio, and fitness and wellness studios for a range of classes and activities.

Our involvement in this project started during winter 2024 as the building entered the later stages of its construction.  The client wanted an assistive listening system in each of the studios to make sure hearing aid users could hear the instructors, the music or the audio options available to them in the gym.

Our engineers made a number of site visits to assess each space and decide which system would offer the best result for users.

They determined hearing loop systems would offer the highest quality listening experience in the studios and would also provide the easiest access for users.  Because the studios are adjacent to one another, our team designed a low-spill loop layout to prevent hearing aid users from being able to hear sound from the neighbouring rooms.

The laying of the loop cable had to be accurately timed to ensure it was completed before the floor was laid, which was achieved through close liaison with the project managers.

The hearing loop drivers, our V34A PRO and V22A PROs, needed to be installed in the server room so that they could be linked to the centre’s PA system.  This involved running link cables across the ceiling of each room via cable trays and baskets, a task that took two days to complete.

Each studio has a wireless lapel microphone so instructors can move freely during classes.

A different approach was needed in the main fitness suite.  Here, instructors work with people on a one-to-one basis.  Our portable RF-865 system transmits amplified sound wirelessly for gym-users who need it, giving the instructors the flexibility to move between the pieces of equipment.

Hearing accessibility was planned throughout the building.  Counter loops were installed at the reception desks and at the ‘Servery’, the leisure centre’s café.

The centre also received a number of portable loop systems, to offer enhanced sound to hearing aid users wherever they are in the building.

Kingsland Leisure Centre’s doors were opened to the public on the 29^th March 2025 by former Olympians, swimmer Mark Foster and sprinter, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey.