26 Mar RAF secrets brought to life with new loop system for museum

National Trust have been working with Contacta to make properties within their care accessible to people with hearing loss.

Croome Park in Worcestershire is home to the RAF Defford Museum, which tells the story of one of the most secret places in the country.  During WW2, part of Croome Park was requisitioned from the Earl of Coventry to create RAF Defford, an airfield and the main station in Britain for the development of airborne radar.

The National Trust acquired Croome in 1996 and decided to preserve some of the surviving buildings on the airfield.  It now runs the site in partnership with Defford Airfield Heritage Group (DAHG).

Contacta was asked to review an existing hearing loop system in a part of the museum where visitors can watch a video on the airfield’s history.  Our engineer, James Graves, found the loop wasn’t offering the right sound quality and the system needed a new driver.  The loop cable could be left in place and a Contacta V7+ driver was installed; a constant current, single output hearing loop driver that’s ideal for smaller facilities and venues.

Visitors with a T-coil enabled hearing device can now sit anywhere in the room and clearly hear the audio from the video presentation via the loop system.  Because the TV’s audio was connected to the loop system, hearing aid users can hear the sound even when the TV is muted.  James removed the TV from the wall in order to install the hearing loop driver discreetly behind it.

As well as positive feedback from staff at museum on the clear audio the system offered, James also had the grudging approval of the museum’s cat.