26 May St Mark’s School window intercom and hearing loop

Located in Pensnett in the West Midlands, St Mark’s Church of England Primary School use a Contacta window intercom system combined with a hearing loop at their main reception desk. This ensures visitors and students can clearly communicate with staff through a screen and transmits speech directly into the hearing devices of people with hearing loss.

In 2020, the school wanted to replace an existing Contacta Window Intercom system with an upgraded version. The previous system had been installed over a decade before, and had ensured satisfaction when communicating for visitors and staff for over ten years; the school, therefore, wanted to continue using the same Contacta window intercom system range.

A site assessment was necessary, following which a Dual Surface Mounted System (STS-K002-(G/B)-01) was recommended for the school by a Contacta technical advisor. This system is ideal for environments with low ambient noise, is simple to install, and has an unobtrusive design.

A Contacta engineer visited the school, using specialist equipment to ensure the new Dual Surface Mounted System (STS-K002-(G/B)-01) is fitted neatly onto a countertop. The hearing loop inside of the main reception was replaced with new cables and connections.

As this was during the Covid pandemic in 2020, all necessary precautions were taken to ensure the safety of both staff and Contacta engineers.

Tests were run to ensure the new window intercom system’s signal strength was as powerful as necessary, and that high-quality sound would be delivered to hearing devices used by visitors or students at the school.

As the system is always powered and uses a microphone installed into a countertop – therefore requiring little training for staff about how to use it – the Contacta engineer made certain that there were no issues such as background noise that could impact the system in the future. Attention to detail is vital for making window intercom systems and hearing loops a long-term solution for users.