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You work hard to project a clear message during a worship service. You remind lay readers and clergy to speak clearly. You ask people to signal if they can't hear what's said from the pulpit. And you've installed a new public-address system.

But you still have a problem. People with hearing impairments have difficulty tuning in to the sounds of worship without disturbing others.

Special Needs
People with hearing problems struggle to distinguish the sound they are trying to focus on from background noise. They can turn up their hearing aids, but all that does is increase the rustling sounds of the congregation along with the sermon. Asking such people to move to the front or to signal if they can't hear just calls attention to their difficulties in a way that can't help but lower their self-esteem.

A Better Solution
You can create a miniature version of a broadcast studio in your sanctuary to enhance the listening experience of your hearing-impaired congregants without disturbing others. Assistive listening systems, such as FM broadcast, induction loop, and infrared, require three elements: a sound source, a transmitter, and a receiver. Each broadcasts a signal that is confined to a sanctuary (and perhaps a small distance beyond) but is audible only to someone with a device that picks up the signal.

Like a Radio Broadcast
One of the most versatile assistive listening systems relies on the same technology as an FM radio. With an FM system, your pastor broadcasts his voice either through a PA system or a battery-powered wireless microphone clipped to his suit or robe.

Since the broadcast area of your FM system is extremely small, you'll need a transmitter that's about the size of a tape deck, which can plug into the mixer or amplifier of your PA system.

The transmitter takes the sound signal from a PA system or wireless microphone and converts it to an electronic pulse, which is then beamed to the congregation. People who want to tune into that signal must have a receiver, which can be a small loop of wire that a person with a hearing aid wears around the neck. The loop conveys the signal electromagnetically to the listener's hearing aid.

According to Sara Larsen, product manager of Phonic Ear of Petaluma, California, which makes this equipment, the wire loop is "very unobtrusive." People who do not wear a hearing aid can use various forms of earphones to tune into the FM sound.

With an FM system, listeners can have a personalized broadcast of a worship service at a volume they can control without affecting their neighbors. People can rent or buy the receivers, or simply pick them up from a basket at the back of the sanctuary as they enter for worship.

The transmitters require little maintenance. According to Richard Renken, national sales manager for R.L. Drake Company, a leading FM system manufacturer, a receiver should run for about 30 hours (or several months of worship services) on two AAA batteries. A complete FM system, including four receivers and a transmitter, is about $1,000. Additional receivers are about $100 apiece.

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