CLEVELAND, OHIO: In the era of the government's "No Child Left Behind" initiative, there's an emerging focus on making certain that children in the nation's public schools really learn what's being taught. While the administrative emphasis is on accountability, testing and educational standards, the program also is having the effect of refocusing attention on ensuring that schools have the resources and infrastructure needed to effectively teach.
   

Sennheiser's SoundField Classroom Amplification System takes wireless communications into the classroom - students learn better
and teachers experience less fatigue.
(Photos provided by Avon Lake City School)

That can mean everything from having up-to-date textbooks to adequate teacher-student ratios to ensuring that students get a nutritious school lunch. For a couple of school districts in Ohio, though, there's an emerging emphasis on something even more fundamental: the ability for students to not only listen, but to also easily hear the spoken word.

Two school districts outside Cleveland, Avon Lake City Schools and Midview Local School District, are taking bold steps to ensure that the learning process isn't compromised by the students' inability to adequately hear teachers in the classroom environment. To accomplish that, both are turning to the wireless communications amplification technology from the recognized leader in the field, Sennheiser Electronic Corporation.

Working with Cleveland-based systems integrator SoundCom Systems, the districts have embarked on an ambitious program to install new-generation wireless microphone-based audio systems in as many classrooms as their budgets will allow over the next several years. In the Midview district, the impetus is coming from a state mandate requiring districts that receive a certain amount of state funding to provide classroom sound amplification systems. In Avon Lake, where those mandates don't apply, the push is coming from the simple recognition that students learn far better simply with a 10-15 dB increased amplification of a teacher's voice.  It's proven to be a great investment in education.

"Classroom amplification systems are a common response to effectively teaching the hearing-impaired, but recent research suggests that if voice amplification is good for special needs children, that we should try to provide it for all our students whenever we can," says Richard M. Lund, Ph.D., director of technology for the Avon Lake City Schools. "Money allowing, we're planning to outfit all of our district's classrooms with these systems."

Kevin Wenderoth, coordinator of education sales with SoundCom, who's overseeing projects in both districts, says Sennheiser's Soundfield Classroom Amplification wireless systems address an educational issue that's often overlooked.

"A lot of research has been done showing that the ability of students to hear more clearly correlates with improved retention rates and overall improvements in the educational process," Wenderoth says. "And the issue doesn't just relate to questions of volume levels. Something as simple as a teacher turning his/her head or another student coughing can cause students to miss what's being said. And in the case, for example, of a second-grader whose vocabulary doesn't allow them to contextually decipher certain parts of a sentence they may miss, unlike an adult whose vocabulary enables them to fill in the blanks, not hearing fully can short-circuit the educational process."

Now, with the Sennheiser system, the Avon Lake and Midview school districts will be able to move toward addressing that potential educational gap, and do so in a way that works not only for students, but for teachers and school administrators as well.

Comprised of Sennheiser EMP2015-G2 receivers; Sennheiser SK300-G2 bodypack transmitters; Sennheiser ME4 lapel microphones; Sennheiser BA2015 rechargeable battery packs; and Sennheiser L2015 battery charging units, the Sennheiser Soundfield Classroom Amplification wireless system gives each district a reliable method of wirelessly amplifying sound in the classroom, in a way that's user-friendly for instructors and technology-maintenance staff, and near-foolproof in allowing students to hear every word that's spoken.

"The key to making all this happen is Sennheiser's new G-2 Evolution Series bodypack. It's incredibly compact and lightweight, yet easily handles the frequency diversification that's needed in the school environment," says Wenderoth, whose firm was asked to develop a new sound amplification solution for Avon Lake in the course of doing other audio-visual work for the district. "The previous Sennheiser Soundfield Classroom system was sturdy and great sounding, but it was a lot heavier. When we got the G2 bodypacks everyone was happy with the size, performance and frequency agility."

Avon Lake selected the Sennheiser Soundfield Classroom Amplification wireless system after nearly two months of testing products from several competitive vendors. After evaluating a range of both infrared- and radio frequency-based products, the district chose the Sennheiser UHF system in large part due to its multiple-channel capabilities and the need for an RF-based system.

"The challenge in using the infrared-based systems would have been where and how to install them so you get the proper placement of sensors in the classrooms so the signals can be picked up," Wenderoth says. "With the Sennheiser system we found we could install it virtually anywhere in the room, and not just in a line-of-sight configuration."

Another key consideration in choosing the Sennheiser Soundfield system was its frequency agility, Wenderoth says. "Sennheiser gave us 48 separate channels - 16 per band for up to three bands. Other systems didn't have near that flexibility."

With multiple channels, the Sennheiser system allows for quicker repairs without missing a beat. "With other types of systems, not as frequency agile, they would have had to identify which frequency was bad, call the manufacturer and order equipment for that frequency," he says. "With this system, if a room goes down we can identify the band, and set the frequency of the transmitter to the new channel, meaning there's minimal downtime."

Avon Lakes' initial purchase of 20 Sennheiser Soundfield Classroom Amplification units is the first installment of what, technology director, Lund says will hopefully be a phased installment program spanning three years. Eventually, if the district budget allows, the system will be installed in 100% of the district's classrooms spread throughout seven buildings. The first phase that Avon Lake has committed to will involve outfitting some 60 plus classrooms.

Midview's purchase of 90 units was prompted by the Avon Lake decision to go with the Sennheiser Soundfield Classroom system. SoundCom will install Midview's system over the course of the next year, in time to have three new elementary school buildings, now being built, to be fully outfitted in time for the start of the 2005-2006 school year.

The Sennheiser system, Wenderoth says, proved to be the ideal solution for helping the two school districts get on track with a program for improving the overall educational process. It's likely to be a model for other districts.

"In the course of our business, we're seeing a lot more interest in systems like this," Wenderoth says. "Sennheiser's focus on quality was important to us, as was the ability to just get the wireless components we needed without being tied to purchasing other components, such as speakers, like some other manufacturers require. The system's easy setup and its versatility to adapt to different types of environments makes it the right choice for a growing and evolving use of wireless audio."