OLD LYME, CONNECTICUT: The U.S. Federal Courthouse in Albuquerque, New Mexico recently received an "ear-lift" with the installation of a Sennheiser infrared (IR) assisted listening system. The court had the system installed for two reasons. First, the courts must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The assistive listening system meets the act's requirements, providing members of the jury, participants in the trial, and the public who are hard of hearing with amplified audio on wireless stethophones. Second, the assistive listening system can simultaneously provide translation of the trial into non-English languages via the same stethophones set to a different channel. Beyond the obvious courtesy, Congress may soon enact legislation requiring such translations.

W.D. Scott (or "Scotty" as he's known around town) spearheaded the design and installation for New Mexico Electronics Systems. With a quarter century of large-scale sound systems under their collective belt, the company is one of the premier sound installation companies in the Southwest. For his part, Scotty dwarfs the company's considerable longevity, boasting 44 years of involvement in commercial sound systems.

Scotty chose IR technology over wired and RF technologies. Of course, a wired system would have been ungainly, to say the least, and was discarded outright as non-viable. RF technology, on the other hand, might seem promising at first glance, however RF leaks through walls and might provide a security breach for the courts. Moreover, RF emitters in adjacent courtrooms would have to be tuned to different frequencies, making the distribution of headsets considerably more complicated than with IR. Officials would have to keep track of "who" was going to "which" courtroom and set the frequencies accordingly. With IR, on the other hand, each courtroom uses the same frequency, and the walls provide the necessary separation.

Scotty called for ten Sennheiser SI-1015 rack-mount transmitters, twenty SZI-1015 emitter panels, twenty RI-250 mono headset receivers, and twenty HDI-302 stereo/two-channel, stethophone receivers. The SI-1015 accepts two balanced inputs and feeds two SZI-1015s. The SZI-1015s emit one signal at 2.3 MHz and the second at 2.8 MHz. Scotty placed the emitters at ceiling level across from the jury box and behind the judge, facing the general courthouse. He was keen on getting Sennheiser pieces because they operate at higher frequencies, eliminating the noise typical of older, lower frequency units.

The 2.3 MHz signal carries the sum of all the courtroom microphones, while the 2.8 MHz signal carries the translation (the interpreter listens to the 2.3 MHz signal to generate the translation). The twenty RI-250s are dedicated to the 2.3 MHz English transmission. The twenty HDI-302s can listen to either frequency (or both - in stereo!).

Scotty cites the construction of the headsets as important to the success of the installation. "They're one simple piece, with the battery at the bottom where the pickup lens is. When users turn them in at the end of the day, the courthouse personnel just wipe off the earpiece with alcohol and drop the units in the chargers. There's no external cables, connectors, or anything else to foul up. As a result, they're very simple to issue."

"Sennheiser has built more IR devices and been doing it longer than any other company I know of," continued Scotty. "All of their products are extremely reliable; it's something we can install and then walk away from without worrying. If questions arise, the folks at Sennheiser are great to work with. That's pretty rare these days."

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the U.S Federal Courthouse should be blushing: The Bernalillo County Courthouse across the street has hired New Mexico Electronics Systems to install the exact same system, only larger. "We're using Sennheiser again because of their superior reliability and support. We were able to tell the Bernalillo folks, 'go across the street and talk to the Feds.' Of course, the Feds are our best advertisers because their system has performed so flawlessly," remarked Scotty, who will be hanging up his gloves and enjoying a well-deserved retirement after the Bernalillo County installation.