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NUS University Cultural Centre (UCC)
Induction loop hearing enhancement system
Client: National University of Singapore
Completion date: Jan 2018
The Listening Lab’s Hearing Enhancement division very proud to be awarded the contract to build and implement a hearing enhancement system for the University Cultural Centre (UCC) of the National University of Singapore
Located at 50 Kent Ridge Crescent, the UCC is a focal point for the University and its diverse cultural life and influences. The UCC has hosted Nobel laureates, foreign dignitaries as well as performances by Singaporean and international artistes. The UCC’s emphasis on building accessibility is what also makes the awarding of this tender to The Listening Lab very special to us.
The UCC renovation in 2018 provided a unique challenge to our team. It is a medium sized venue and has a hall for 1700 seats and a theatre for 455 seats and required hearing enhancement systems to be built in.
Hall:
New Flooring of UCC: Wood planks. Our approach was to implement Flat Copper Tape to provide the electromagnetic field as part of the Hearing Enhancement Solution.
Type of loop: Cancellation Perimeter Loop
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The seating arrangement is not in a straight line. Moreover, the copper tape is embedded below the floor finishing, this could result in the chair installer bolting their seats onto the copper tape.
Challenges: The loop is very near to the stage, this could result in an “over spill” effect, which not only distorts signals but also could distort output from electrical musical instruments such as electric guitars or bass guitars.
Lots of coordination had to be done to make to ensure that during the chair installation, there is no damage to the copper tape that we installed.
Our solution involved installing a cancellation loop was installed before the perimeter loop, thereby reducing background noise was tremendously, avoiding the “overspill effect” mentioned above.
Theatre:
Type of flooring: Carpet – Flat Copper Tape
Type of Loop: Cancellation Perimeter Loop
Challenges:
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1. The cancellation perimeter loop is required to be installed onto retractable seating chairs. This can often result in damage to the loop when the chairs are retracted.
2. The installation of carpets might damage the copper tape as the carpet required to be cut after the installation process of the loop.
3. The installation of other fittings onto the retractable platform might also damage the copper tape as the copper tape was covered by the carpets, and therefore not visible to other contractors.
4. The copper tapes are installed on the different platforms therefore this could result in the field strength to be uneven.
Solution:
After an in-depth review, we provided this solution:
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1. Holes to be drilled on the platform to connect all the copper tapes to the connecting cables below.
2. Detailed communication was conducted between us and the carpet supplier and warning tapes were placed on top of the copper tape before the carpet installation to ensure that the tape is not damaged.
3. Our team coordinated between the various vendors of UCC to ensure that anything mounted in the venue where our copper tapes were present, ensuring that other fittings did not damage our loop fittings.
4. Once the retractable chair drawing is received we had designed and repeated simulations for the cancellation loop to ensure that the field strength coverage is within the IEC 60118-4:2006. Our efforts were successful.
Our projects were successfully implemented and we're proud to have surpassed the IEC 60118-4: 2006 standards.
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