Newcastle University

Location: United Kingdom

Newcastle University is in the top 20 in various UK rankings and ranked “No. 1 in the Russell Group of research universities for Graduate Employment (2013)”. Newcastle University hasn’t installed induction loop systems just to adhere to legislation, being a “world-class civic university” they believe that their role as a university is to “respond to societal challenges”, they have the desire to benefit everyone, including the hard of hearing students that attend. The University is truly striving to make themselves a centre of excellence for disabled access in general and the installation of induction loops is part of an on-going process to provide unparalleled educational service.

With the bar set so high for equality of access the University identified that quality and reliability of equipment had to be second to none and called Ampetronic in to complete site surveys of over 60 rooms. It was decided very early on in the process that Ampetronic induction loop equipment would be able to provide the desired dependability and consistently high quality intelligible audio.

Many rooms had a large amount of metal within the infrastructure and it was therefore essential to use phased array kits here to compensate for the distortive effect that the metal has on the signal produced by the system. Ultra-low spill systems have also been installed to ensure that discrete information can be conversed freely without accidental overspill in some rooms, whilst in others some much smaller designs were also used in the form of simple perimeter loops.

Most recently the University has had three new systems installed in the dental school lecture theatres by the Tyne and Wear based installers Cormeton Electronics Limited.

Ampetronic has an on-going working relationship with the University and has produced designs throughout the campus, including the following locations: