Yellowknife (Apr 21/06) - Imagine a show at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre, where you can't make out the words over the music or the people around you. All you hear is a pulsing sonic mush.

Mike Keeping, equipment specialist with Calgary's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, shows off the new headsets that enable the hard of hearing to enjoy on-stage performances. NACC will start using the system May 15. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

This has been a reality for many of Yellowknife's hard of hearing residents, who are pleased to know that the theatre has installed a system to help them.

"I'm so excited," said Bev Speight, vice-president of the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association of Yellowknife. "We're going to be able to sit and hear right into our ears without interference."

The $10,000 assistive hearing system consists of a series of shotgun microphones that pick up the sound of voices from around the stage, and broadcasts them through a digital FM system.

This can be listened to through supplied headphones or broadcast directly to certain kinds of hearing aids.

According to Mike Keeping, equipment specialist with Calgary's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, the new system vastly improves the "signal to noise ratio" that plagues people with hearing aids.

"Hearing aids are notoriously inefficient in atmospheres like this," he said during a presentation to members of the NACC board and CHHA at the centre last week.

This is because the sound of voices on-stage mixes with other sounds in the large space of a theatre. Since a normal hearing aid can only increase the volume of the total sound, the voices can be drowned out. "This eliminates the distance between the performer and the hard of hearing listener," Keeping said.

NACC executive director Ben Nind said a previous system was in place, but it hadn't worked in "years," so he was happy to see it upgraded.

"This is a really positive move for NACC," he said. "It reaches into a segment of the population that could not come to hear the performances."

Nind said NACC will start using the system May 15. At that time, he recommends those with hearing issues come early or call ahead to make sure the system will meet their needs.