Auracast and hearing loops: why venues are keeping both

An induction loop is a wire around a room carrying the PA signal as a magnetic field. A hearing aid with a telecoil picks it up. It has worked since the 1930s and it is in thousands of theatres, churches, counters and taxis. Auracast is pitched as its successor. The honest position in 2026 is that it is the successor, and not yet the replacement.

What a loop does that Auracast cannot

It works with almost every hearing aid. Telecoils are in the majority of hearing aids fitted in the last twenty years, and Australia's Hearing Services Program still requires a telecoil model to be offered. Auracast is in aids sold since late 2023, and only some of them. In January 2025 a Canadian audiology journal estimated that 99.9 percent of hearing-aid users had no Auracast; that number has fallen fast, but it is nowhere near zero.

It needs nothing from the user. Switch to the T program and it is there. No phone, no app, no scanning, no battery to flatten.

It is what the standards describe. Australia's building code (D4D8 in the current NCC) requires hearing augmentation wherever there is a permanent PA, and AS 1428.5:2021, the standard that says what counts, describes loops and infrared. It does not name Auracast. The industry reading is that Auracast counts as a receiver-based system, which means the venue must hold a receiver fleet to be compliant. An international standard for Auracast assistive listening, IEC 60118-17, is expected in late 2027.

What Auracast does that a loop never could

Stereo, and clarity. A loop is mono and sounds like a 1980s telephone. Auracast is a 48 kHz digital stream.

It reaches people without hearing aids. Anyone with Auracast earbuds can hear the stage, the announcement or the translation. A loop only ever served telecoil users.

Multiple streams. Two languages, or programme plus audio description, from one transmitter. A loop carries one.

No wire in the floor. Loops are expensive to fit and impossible in some buildings. An Auracast transmitter is a box on a shelf with a PoE cable.

No spill. A loop's magnetic field leaks into the next room, which is why adjoining courtrooms cannot both have one. Radio can be encrypted.

Why venues are keeping both

Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall and ICC Sydney all installed Auracast and kept their loops. City Recital Hall put Auracast in the auditorium and left the loops at the box office and cloakroom, which is exactly right: a counter loop serves anyone with a telecoil instantly, and a seat in the hall is where the quality difference matters.

The European Federation of Hard of Hearing People's 2026 position is that publicly procured hearing aids must have both a telecoil and Auracast. Better Hearing Australia in Brisbane says the same from the user side: complement, not replacement. The International Hearing Access Alliance set up a working group in September 2026 to write a gold standard for the transition.

If your aids have a telecoil and no Auracast

You are not locked out. A receiver with a neckloop turns the broadcast into a loop signal around your neck. Venues lend them; the Avantree AuraCoil, on pre-order for late 2026, puts one in your pocket.

What this means if you are buying

Buy hearing aids with both. Every major maker now ships Auracast in its current flagship, and all of them still fit a telecoil in most styles. Ask the five questions on our hearing page before you sign.

What this means if you run a venue

Add Auracast; keep the loop until the standard and the installed base catch up; hold a receiver fleet with neckloops so that nobody is left out and the compliance question answers itself. The venue guide has the costs and the Australian distributors.