Churches add Auracast beside the loop, or in place of ageing FM

Seven of the churches in our venue directory show different ways of bringing Auracast into a building. Two in Switzerland kept their hearing loop and added a transmitter beside it. Three in the US were replacing an ageing receiver system, and one in England had nothing at all. A church in Hayle has published a guide for its congregation that others could learn from.

Loop and Auracast side by side

Catholic Church Unterbäch, in a small Alpine village, and St Mauritius Church in Berg, a heritage building with medieval origins, run the same pair: an Ampetronic C10-1N loop driver and an Auri TX2N transmitter.

St Mauritius states the reasoning most plainly. The loop delivers audio to hearing aids and cochlear implant processors with a T coil, and the installer measured for an even field across the seating. The Auri is there for "emerging compatible hearing devices and receivers", so the church stays accessible as listening technology changes. Unterbäch listed support for different listening preferences, and a platform that could adapt to future technology, among its requirements.

That is the case for keeping a loop: it goes on serving the telecoil users already in the congregation. Our explainer on the two systems covers what each does that the other cannot.

Replacing a receiver system

Grace Lutheran Church in Woodstock, Illinois, about 300 seats, had relied for years on an FM system with handheld receivers, earpieces and neckloops, and it was showing its age. A loop was considered, but cost was a major barrier. After a trial the church installed an Auri kit permanently: one transmitter, eight receivers, a charging rack, earpieces and neckloops. Two volunteers wired it into the sound system in a few hours, and members report a clear improvement over FM.

What did not change is the loan desk. Congregants still pick up a receiver and use it with the earpieces or with T-coil hearing aids.

Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Lynnwood, Washington, is similar. Its assistive listening system, more than 15 years old, started producing static and poor range, then stopped working; the profile does not say what type it was. It now runs a HomeSpot BA210 transmitter from the sound board, with the feed adjusted to emphasise spoken and sung words, and two MoerLab MoerDuo Plus receivers that find the broadcast automatically. The church expects dedicated receivers to become unnecessary as more hearing aid makers adopt Auracast.

Christ Presbyterian Church in Edina, Minnesota, is aiming straight for it. Its short-range FM system suffered interference, and having to ask for an unfamiliar receiver put off the people who needed it most. Its Auri TX2N-D lets people use their own hearing aids or earbuds, with the delay tuned to a highly reverberant sanctuary. So far only staff have tested it, and the FM system stays until everyone has moved across. One practical note: powering the transmitter over USB caused a ground-loop buzz, which switching to PoE cured.

GodFirst Church in Christchurch, Dorset, seats 500 and had no assistive listening at all. A loop was ruled out because, as operations manager Justyn Pride put it, "We would have had to lift all the carpets in the venue." It installed a Humantechnik earisMax transmitter itself. For now the church provides the receiving hardware; own devices are planned once the rollout completes "in the coming months".

What Hayle's guide does well

Hayle Light and Life Church has a hearing page written for the congregation, not the sound desk. It names compatible hearing aids by model, with a date on the list (July 2026), from ReSound, Oticon, Jabra, Philips and Starkey. ReSound users get step-by-step instructions (open Smart 3D, tap "Find a Broadcast", pick the church's stream), and the other four brands get a PDF guide each.

It is honest about the gaps, too. Older Bluetooth devices without LE Audio will not work. For anyone without a compatible device it points to the AuraClip, a clip-on receiver for wired headphones or a telecoil neckloop that, the page says, can be handed out to guests during services.

Where it slips is the headphones list. It includes the Sony WH-1000XM5, which does not do Auracast, and "Bose QuietComfort Ultra", where only the 2nd Gen headphones have it, in beta and from Android only. These are compatibility lists, not test results, and the stream's name is not given. A church copying the format should check each model with the manufacturer and say what the broadcast is called.

The pattern so far

Three practical points hold across these seven. A loop and Auracast are not either/or; the Swiss churches kept theirs for telecoil users. Replacing an old receiver system changes the technology, but Grace, Gloria Dei and GodFirst still provide receivers, and Christ Presbyterian, the one relying on personal devices, is keeping FM for now. And a plain public page like Hayle's, checked model by model, saves a lot of explaining at the door.

The US and GodFirst examples come from the Bluetooth SIG's location profiles, worth browsing before a church install.