Summary
The school design guide recommends considering loops or infrared in large halls, particularly for visitors, and stresses listening conditions throughout a school.
Key findings
- Section 6.8.2, pages 69–70, recommends considering induction loops or infrared in large assembly rooms, halls, performance spaces and meeting rooms, primarily for visitors; it assumes pupils normally have personal listening equipment.
- The same section describes connecting an existing public-address output to a loop amplifier and warns that loop signals can spill into adjacent areas.
- Section 6.10, page 71, identifies assembly areas, sports halls and gyms as important communication spaces; it describes large assembly and sports halls as particularly difficult settings for inclusion that require careful design.
- Section 6.8.4, page 70, recommends seeking advice so that all school public spaces meet special hearing needs. Section 6.10, page 71, places staff training alongside better acoustics in an inclusive school approach.
- The guide accompanies the revised BB93 performance standards and replaces design guidance in sections 2–7 of the 2003 edition.
Limits
Professional guidance, not a blanket legal requirement to install a particular system. Predates Auracast. Its personal microphones and classroom sound-field discussion is outside this record’s venue-system use.
Read the original
Cited in
- What works in school auditoriums, gyms and assembly halls?Partly answered
Cite this source
Institute of Acoustics; Association of Noise Consultants. Acoustics of Schools: a design guide. Institute of Acoustics and Association of Noise Consultants. November 2015. https://www.association-of-noise-consultants.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Acoustics-of-Schools-a-design-guide-November-2015.pdf (accessed 13 October 2026).
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