Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Field audit (measured, one government building)

Audio Frequency Induction Loops Audit in Parliament House, for the Purpose of OH&S Compliance (version 0.1)

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/aph-2008-parliament-loop-audit/ · record checked 14 October 2026

  • Ciolek M, Covington J (Broadcasting Infrastructure and Support, Department of Parliamentary Services)
  • Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services (published with the Senate Finance and Public Administration committee's 2011-12 Budget Estimates documents for the parliamentary departments)

Government (an in-house audit by the Australian Parliament's Department of Parliamentary Services of the hearing loops it maintains in Parliament House, carried out by its own broadcasting support staff)

Summary

A measured audit of the 31 hearing loop areas in Australia's Parliament House against the Australian loop standard of the time, graded by how much of each area received a usable signal.

Key findings

  • Covered every loop the department maintained in Parliament House: committee rooms, the House of Representatives floor and galleries, the Senate galleries, a theatre, party rooms and the Cabinet room, 31 areas in all. It set out to check them against AS 60118.4 (2007), which it lists as equivalent to IEC 60118-4 (2006).
  • Method: each loop amplifier was first checked and set up to its maker's recommendations; a calibrated loop monitor then read the signal level on a grid across the room and, with the amplifier off, the magnetic background noise. The target was a signal of 0 dB peak (down to -6 dB) and a signal-to-noise ratio of 45 dB, with 25 dB the minimum.
  • Graded each area by the share of it reaching a suitable level: 80-100% (the top grade), 20-80% ("walkabout to find a good reception spot!!"), under 20%, or a low base level with excessive attenuation (the lowest grade). Table 1 assigns nine areas to the top grade, three to the second, three to the third and 16 to the lowest; the Cabinet Room's top classification has the partial-test qualification in Appendix A31.
  • Its room maps show the pattern behind the grades: in the main committee room, readings near the walls were about 0 to -6 dB and fell to about -24 to -30 dB in the middle of the room.
  • Concluded that the loop layouts used had resulted in poor performance and that about 20% coverage was achievable in most venues but not in critical areas such as witness seats. It recommended redesigned loops, newer amplifiers, equalisers to compensate for metal loss, and that any rework be supervised and commissioned by a broadcast officer experienced with loops.
  • Notes that Australian rules then required at least 20% of public meeting places over 120 m² to have a loop meeting the standard, and that authorities were considering up to 100% coverage.
  • Found above-normal hum in one room from television studio lamps and their mains wiring.
  • Describes metal in modern buildings (reinforcement, cable trays, plumbing and air-conditioning) as absorbing the signal unpredictably, weakening some areas and parts of the frequency range, and says metal loss compensation can give very good results in some cases.
  • Table 1, printed pp. 10-11, assigns 80-100% to A5: Committee room 1R3; A8: Committee room 2R2; A14: Committee room 2S2; A16: House of Representatives floor; A17: House of Representatives gallery, second west; A21: Senate gallery, second east; A24: Senate gallery, first east; A28: EPCR Blue Room; A31: Cabinet room.
  • Table 1, printed pp. 10-11, assigns 20-80% to A2: Committee room 1R0 gallery; A22: Senate gallery, second north; A27: Theatre.
  • Table 1, printed pp. 10-11, assigns under 20% to A6: Committee room 1R4; A7: Committee room 2R1; A10: Committee room 1S2.
  • Table 1, printed pp. 10-11, assigns low base level and excessive attenuation, without a percentage to A1: Main committee room 1R0; A3: Committee room 1R1; A4: Committee room 1R2; A9: Committee room 2R3; A11: Committee room 1S3; A12: Committee room 1S4; A13: Committee room 2S1; A15: Committee room 2S3; A18: House of Representatives gallery, first west; A19: House of Representatives gallery, first north; A20: House of Representatives gallery, first south; A23: Senate gallery, second south; A25: Senate gallery, first north; A26: Senate gallery, first south; A29: Government party room; A30: Opposition party room.
  • Appendix A31, printed p. 42, qualifies the Cabinet room result: system integrity issues restricted testing to a partial check using low-level pink noise. The report also refers to earlier commissioning by T4. Its top grade in Table 1 is therefore not evidence of a complete coverage measurement in this audit.
  • Table 1 row A27 ties the theatre assessment to the indicated labelling. Appendix A28, printed p. 39, reports above-normal hum in the EPCR Blue Room from television studio lamps and mains wiring, with a sharp rise in the northeast corner.
  • The report gives December 2008 on its cover and 17 November 2008 in its publication history, but does not state when the room measurements were made. Section 3.1 identifies the LM Audio ILM12 induction loop monitor.

Limits

One building, reported in 2008 against the Australian standard of the time by the department's own staff, although the report calls itself an independent evaluation. Measurement dates are not stated. The grades are the audit's own coverage criteria: the stated procedure covers signal level and background noise but not frequency response, so it is not a full test against IEC 60118-4. Amplifiers were adjusted before measuring, so the results generally describe the loops after set-up rather than as found; Appendix A31 records only partial testing of the Cabinet Room. It does not systematically record installer qualifications or compare training routes, and cannot isolate their effects from design and upkeep. Background noise was read with a C-weighted meter (Appendix C1, printed page 44). The document is a first draft (version 0.1); its cover gives December 2008 and its history 17 November 2008, and it was published with the 2011-12 Budget Estimates documents.

Read the original

aph.gov.au/~/media/Estimates/Live/fapa_ctte/estimates/bud_1112/parliamentary/p21d.ashx

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Cited in

Cite this source

Ciolek M, Covington J (Broadcasting Infrastructure and Support, Department of Parliamentary Services). Audio Frequency Induction Loops Audit in Parliament House, for the Purpose of OH&S Compliance (version 0.1). Parliament of Australia, Department of Parliamentary Services (published with the Senate Finance and Public Administration committee's 2011-12 Budget Estimates documents for the parliamentary departments). December 2008. https://aph.gov.au/~/media/Estimates/Live/fapa_ctte/estimates/bud_1112/parliamentary/p21d.ashx (accessed 14 October 2026).

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