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TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS BASS CONCERT HALL

Bass Concert Hall, on the campus of The University of Texas, is the cornerstone theater for Broadway shows and a wide range of high-quality special presentations in Austin, Texas, and surrounding areas. The Hall, which can seat up to 3,000, prioritizes several key initiatives, including community outreach and education, offering American Sign Language at select performances, and ensuring high-quality audio to elevate every patron's theater experience.

 

Bob Bursey, Artistic & Executive Director of Texas Performing Arts, which includes Bass Concert Hall, heard about the merits of Hear Us Now® through associates at Broadway Dallas and that Hear Us Now had commissioned the University of Texas Callier Center for Communication Disorders to perform a research study to assess hearing-impaired patron satisfaction with Hear Us Now. 

 

Bob obtained a copy of the report and was pleased with what he found. He learned of the Broadway Dallas outreach programs, such as Camp Frozen, a one-week summer day camp for hearing-impaired youth during Disney’s Frozen performances. 

 

Bob could envision a Hear Us Now installation at Bass Concert Hall but had many questions: Could it be installed in only six weeks, coinciding with Disney's Frozen appearance there? Could it include a provision for improving the existing ADA hearing assist system? Could it include the requirements for connecting to particular youth hearing aids, including Cochlear implants? Could a one-day matinee mini "Camp Frozen" outreach program be available for hearing-impaired youth, including attending the play? 

 

The answer to all the questions was 'yes', and with the help of the excellent Texas Performing Arts staff, Hear Us Now quickly became a reality. The morning of the event, some families drove 200 miles from as far away as Houston and Dallas to bring their children, including one girl who had seen Frozen elsewhere but could not understand most of the words. This time, she heard everything perfectly (see sidebar). 

 

The staff carefully verified that all the children heard perfectly–for many, for the first time in a live theater. Texas Performing Arts plans another similar event in the coming season at Bass Concert Hall. The Hear Us Now System is improving the Bass Concert Hall ADA Hearing Assist System for all users and provides additional capability for outreach programs to severely hearing-impaired, many of whom have Cochlear implants.

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The following is an email from a parent whose child attended the Bass Concert Hall Frozen event.

 

Thank you again for sponsoring the Frozen event at the Bass Concert Hall on UT Austin's campus. We were able to participate with our 5-year-old daughter. It was a wonderful experience for all of us. The audiologists and students were great facilitators of the morning activities, and the play afterward was spectacular.

 

Our daughter suffers from unilateral deafness and has a Cochlear Implant in her left ear. Even with normal hearing from her right ear, crowded environments challenge her hearing. We were excited to see how access to the Hear Us Now technology would affect her experience of this show.

 

Frozen lasted two hours, with a short intermission in the middle. Usually, at an event that long, we notice our daughter losing interest and becoming distracted. A live show in a packed theater requires a lot of effort to concentrate on all that is going on. With the Hear Us Now equipment transmitting signals directly to her Cochlear processor, she stayed engaged in what was happening on the stage until the end!

 

Granted, the show was tremendous, but even so, it would not have been enough to hold her attention for that length of time. Her ability to follow the show with much less listening effort has been a large part of her enjoyment. 

 

Your idea of making this technology available for people with hearing devices at live shows is excellent. I hope that Hear Us Now will be widely available in the future so that more people can regularly benefit from it.

3 Milford Place

Dallas, TX 75230

connect@hearusnow.com

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