Schools & Education
Communication and family involvement in School Activities are fundamental aspects in every person during its childhood. PTO and school board meetings, graduation and commencement ceremonies are some of these special occasions where obstacles can arise due to language and hearing barriers. To overcome these and more challenges, translation.equipment has come up with effective solutions for schools, higher education institutions, school districts and universities. Our FM wireless simultaneous translation, assistive listening Systems and personal waistband voice amplifiers just some examples of our list of popular products for education.
Simultaneous interpretation (also referred as simultaneous translation) equipment is crucial if your school has students of diverse backgrounds whose parents may not speak or understand English. Cultural and language differences make communication and participation in school activities, parent-teacher conferences and in the classroom a difficult task for non-natives and challenges their integration. This creates a large communication gap that can be solved with the right interpretation system.
Translation systems usually include a transmitter connected to a microphone into which the interpreter speaks and wireless receivers with headphones for those who speak the foreign language. Depending on the place where the interpretation takes place, be it in a fixed space like a classroom, or auditorium; or in a school bus or field trip where the speaker needs to move around, you will need a desktop transmitter or a tour-guide system with portable battery-operated transmitter.
Tour-guide systems are light, portable, and affordable alternatives to professional systems with interpreter consoles and soundproof, full size booths. Tour-guide systems consist of a battery-operated pocket-sized transmitter and a headband microphone for the interpreter and receivers with headphones for the participants. They are the ideal choice when the speaker/presenter needs to be mobile, or in small conference settings, classrooms, school buses or meeting rooms. Systems with desktop transmitters are still light and easy to carry, but they are preferred for fixed locations including large meeting rooms, larger classrooms, auditoriums, or gymnasiums, since the coverage area is larger than in the case of tour-guide systems. They are also recommended when using a translation booth.
These translation systems can be easily stored and transported in carrying cases.
In addition to language interpretation equipment, assistive listening devices are a must at schools and universities with hard of hearing students, parents or faculty. At every level of education the need to understand and be able to work with others grows as each year goes by. At the same time, a school’s sound environment is often demanding, particularly for students with hearing loss. The many different background noises are amplified by hearing aids, making it harder to keep up during lessons. Wireless assistive listening devices complement hearing aids by filtering out disturbing background noise and enhancing speech. They enable students with hearing loss to play a full part in both lessons and in other school-related activities.
Usually schools need mobile systems, so we recommend a translation/ interpretation system that’s fully portable, with wireless, battery-operated devices, like the Enersound TSP system. For interpretation services at school auditoriums, we recommend a system with a stationary transmitter like the Enersound TSB one.
A portable transmitter makes interpretation systems highly adaptable. For example, they can be used for regular simultaneous interpretation within the confines of a classroom, while at the same time you can use them for tours of the facilities for parents during open houses and orientation.
That would depend on the brand and model selected, but we can confidently recommend the Enersound systems since they offer product lifetime warranty and have highly robust build and design.
That would require a two-way system. The interpreter uses an interpreter console to switch the direction of the interpretation that it can go from the audience to the interpreter and then to the speaker. For this we recommend the Enersound BTSIC2 system. For mobile, two-way systems, ListenTalk is a good solution.
Built-in, non-replaceable lithium batteries like the ones in most cell phones degrade after 2 or 3 years to the point where they require constant recharges, and since they can’t be replaced, this severely limits the lifetime of the device itself. While with old-fashioned AA or AAA batteries (whether alkaline or rechargeable NiMH) you can replace them for fresh ones any time you need since they are widely available and easy to remove.