INDUCTIVE LOOP

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This term refers to a communication system, either for staff paging or as a hearing aid, in which a loop of wire surrounds the area to be covered. Receivers within the loop respond to a low- frequency carrier current passing around the loop on which the calling codes or speech is superimposed.

A number of types of hearing aid can be switched to bypass the internal microphone and instead receive the signals directly from the inductive loop system. This has proved particularly useful in providing amplified speech without the complication of room acoustics and other noises close to the listener. Such systems are often installed in schools where deaf children are taught, and in some cases the range may extend to the sports fields.

A number of systems in use actually employ VHF radio transmission but are still (wrongly) called inductive loop systems.