Auditory Outreach
Provincial Resource Program
Basic Terminology

Audio Shoes

  • Audio shoes are special connectors that enable the student's hearing aid to accommodate the receivers and are specific to the student's make/model of hearing aids.

Default Channel

  • The default channel is the channel that is preset, also know as the start up channel.

Interference

  • Interference is the undesired noise picked up by FM receivers due to a source external to the FM system, often heard as white noise.

Receiver

  • Receivers attach to the hearing aids via the audio shoe. They receive the FM signal from the transmitter and relay the speaker's voice directly to the student's hearing aids.

Synchronizing

  • Synchronizing is matching the channel of the receivers to the transmitter.  Synchronizing student's receivers with the transmitter is necessary when students from different classes are working together and need to listen to instructions from one teacher.

Transmitters

  • The transmitter is the device that transmits the signal to the receivers.  The transmitter has a small microphone - usually in the form of a lapel mic which attaches to the user's clothing, or a boom mic or headset. The user's speech signal is transmitted via FM directly to the student's FM receivers.