Auckland Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand

A Bettear CASTER Auracast™ transmitter now covers the Great Hall of Auckland Town Hall, bringing broadcast audio to a 1,529-seat heritage venue without major changes to the building.

At a glance

• Venue: The Great Hall, Auckland Town Hall
• Location: Auckland, New Zealand
• Operator: Auckland Live, on behalf of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited
• Venue type: Heritage concert hall: concerts, opera, theatre and community events
• Capacity: Up to 1,529 people across three levels
• Bettear products: CASTER Auracast™ transmitter
• Installation: Auckland Live's Technical Team, with JPRO, Bettear's distribution partner in New Zealand

The challenge

A century-old heritage hall needed modern assistive listening, without the cabling and building work a hearing loop would bring.

For more than a hundred years, the Great Hall of Auckland Town Hall has welcomed audiences to concerts, theatre productions and community events. Auckland Live runs the venue on behalf of Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, with room for up to 1,529 people across three levels.

As accessibility expectations grew, Auckland Live began looking for next-generation assistive listening that could sit alongside its existing systems and give people with hearing loss a better experience. The team had been evaluating Auracast™ for some time, with growing interest from stakeholders including the Auckland Philharmonia. Any solution had to work in a heritage building without extensive changes to its infrastructure.

The solution and products

Auckland Live's Technical Team deployed a Bettear Auracast™ assistive listening system, supplied by JPRO, Bettear's distribution partner in New Zealand.

• Bettear CASTER. A compact Auracast™ transmitter that mounts discreetly, like a standard Wi-Fi access point, and connects over the hall's existing network to cover the whole Great Hall.
• No major building work. A hearing loop can need cabling throughout a venue. The CASTER went in without significant changes to the heritage building.
• Alongside existing systems. Auracast™ runs next to the venue's current assistive listening, so existing users are still supported while the venue adopts the new standard.
• Audience members' own devices. Auracast-compatible hearing aids, earbuds and headphones connect directly to the broadcast.

The results

Auracast™ is now part of performances at the Great Hall, and the venue is already finding new ways to use it.

• Stereo concert audio. For Auckland Philharmonia performances, the broadcast carries a high-quality stereo feed, giving listeners a detailed audio source.
• Audio description. At a recent opera performance, the CASTER's multiple streams delivered audio description for audience members who are blind or have low vision.
• Room to grow. The same multi-stream system opens the way to multilingual audio and personalised listening in the venue.
• A model for heritage venues. The project shows how a historic building can add new assistive listening on its existing infrastructure.

Read the original success story on JPRO's website.

Bringing Auracast™ to your venue? Our team is here to help you plan coverage, choose equipment and get it running.

Photos courtesy of JPRO.