However, according to the Institute of Sound and Communications Engineers' president, David Hopkins OBE: "This has been a charter for the opportunist to install ineffectual systems - a little like the Emperor's new clothes, but in this case it is only those with impaired hearing that can tell the difference. By the time that such inadequacies have been discovered it is usually too late."
At the Institute's ISCEx2006 Conference and Exhibition at the Park Inn Hotel in Watford on 28 February, this is a subject that will be well aired, with potential proposals for a method of certification so that purchasers and specifiers can be sure that they are dealing with a bone fide specifier or installer who has reached the required level of competence.
This will ensure that any system installed will be of the requisite standard, catering for the requirements of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. This is something that has been exercising not only the ISCE but also PLASA (the Professional Lighting and Sound Association), as well as the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, say the ISCE.
(Lee Baldock)
