Coping with noisy spaces – technology comes to the rescue

The three of us turned up for a meeting at one of the most hearing-aid-friendly coffee spots in Guildford – GLive – only to discover they had reduced their opening hours and we'd need to find somewhere else within the next 30 minutes. Grrr.

So off we went to the café in a nearby hotel. The bar area was far from ideal, but once the waiter realised we were all hearing aid users, he helpfully guided us to a quieter corner. Between us, we had enough technology to make it work.

My two companions had speech-to-text apps running on their mobile phones. Background noise made these a little hit-and-miss at times, and they occasionally had to fall back on lipreading – but it was a useful safety net.

I had remembered to pack my Multimic, and it proved to be a real star. This is my new favourite gadget. I got it from Danalogic, the makers of my hearing aids, and with VAT exemption it came in at under £200. What I love about it is that it sits in the middle of the table and picks up all speakers equally – making it ideal for committee meetings. This was my first time using it in a genuinely noisy environment, and it filtered out the background noise impressively well. It also has a lapel clip for one-to-one conversations, which has worked brilliantly across a range of noise levels.

It's worth noting that devices like the Multimic are specific to the manufacturer of your hearing aids – but most major manufacturers offer something similar, so it's well worth asking your audiologist.

If a transcript of your conversation is what you need, there are several apps worth exploring. Google's Live Transcribestores your transcript for 24 hours, while others keep a record of each conversation for up to 30 days. Some apps let you download a file to print at home. And tools like Gemini will record your meeting, identify individual speakers, and can even generate something close to a set of minutes – very handy for committee work.

At Guildford Hard of Hearing Support Group, sharing practical tips like these is something we do regularly at our meetings. If you'd like to find out more – or come along and compare notes – we'd love to see you.