Lesher Center for the Arts Commissions Auracast Bluetooth and Telecoil Hearing Loop Across All Three Walnut Creek Theaters

Technical directors at the Lesher Center for the Arts and arts division staff with the City of Walnut Creek Arts + Rec Department completed the commissioning of a building-wide Auracast Bluetooth broadcast and copper telecoil (T-coil) induction hearing-loop system on Saturday morning across all three performance venues at 1601 Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. Covering the 785-seat Hofmann Theatre, the 297-seat Margaret Lesher Theatre, and the 133-seat Vukasin Theatre (Stage 3), as well as the ticket box office and Bedford Gallery reception desk, the acoustic upgrade delivers direct, uncompressed stage audio to patrons with mild-to-profound hearing loss.

Unlike older infrared assistive headsets that required a direct line of sight to wall emitters and suffered interference from theatrical stage lighting, the phased-array copper floor loops magnetically transmit the soundboard's dialogue and orchestra bus directly into any T-coil-equipped hearing aid or cochlear implant processor. Patrons using newer Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio hearing aids or personal smartphones can also scan a seatback QR code to join the encrypted Auracast stream with under 18 milliseconds of latency.

In addition to the audio upgrade, the Lesher Center box office added twenty lightweight augmented-reality captioning glasses from Sony that project real-time synchronized theatrical script captions directly onto the wearer's field of view during Center REP plays, California Symphony concerts, and Diablo Ballet performances. All assistive receivers and caption glasses are sanitized with UV-C light between performances and loaned free of charge.

The $290,000 accessibility modernization was funded by the Diablo Regional Arts Association and the City of Walnut Creek Cultural Facilities Capital Fund. Patrons can reserve captioning glasses or review theater seating loop maps on the Lesher Center Accessibility Portal.