Assistive listening without a hearing loop.
Koine can stream your room's own sound, and live captions of it, to the phones and earbuds people already carry. Nothing to install in the ceiling, nothing to hand out at the door — and no second language needed, because the same language is the point.
Works with the earbuds and phones people already own · No receivers to issue or charge
The people who are in the room but can't quite follow it.
Every argument for translation applies just as well inside one language. These are the listeners a monolingual room usually loses.
The room, straight into their own earbuds
Instead of competing with the room's acoustics, the sound arrives directly on their phone at whatever volume they choose. It is the same principle as a hearing loop, without installing one — and it reaches the people whose hearing aids don't have a telecoil, or who never asked for a receiver because asking is the barrier.
- Their own volume, their own earbuds, no hand raised
- Live captions to read as well as, or instead of, sound
Overflow, foyer, nursery, and cry rooms
Someone who steps out with a child, or sits in the overflow room, or works the welcome desk, is still there — they just can't hear it. The same live audio reaches any phone in the building, which is a far shorter conversation than wiring another room for sound.
Homebound, hospital, and travelling
They hear the session itself, live, rather than waiting for a recording — and they get the transcript afterwards like everyone else. See remote & hybrid listeners for how the same session reaches beyond the room.
Anyone who follows text better than speech
A fast speaker, an unfamiliar accent, a technical term, a noisy hall, a second language learned as an adult. A live transcript is a different kind of accessibility from amplification, and it helps a much wider group of people than the ones who would ever describe themselves as hard of hearing.
What this is not
Koine is not a medical device and not a certified hearing-loop installation. Where a regulation, a building code, or a procurement rule specifically requires an installed assistive listening system, this does not discharge that obligation — treat it as reaching people that system misses. It is also not sign language: a signed interpretation is a human service, and captions are not a substitute for one where signing is what a person needs.
The room's own sound, on the devices already in the room.
A session takes the feed you already have — the soundboard, the PA, or a clip-on mic — and offers listeners the original audio as well as any translated languages. Turning the room's own audio on is a single switch in the listener's settings, off by default.
- No translation required — a monolingual room can run captions and original audio alone
- Rewind while it's still live, so a missed sentence can be replayed without losing the thread
- Captions on the main screen too, for everyone at once — see captions & overlays
- The transcript stays afterwards, to read at their own pace — see recordings & archive
The honest detail, before you plan around it.
Both of these are real constraints today. We would rather you hear them from us than discover them in your own building.
Earbuds, if you're in the room
The stream lands roughly a fifth to a third of a second behind the room, which is far enough behind to sound like an echo on a loudspeaker but is masked completely by earbuds. In the room, earbuds are not a preference.
Where live room audio runs today
Streaming the room's own sound works in any phone browser and in the Koine app on iPhone and iPad. It is not in the Android app yet — Android listeners get live captions, and the browser for audio.
A good mic still decides everything
Captions are only as good as the audio they are made from. A soundboard feed or a headset mic reads cleanly; a phone at the back of a reverberant hall does not, in any language.
Nothing installed in the building.
Take the feed you have
Soundboard output, the PA, or a clip-on mic. The same feed already carries the room.
Put the code where people sit
On the screen, the order of service, the programme, or a small card at the back — next to the words "hard of hearing?".
Tell people it exists
The listeners who need this most are the least likely to ask. Saying it out loud once, from the front, is the whole rollout.
Cheaper than translating, because there's less to translate.
If you already run translated languages, the original audio and the original transcript come with them at no extra cost. If you run no translation at all, a captions-only session meters at about a third of the rate of a translated language.
Start free with a 15-minute test on your own room audio. If you already translate, the room's own audio costs nothing extra. Full plan detail on pricing.
All usage is measured in language-hours — see pricing for the plans and what each one includes. If your room needs assistive listening and nothing else, tell us about it and we will say plainly what it costs and whether it is worth it: get in touch.
What would it cost your room?
Tick captions only if nobody needs a translated language — a transcription-only session draws about a third of an hour for each hour you run.
Estimate only. Final price is confirmed before you pay, and unused hours do not roll over.
Accessibility questions.
Does this satisfy our legal accessibility obligations?
We can't answer that for you, and we won't pretend to. In most jurisdictions the rules name an installed assistive listening system, and this is not one. What it does well is reach the people that system misses — the ones without a compatible hearing aid, the ones who never ask for a receiver, and the ones in another room. Treat it as coverage, not as a substitute, and check the obligation with your own advisers.
Does it work with hearing aids?
It works with anything the phone can play to — Bluetooth hearing aids, Bluetooth earbuds, or a wired pair. Wired is slightly faster. There is no telecoil involved, which is exactly why it reaches hearing aids that have none.
Can people listen on a speaker instead of earbuds?
Outside the room, yes. Inside it, no — the stream is a fraction of a second behind the room, so a speaker would produce an audible echo against the live sound.
How accurate are the captions?
Good with a good microphone, and noticeably worse without one. Names, places, and specialist vocabulary are where errors show up. For the people using this, a live transcript with occasional errors is generally worth far more than no transcript, but it is not a verbatim record.
Do listeners need the app?
No. A browser is enough. The app adds saved history, notes, and replay afterwards — see the Koine app.
Can we run this with no translation at all?
Yes. A transcription-only session runs the original transcript and the room's own audio with no translated languages open at all, and meters at a third of the rate.