06 Nov Major retail project sees Contacta hearing loops in 300 Middle Eastern stores

Over three hundred retail stores in the GCC are now hearing accessible thanks to a major installation project of Contacta’s hearing loops.

Chalhoub Group operates luxury retail outlets across the Gulf Cooperation Council region, working with eight of its own brands and over 300 international brands such as Swarovski, Michael Kors, Faces and Karl Lagerfeld.

This includes the United Arab Emirates where our local partners, Topland, installed counter loops and signage at till points in all the UAE stores.

The Topland team provided training to Chalhoub’s engineers enabling them to complete the installations and commission the systems in the remaining stores across the region.

“This has been one of the largest retail projects we’ve been involved in,” said Topland’s CEO, Andy Faulkner.  “Having several years’ experience of installing Contacta’s hearing assistive technology across the region has been key to us being commissioned to do the work.”

Topland’s close relationship with Contacta enabled them to find the right design solution for every single store.  While under the counter loop systems were specified throughout, each retail store had a unique counter design.

“Our team always make installations as discreet as possible but in high-end stores such as these, there was an even greater emphasis on a clean finish,” said Andy.  “Our engineers’ attention to detail meant when it came to concealing cabling and positioning microphones, the systems were as ‘invisible’ as possible.”

Instead of the M72 microphone usually used with the under-the-counter system, Topland used smaller M70 microphones, that were less visible to customers at the till.

Topland’s team were also able to customise signage, vital to customers being aware a loop is available, depending on how and where the stores wanted to display it.

It’s testament to both Topland’s engineers and the design of our products that, after seeing how smoothly the systems could be installed, management allowed work to be completed during opening hours.

“The client is focused on creating the best shopping experience for customers with hearing loss and they knew that with us, they would be getting the latest technology, offering the highest performance and quality, concluded Andy.”

Chalhoub Group is planning to continue its hearing loop installations into stores in Jordan, Egypt and India in the near future.