TFWM: You have a section on your website dedicated to church and theater. Can you give us some background as to how your products came into the church market?

John Hooper: Eartec has been supplying communication solutions to school theatre and football departments for almost 40 years. It came to our attention that professional sound crews in the church and theatre environments were borrowing the school’s football equipment to communicate. They were not only interested in Eartec’s affordable systems, but they were looking for an Eartec system designed specifically for them. That’s how we came up with the popular wired to wireless interface systems, and the two man full duplex systems with Camera Audio Monitor. The next natural step was for us to make these specialized systems easy for our customers to find with a dedicated link on our website.

TFWM: When you set out to create a product, what drives the research and development?

JH: We really try to listen to our customer’s needs, while at the same time keeping our products available to all budgets. It’s important to us at Eartec that we be able to provide customized service while keeping it affordable.

TFWM: Do you receive product requests directly from houses of worship- and if so, what are people asking for?

JH: Our houses of worship customers seem to be very interested in the new wired to wireless interface this year. The system allows those who already have a wired system installed to add wireless roaming users to it easily. The new low-profile 2 watt UHF push to talk system has also been very popular since its inception.

TFWM: What can houses of worship expect from Eartec in the next 2-3 years?

JH: We at Eartec plan to continue to produce new and innovative products for our customers that they really want – in other words, we plan to continue to listen to our customer’s needs closely.