Facility Web Access


If you could empower your residents by offering a free service that would allow them to stay in touch with the news, remain alert and independent, entertained and engaged with their community, without taking valuable time from your staff, wouldn’t you do it?

The Audio-Reader Network provides just that service!

Audio-Reader  allows residents to listen to newspapers like the Kansas City Star, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal right from the comfort of their own rooms.  They can enjoy a variety of other news publications, information programming, and even old-time radio shows like Abbott & Costello, The Green Hornet and Fibber McGee and Molly.

Sure, you’ve probably heard of Audio-Reader before.  But the service, like the times and technology, has changed.  Gone are the days when each resident had to be equipped with a specially-tuned radio, and your staff had to struggle with aluminum foil and antennas to get a clear signal. 

Today, Audio-Reader offers an internet radio stream, which provides complete clarity of sound without static or susceptibility to interference, to all the residents of your facility.  

Audio Information Services across the country are serving residential facilities this way.  Monroe Community Hospital in Rochester New York is one such facility.   “The improvement in sound quality is dramatic,” says Donna Fitzgerald, Resident Program Director at MCH.  “We now receive crystal clear, static-free reception of Reachout Radio.”

So now that you’re interested in getting Audio-Reader for the residents of your facility, read on to find out how easy it is to access this service that gives your residents a life-line to independence.

What you need to make the Audio-Reader Network available to your residents:

  • An internal television channel that can be received in all of the resident rooms, as well as the dining areas and public areas of the facility, or audio delivery system, (PA, in house FM etc.)
  • A computer with IP internet access
  • A Barix Exstreamer 100 IP Audio Stream Decoder (available from a variety of sources for less than $200 – about the size of a pack of index cards)
  • Access to the specific Audio-Reader URL

Step 1

  • Purchase Barix Exstreamer 100 IP Audio Stream Decoder

Step 2

  • Connect Barix box to the Internet and run the RCA audio cables to the audio input on video modulator, PA, FM etc.)

Step 3

  • Listen to cable TV channel, PA audio channel, etc.  (Note:  Audio-Reader will provide you with a special link to access this restricted service, to cover the copyright exemption required by law to radio reading services.)
  • Restart the decoder (using a paperclip) it will announce its IP address. This is where Barix is great – announcing the IP address is a huge plus!
  • Using Internet browser, type in the announced IP address.
  • Click “Configuration” tab on web interface.
  • Enter Audio-Reader’s URL in the “URL 1” field:

Step 4

  • If your facility has restricted Internet access, you may need to get a special port to allow for continuous audio streaming.

Step 5

  • If your system requires that you have video to go with your audio, we recommend taking something generic, like a nature scene DVD and loading it into the system.   MCH did this by purchasing a Western Digital WD TV Live Plus HD Media Player (cost $80).  This allowed their system to automatically switch to this video whenever the Audio-Reader stream is playing.

Questions?    Email reader@ku.edu or call 800-772-8898