the visual indicators 218 220 222 224 as described for fig1 it should be noted in the embodiment that the acknowledgment button can be located on a different face of cuboid apparatus 200 or shared with one or more buttons of the microphone 206 208 button 210 212 pairs fig2 b depicts a pyramidal frustum apparatus 250 for assisting the hard of hearing in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention the pyramidal frustum uses one face as a base i e bottom face and four faces connected to the base of which two faces 264 266 are visible for mounting a microphone 256 258 a button 260 262 and a plurality of visual indicators 268 270 272 274 on each face it should be noted that although not visible the other two faces are similarly configured the microphones 256 258 and buttons 260 262 perform similarly as described for the microphones 206 208 and buttons 212 214 associated with fig2 a the top face 252 comprises a button 254 for the user to depress to acknowledge an alarm and terminate the visual indicators 268 270 272 274 as described for fig2 a further the capabilities and behavior of the pyramidal frustum apparatus 205 of fig2 b.