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How I use Auracast

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Edited

I use an HomeSpot BA210 transmitter both at my church and in my home. Here’s how I implemented them, for those that may be interested.

  1. Church: I have a BA210 connected to a Matrix output on the mixer board. The board has one pair of RCA output jacks and numerous XLR output jacks. The BA210 could be plugged into the RCA jacks with an adapter cable or connected to an XLR jack using a passive direct box with adapters (passive direct boxes passes audio in both directions, that is In to Out & Out to In). However, I chose to use a adapter cable. The Matrix output I used gets its audio feed audio from the main L/R buss. It has a 100:1 compression ratio set in order to limit the Auracast audio level to 0dBFS. The attack time is instantaneous and the release time is max (4 seconds) to minimize distortion and obnoxious pumping of sound level. Compression gain is set to result in about 4dB of compression during normal speech, which amounts to about 15dB of compression for music. The overhead speakers in my church are about 30’ from where I sit, which causes the live audio and Auracast audio to be perfectly in sync.

  2. Home: I have a BA210 connected to the Zone 2 output of my Yamaha AV receiver. I use its Main Zone output for my surround sound home theatre system. However, using the Main Zone output is not practical for Auracast since not having the Center channel mixed in with hearing aid L&R is a major shortcoming. Fortunately, one of the input sources for the Yamaha Zone 2 is “Main Zone Sync.” This automatically mixes down the surround sound audio to stereo audio. (Zone 2 is designed for sending sound to other rooms around the house.) Although the latency of Auracast is very low, the sound from my speakers smeared the Auracast audio. The workaround for that turned out to be fudging the configuration of my Yamaha receiver. One of the settings in that receiver is the distance from each speaker to the listener’s location. By adding 25’ to the subwoofer distance, it caused the receiver to add a few milliseconds of delay to all the other speakers. That in turn caused the live audio from my speakers to be perfectly in sync with the Auracast audio in my hearing aids! (Note the having low bass audio arriving a few milliseconds earlier than other channels is not audible.)

  3. Android App: My hearing aids are Resound Nexia (Costco Jabra 30), so I use the GN Resound SmartFit app. Once I enabled Auracast in that app, it shows me an option to search for Auracast streams. After I connect to Auracast, there is a separate volume slider for Auracast audio in the app. The various programs in the hearing do affect the tone of the Auracast feed. Thus, I usually select the Music program when using Auracast. Unfortunately, once I am connected to Auracast, the option for advanced noise reduction disappears and often won’t come back until I restart the app. I can also select and connect to an Auracast stream in the Bluetooth setting on my phone (Samsung), but there is no volume control for it when I use that connection method.

I hope this helps others getting started with Auracast. I also welcome suggestions from others as to how to enhance the Auracast experience.

9 people in this conversation8 min readJump to latest

I primarily use for cued ballroom dancing, but have three additional transmitters that can be connected to my laptop, TV, and stereo system.

  1. *Square dance/cued ballroom dance* I use a BA210 connected to the cuer’s mixer/amplifier.
  2. *Home* Avantree Oasis Aura, and FlooGoo FMA 120. Using the RCA jacks when connected to the TV and stereo.
  3. *Android app* Phillips Hearlink
  4. *Phones* Google Pixel 10 and Pixel 6a.

Noticed that the Phillips Hearlink app and the Pixel 10 seem to want to fight for control when disconnecting from an Auracast broadcast. Also the right hearing aid seems to want to distort when connected through the Pixel 10 phone.

Using the Pixel 6a phone, the app doesn’t have to fight the phone since it doesn’t have , and the distortion in the right hearing aid doesn’t seem to be an issue or just not as much of an issue. I need to do more testing to verify the distortion issue in the right hearing aid.

Edited

These are great examples. I’ll throw in my latest use case as well:

Equipment:

  • Pixel 9 phone
  • Pixel Buds Pro 2 (paired with developer option “Bypass Bluetooth Allow list” enabled)
  • Oticon Intent 1s.

Normally, I only have my hearing aids connected and stream to them, but for an enhanced experience, I’ll share my audio (i.e. use Auracast) with the Pixel Buds and wear both my hearing aids and the Pixel Buds at the same time.

Result: very rich sound. The hearing aids are great for the higher frequencies (where I have loss), but struggle with bass, and the Pixel Buds really fill in the lower frequencies. It’s a bit strange to wear hearing aids and Pixel Buds at the same time, but if you have a similar set-up, give it a try. I think you’ll enjoy it.

How do you get the Pro Buds to stay in your ear & seal to your ear canal? Don’t the Oticons completely occupy your ear canal?

Also, have you tried using headphones rather than ear buds? (In my case, the live sound has plenty of bass. In fact, I feel the bass from my speakers - which ear buds & headphones can’t replicate.)

I use domes, so the receivers are completely in the ear, but there is enough room for the Pixel Buds, which don’t enter as deeply. I can easily wear both the aids and the buds.

PXL_20260425_215526383~2

Here’s a comparison of the bud and the hearing aid.

PXL_20260425_215100067

Once paired you can share audio with the Pixel Buds:

Screenshot_20260425-145259

And you get two volume controls, which is nice because it lets you tune the sound to your preferences.

Screenshot_20260425-145311

I have used over-the-ear headphones in combination with the hearing aids as well. However, I like the Pixel Buds for their excellent sound and small size. They’re extremely portable. This is my on-the-go solution for high-quality music streaming.

Personally I think that’s a really cool idea. I’ll definitely try it if I find buds/headphones that play ball with my aids and phones. The Earfun Air Pro 4s aren’t really doing it right now.

I just got the firmware for installed on my Philips 9050 aids this last week, because my church just install an Avantree transmitter (I don’t know the model number). I tried it this Sunday, and it worked fine. In my case, hearing in church without Auracast works pretty well; the existing sound system is high quality and my 9050s do a good job there.

I judged the sound quality of the Auracast stream to be a bit lower quality than the usual non-Auracast sound. There seemed to be a little distortion/clipping on the highs (maybe the sound system is turned up too far?).

I don’t have Auracast at home.

Distortion when using with the 9050 hearing aid. has been reported my me and a few other folks. That’s something the Phillips needs to address.

I suggest each of us contact Phillips and make them aware of this issue.

In addition, the app and my Pixel 10 phone seems to want to fight for control. This leads to disconnects and a few other issues. The app works much better on my old Pixel 6a phone which doesn’t have so Pixel 6a is what I use. Phillips needs to address this issue too.

I blog about at aurahear.com17

Have you considered getting an Auracast microphone? About the size of a postage stamp they are highly portable devices that allow you to hear a speaker at, say, a book group, pub quiz, church, or tour guide but there is no other Auracast available.

Hopefully this works - I do like the Multi-Mic+ as it will pick up a when I am wearing my ReSound Vivias.

Its slightly bigger - about the size of a whistle.

The Audeara Microphone is about the size of a postage stamp (special issue!) And very thin. Matchbox for scale.

My review of the Audeara will go online shortly!

20260428_145539

The Multi-Mic+ allows encryption to be switched on or off from within the Resound/Jabra app That means that you can instantly make the sound pickup private to your aids or share it with other Auracast enabled listeners around you

Edited

good morning to all. I am getting the Oticon intent’s in 2 weeks and am super excited about using . Does anyone know if I can purchase a remote mic similar to the roger that uses AuraCast for things like, giving it to a teacher or lecturer in a classroom or using it at a restaurant? I just read some of the options on hear and they do sound interesting. One question comes to mind, is AuraCast simply AuraCast or do I need an Oticon Specific Mic? Thanks,

I can answer the last part for you:. is Auracast. You don’t need any Oticon specific equipment. At the Space Foundation’s Discovery Center museum, we’re unity using a two party system consisting of an Auracast transmitter with our wireless mic system receiver plugged into it. Both the mic and transmitter have enough range to cover our gallery area. In your application, the clip on mic could be written by the teacher and the receiver/Auracast transmitter could be almost anywhere in the classroom. (we also provide Auracast headphones for customers who may need hearing assistance and don’t have compatible )

EarisMax has a microphone that might fit the bill.

EARISMax Microphone takes Auracast anywhere – it’s small, mighty and...16

The EARISMax microphone aims to solve one of the biggest problems people face when needing help to hear: how to hear in situations where there is no so

I have a review of the Audeara lapel microphone due to go online this week (taking for one last test before we go live)

And there is GN’s Multi-Mic+ which has been my favourite , but is more expensive.

The ReSound Multi-Mic+ and Auracast – love at first listen for this wonder...7

https://youtu.be/hIUX_qnCK5c It was love at first listen. The ReSound Multi-Mic+ is one of the reasons why I started this Auracast journey. Compact yet powerfu

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