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LE Audio and the Future of Hearing

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Hmm. Seems slow to load, but works ok for me. Any suggestions? I don’t think it makes any sense to just recopy the link.

There webpage is definitely wonky. I can’f find the article by doing a search and I often need to refresh to get anything to happen.

It’s loading for me now.

I’m still not convinced that he’s right when he says that almost all 5.2 devices are upgradeable to . I hope he’s right. It would speed things along a bit. I had an exchange on Reddit with an electronics engineer with some experience with LE Audio who stated otherwise.

The idea that manufacturers might be required to support Broadcast Audio for accessibility reasons was new to me. And Apple remains the elephant in the room.

Will definitely be interesting. My guess is that manufacturers could upgrade devices to , but I’m pretty doubtful that they’ll be motivated to do so. I think they’d rather have you buy another device.

No. They really care about us! . Anyway, I’m wondering whether- talking about smartphones- a firmware upgrade is even necessary. New codecs are sometimes added through OS upgrades. Google are adding as a codec for Bluetooth Classic audio in Android 13. So I guess they can run in software. The isochronous channels and other low-level stuff to initiate and maintain the connection would be in the 5.2 chip. Which leaves… ? Just wondering here. Great if there are smartphones that are ready for when Android 13 drops. It’s a bit of motivation for hearing aid manufacturers to move forward. They won’t do anything until there’s a sizeable pool of compatible phones.

Looks as though two more specifications were released two weeks ago. Common Audio Profile and Common Audio Service. So it’s basically complete. The only ones outstanding are the “Use Case Specific Profiles” - including the Hearing Aid Profile which is obviously the one dear to our hearts. The Use Case Specific Profiles seem to be there to package functionality frorm the ‘lower’ profiles as appropriate for a specific application.

LE Audio Specifications | Bluetooth® Technology Website

A New Architecture for the Next Generation of Bluetooth® Audio introduces an entirely new architecture for supporting audio applications using Bluetooth technology and sets the stage for the…

Interesting that the 2nd paragraph of the article that you cite, @MDB, has the line:

the new Bluetooth 5.2 “” standard is making it possible.

(bold italic emphasis on 5.2 is mine). So, as previously discussed in the thread, there is likely to be some buyer confusion over what one is getting with “BT LE Audio” and everyone better find out whether their device of choice is upgradeable to BT 5.3 and whether it’s going to make much of a difference to the usage of that device on into the future…

I’m definiteIy fuzzy about how it will all play out but I’ve read in several places that 5.2 is a minimum, with the implication that BT 5.3 might do better. It sounds like it won’t be too long before we have real products and I expect them all to work flawlessly. :smile:

The date of the article, though, is March 4, 2021. I thought it was said earlier in this thread that Apple caused the hiccup over 5.2 because the delivery wasn’t good enough for their standards, hence the need to move on to BT 5.3. I wonder if the article isn’t a little too “visionary” as it says (optimistically) that BT won’t be in theaters until 2022 (ha!) - neglecting a couple of big pandemic waves that followed in 2021!

The one modest lightbulb that went off in my head from reading the article related to the comments on “airtime.” My experience is if one BT process like audio streaming is in the foreground that stuff like alarm clocks or countdown timers that want a share of airtime will work better with BT LE Audio. As it is with and older iPhone handme downs from my wife, I often miss stuff it seems because of one BT app process struggling to get its fair share of time out of my iPhone. Hopefully, BT LE Audio will make apps that want to use BT on your smartphone play better together.

5.3 introduces the ability for peripheral and source to do some negotiating over which channels to prefer. That might help in a soup of radio signals (which appears to be the direction we’re headed). I’d go for 5.3 personally because… why not? It’s the most recent.

Most people seem to think that BT 5.2, , and are interchangeable terms. Some of those people write “technical” articles. Mostly they rehash what other people have written without really understanding it.

Meanwhile, we’re seeing products like this13 that you’d think would be perfect for LE Audio but they’re using a proprietary Bluetooth solution. That’s a bit disappointing.

Agreed. My take (as a lay person) is that is ultimately what we want and should enable multi device connectivity with hearing aids with reasonable battery consumption. (There are more benefits, but that’s the biggy for me) To have LE Audio, one will need at minimum 5.2 and the Codec. I’ve seen some indication that BT 5.2 is upgradeable to BT 5.3 via firmware. (Quallcom’s wifi/BT chiip, the Fast Connect 6900 initially had BT 5.2 and now claims BT 5.3)

More conjecture. I’m thinking the big unnknown is if Apple makes available with iPhone 14. If they do, I’d think there’s a good chance Samsung makes their S22 line compatible. If not, I’d see it waiting until they come out with S23. Always possible that Google or OnePlus does something, but I’m not sure how much influence they have on US Market. I’m talking only US. Have no idea about other big companies like Xiaomi and Huawei that are big sellers in other countries.

Here’s where I conjecture about things I know nothing about. Again.

Support for is supposed to be coming with Android 13. Also, Bluetooth in Android is becoming a ‘mainline module’ which I think means that you’ll be able to update it in Google Play Store like you can with an app. I think this means that support for LE Audio will be automatic for all Android devices running Android 13 and with the right hardware. A manufacturer would have to take some extreme steps to not support it.

Project Mainline8

Bluetooth becoming a mainline module would be a good thing. The “right hardware” part is the challenging thing.

Bluetooth Market Update from CEO Mark Powell.

2022 Market Update | Bluetooth® Technology Website23

Supported by updated forecasts from Research and insights from several other analyst firms, the Bluetooth Market Update is intended to help global Internet of Things (IoT) decision makers stay up to date on the role Bluetooth technology can play...

There’s been plenty of speculation that the next major version of Android will support . This confirms it.

“Based on our collaboration with Qualcomm, we’re also adopting LE Audio, a new Bluetooth audio standard that results in lower latency than classic audio, provides higher audio quality and allows you to broadcast media to more than one person at the same time.”

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