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Bluetooth's Auracast Will Open a New World of Audio for Hearing Aid Users

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There will be issues when first released, there always are. Then there will be fixes and updates.

Edited

Do you have to have that are “” enabled?
Do you have to buy new smartphone, new laptop,…?
Or is it backward compatible, so you can pair with your existing equipment?
Thx

Edit: Saw this:

Bluetooth Auracast Will Be Able To Broadcast Sound To Unlimited Users10

It’s hard to imagine but Bluetooth has been with us since 1998 when Bluetooth SIG was formed to oversee the development of the wireless technology that is now embedded in five billion tech products shipped each year.

Availability: The Bluetooth specifications that define Auracast broadcast audio are part of the Bluetooth specification suite and are expected to be released within the next few months. Audio product developers and venue operators can learn more about Auracast broadcast audio by visiting bluetooth.com/auracast3.

2nd edit:

What is Auracast? The Bluetooth broadcast tech fully explained | Digital Trends8

With Auracast, your Bluetooth headphones are going to be a lot more useful, and your phone can act as a personal radio station. Here's what you need to know.

Will my existing equipment work with Auracast?
It depends. Technically speaking, many phones, tablets, etc., built during the last few years already have Bluetooth chipsets that can be firmware upgraded to support Auracast. But at the moment, we don’t have a definitive list of which devices will support it at launch or which ones will be updated to support it in the future.
On the headphone/earbuds/speaker side of the equation, things look murkier. Firmware-upgradable chips in these devices certainly exist, but they’re much less common. Tons of Bluetooth headphones and earbuds, especially in the lower sub-$100 price range1, don’t offer a companion app for iOS or Android, so there’s simply no way to update them even if their chips could handle the new code.
Hearing aids that use Bluetooth chips are also a prime example of a product that could benefit from Auracast compatibility, but the same caveats apply — some might already have the necessary hardware, but most will not.

My understanding is that this will only be with new phones, etc. that come with Bluetooth 5.3 (maybe 5.2) and . Resound claims future compatibility with their Resound One hearing aid. For computers it MIGHT be possible to gain this capapbility with a USB adapter. So, no I don’t think this will be backward compatible. To clarify, the new equipment should still work with older devices, but won’t have the advanced capabilities.

In reply to @Baltazard

I am really not sure. That is yet to be seen. I am guessing yes, because most hearing aids now are MFI, and possibly AHAS. My thinking is this will be the new Bluetooth low energy standard. If so then hearing aids will have to be redesigned.

I believe this will be a all new standard. I believe it will be the . Which I believe is Bluetooth 5.3 or maybe 5.2

I’m travelling through rural Wales at the moment and visual displays on their Train Stations and also on the Trains is severely lacking compared to where I live.

This technology sounds like it’ll really help when there are no visual display’s available.

Even worse when you ask for help and can’t understand the person either and having no visual displays makes is extremely hard.

Yes this is one thing I noticed throughout our rural areas as well, absolutely nothing at all, although we don’t have the accents issue it’s still annoying, but I do wonder if some of these places will even bother with when it’s available, might need some government “push”

@tenkan said:

I do wonder if some of these places will even bother with Auracast when it’s available

Never thought of that!

Wales have their own Government and their own rules!

Same issue when Scotland as well!

Bummer!!

Even worse, the UK seem to think it’s a good idea to get rid of staff at Train Stations and assume on Trains as well at some point.

Will make anyone with any added difficulty travelling a lot harder.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

I believe it will be the BLE.

It’s actually Bluetooth Low Energy Audio, which is totally different from .

@cvkemp said:

Which I believe is Bluetooth 5.3 or maybe 5.2

But yes it’s Bluetooth 5.3. I believe that it’s still unclear whether Bluetooth 5.2 certified devices will be backward compatible, maybe with a firmware update.

Here is what I believe, hearing aid engineers are not going to be too quick at adapting LE audio, unless it is also compatible with older phones, , AHAS, or the classic Bluetooth that Phonak uses. Why, because the hearing aid companies know better that forcing people that can’t afford to buy their aids and new top of the line phones at the same time. Sure there are some that would jump to do so, but most of us that wear aids are retired with very little money to throw around all at once. The hearing aid companies will wait for the majority of phones in use to be of that level of Bluetooth connectivity before they make the changes, if they don’t have the room or battery bandwidth to keep the aids reverse compatible along with the latest Bluetooth technology. We will just have to be patient and wait.

Probably won’t be like that because Bluetooth transport protocols are backwards compatible and the data protocols are just software driven.

My own view is that the hearing aid companies will rapidly put into their next release of premium products just as soon as there are a few phones to choose from that will support it, ie an iPhone and two or three Android phones.

We have to hope so, but i am not going to hold my breath. I am someone that isn’t going to hold off and wait for it to happen if i need aids now i will get what i need to be able to hear conversations now. I am too old to wait for the hopeful future.

In reply to @david.hendon

Android phones with , from popular brands, have been on the market for several months already.

Bluetooth LE Audio - Waiting for the Other Phone to Drop14

When will we see Bluetooth LE Audio in mobile phones? That’s a question we get asked regularly at Packetcraft, and it’s a question that’s getting easier to answer. In this article I’ll review the state of the mobile phone ecosystem and offer a look...

Apple will do anything in their power to not use the standard and keep you in their walled garden, as they do with everything.

I think what’s going to drive adoption, far more than users are applications and devices,from Asus to Zenith, that can generate sales of devices using . Think ‘bring your own headphones’ theaters, silent discos, etc. Then, once it’s widespread enough I’ll happily raise my hopes for HA uses and until then, watch and wait.

That isn’t going to help someone like me with my hearing loss. I can no longer just use headphones even over my hearing aids.

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