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Bluetooth 5.2 - Will it solve latency and power issues?

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I’m starting to hear a lot about Bluetooth 5.2 … Most notably that we can expect to hear more at CES about improvements coming on latency and power consumption. I’m hoping this means we’ll finally see really good long-lasting low-latency hearables hitting the shelves. Also, wouldn’t this be fantastic for hearing augmentation / amplification apps :slight_smile:

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I think power consumption improvements are a given. Latency is the big one imo. If it delivers on that with good audio quality it may change our lives in ways we haven’t begun to envisage.

Edited

No, because they connect and communicate with that secret-sauce Apple protocol which I guess is low latency. With an open standard low energy streaming protocol (and fast-forward a year or two) any hearing aid connects to any phone, any tv, any bluetooth-equipped microphone, public address systems, cinemas. No more Roger pens, proprietary tv streamers, connect clips. If you want a tv streamer, you can get that $20 one from Ebay and it will work with your hearing aids.

In reply to @AbramBaileyAuD

@AbramBaileyAuD said:

Yep, and of course @d_Wooluf is right on the money regarding benefits of open standard for hearing aids. That’s on the way too.

@AbramBaileyAuD , the way I see it, the potential benefits I listed don’t even require a hearing aid protocol. Those benefits are for the general population with their hearables. Low energy creates a level playing field for our hearing aids which then become our ‘hearables’. With our special needs we benefit most.

What benefits an actual hearing aid standard will bring to the table I really don’t know.

Edited

Who knows? The cost of accessories might come down. A TV streamer for my current aids costs about 300AUD. A generic streamer from ebay might cost 40AUD. A future generic streamer with Bluetooth LE would probably be about the same. No need for a proprietary solution any more so that’s 260AUD in my pocket. If my future TV has built in that’s 300AUD in my pocket. It may be a similar story for . The connect clips that I keep losing are about 240AUD. If the future hearing aids with BLE audio include a microphone that’s another 240AUD in my pocket. It adds up.

In reply to @d_Wooluf

Sounds like we should be very patient. They’re predicting for it to be on product within the next 2 years. Such predictions are usually optimistic. Still exciting though.

Yesterday, I was watching a series on Netflix that was in Norwegian with English subtitles. All was fine until they started talking in English, which had no subtitles. I dug out my Marvels, put in new batteries, hooked up the TV Connector, and could understand the English a bit better. Today, I started watching a movie in English, with subtitles, but wanted to hear it better. I got a pair of Bluetooth earbuds recently and wanted to try them. I have a regular Bluetooth TV streamer and with the earbuds, it worked well except for latency. Since I was the only one home, I turned down the TV volume and it was OK except for the voices not matching the mouth movements. If I had a setup that didn’t have latency, it would make things better for me. I don’t really like using the Marvels as earbuds. Their sound quality doesn’t cut it.

I am loving the TV streamer after years of closed captions.
By not looking at the closed captions it is helping me to hear speech and learn.

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