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LE Audio and the Future of Hearing

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I don’t know, but I’ll take a stab at it. Through the scanner in the receiver, the phone could likely detect broadcasts and I would think be able to choose one. However, sound between phone and hearing aids would have to be BT Classic. So, from Auracast source to Auracast hearing aids or earbuds would be , but streaming from phone would not.

Edited

@MDB @d_Wooluf Basically, if I have a smartphone that is capable, then technically I could get the Auracast stream straight to my Marvel via my smartphone!!!, Once the link is established between my HA and the Auracast stream, potentially, I will not need my smartphone!

(That’s my understanding watching numerous youtube videos and reading few articles and comments)

Is that correct?

@d_Wooluf Post is about a legacy smartphone and Auracast capable receiver (earbud, HA,…), so not exactly the same as my post above. :sleepy:

My only quibble would be using the words “via the smartphone” To best of my knowledge, the smartphone is just choosing the broadcast and has no other role in the transmission.

I think that refers to streaming from the phone, not an source.

The gist of it is that if you have a ‘legacy’ phone, the phone and receiver can still co-ordinate. The difference is that the scanning is done by the receiver. The receiver sends the results of the scan to an app on the phone, the app presents the list of broadcasts to the user, and tells the receiver which broadcast has been selected. The receiver takes the broadcast. The downside is that there is a hit on battery life for the receiver. The upside is that almost any phone is a potential Assistant.

@Baltazard. No, you’d need capability in the hearing aids. This is a prospective solution for those with this capability but who don’t want to upgrade their phones. They’ll be able to use their phones to assist their aids in receiving broadcasts from Auracast transmitters. They won’t be able to use their phones to stream to their aids.

Looks like we’re not the only ones frustrated. Here’s a Reddit thread.
This seems to be the gist of it:
I’ve read from a Japanese site that had a search for support on different OS. The conclusion is, although new network chips for Windows is claiming they all have LE Audio feature, there’s no commercially available device that has proper audio driver on Windows to actually use it, including Intel, Mediatek and Realtek and Qualcomm.

Here’s a link to the entire thread:https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1atdur2/is_there_anyone_got_bluetooth_le_audio_working/15

In reply to @d_Wooluf

Trying to get more informed on this. Are these the potential benefits of an standard:

  1. Bluetooth hearing aid standard where, for every hearing aid that implements it, ability to connect to any bluetooth LE Audio device, but not legacy Bluetooth devices. (Thinking phones, tablets, Laptops, generic LE Audio transmitters)

  2. Transmission to multiple hearing aids from bluetooth transmitters and tv transmitters (thinking households with multiple hearing aid wearers)

  3. Broadcast of LE Audio (thinking commercial setting like group broadcast in a movie theater)

All valid I think. For ‘hearing aid’ you can substitute ‘any -equipped audio sink’. That widens the market by a huge amount, leading (we’ve been hoping for years) to a faster and wider takeup. There’s also audio sharing.

You can also include the lower-level technical advantages- low latency, low power consumption, robust connection, multiple synchronised but independent streams.

Updated my Samsung S23 to the latest updates which has OneUI 6.1, and now the phone supports audiocast

I just updated my S23 to OneUI 6.1 also. NRF Connect says it now supports Broadcast Source which is new. I still don’t see any indication Codec is supported. It’s not even a greyed out option.

Edited

Took a look in my Pixel 7a.
In the Developer under codec there are about 8 choices to select. My phone is in auto but there is a selection for . It and the others are not greyed out which means they are available.

Need to correct something here.
The code selections are greyed out.
Sorry for the confusion.

Try this

Bluetooth Codecs20

I have a Samsung Galaxy S23 SM-S911W and Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. In Developer options all Audio Codecs are greyed out except SBC and AAC. The headphones are LDAC capable. How can I turn on that Codec?

In reply to @cvkemp

If this is directed at me, it’s not my issue. I don’t have any devices (headphones or ) that are compatible. Still, it is my understanding that LC3 Codec ought to show up in Developer options as greyed out. It does not show up at all.

In reply to @Raudrive

@Raudrive said:

Took a look in my Pixel 7a.
In the Developer under codec there are about 8 choices to select. My phone is in auto but there is a selection for LC3. It and the others are not greyed out which means they are available.

That’s funny, in my Pixel 7a all the options except Use System Selection are grayed out.

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