I recently bought a Bluetooth AptX LL transmitter for my mother-in-law. It cost about as much as a steak sandwich and fries at a pub lunch. There’s no reason why a LE Audio transmitter should cost any more. Slightly less probably: no license fees to Qualcomm.
Thanks. It’s the owner of the company making this that makes it interesting. Might be a pointer to their intentions.
I don’t think this has been shared: Bluetooth Assistive Listening Gets Closer — Hearing Health Foundation
I found it interesting that a spokesperson from Resound was not optimistic since Resound One’s are supposedly already upgradeable. It’s possible that OTC hearing aids could put some pressure on if they take less time to develop because they don’t have to be approved as medical devices.
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Maybe I’m misinterpreting the following paragraph from the article, but I take the text to mean that older HA’s could join the happy BT LE Audio Auracast throng, too, by having a proprietary neck loop capable of receiving BT LE Audio broadcasts and transferring the audio from the neck loop to the HA’s using older technology. Presumably, a smartphone app would interface to the neck loop to allow the listener to pick the channel of interest, etc.
Auracast could make connecting to an assistive listening device as simple as it is with a hearing loop. Wearers of Bluetooth-capable hearing aids could connect with the touch of a button (or possibly even automatically once you enter a room with a Bluetooth assistive listening system). Those without hearing aids could connect with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds or use their Android or an older iPhone with plug-in, wired earbuds, and those with telecoil-equipped hearing aids could connect using a neck loop.
In the last line of the blog by Bisgaard from Resound cited in the article, Bisgaard does write the following:
However, hearing aids are medical devices and thus subject to rather strict regulatory requirements, so it will therefore take some time to get products out, but all major hearing aid manufacturers are investigating the implementation of LE Audio for upcoming products.
Source: The next version of Bluetooth with Audio Sharing will bring a new world of sound to users with Bluetooth enabled devices - Hearing Industries Association (betterhearing.org)
The second half of the sentence to me is just as interesting as the first half. Presumably “all major hearing aid manufacturers” means that Bisgaard knows for sure that Phonak is also working on incorporating BT LE Audio into its products as well.
One more little box that cost $300-500 to carry that speaks LE and whatever your proprietary HA’s language is…
WH
Nura are selling a usb dongle with their upcoming NuraTrue Pro buds. The dongle is there to provide compatibility with the AptX Adaptive codec. It’s aimed at iphone users, users of older Android phones, and people who want to stream from their computers. That’s got me thinking. Is there any reason why someone couldn’t do the same thing for LE Audio? You plug in your dongle and you’ve got a compatible phone.
In the scenario where you want to connect to an Auracast stream but you don’t have LE Audio hearing aids, couldn’t your phone become the intermediate device? I know that with Bluetooth Classic audio neither Android or iphones currently act as Bluetooth sinks (a device that accepts Bluetooth audio as input). It seems unlikely to me that that restriction will carry over to LE Audio and if that’s the case, I think that might be a solution.
And no, I wouldn’t pay $300 for a dedicated device to connect to Auracast streams.
Interesting thoughts. I wonder if they will make dongles for phones? Issues I can think of are robustness (kind of clunky having a something stickig out of the phone), OS compatibility (IOS or Android compatible and which versions) and interface compatibility (USB-A, C or Lightning) I’m thinking most dongles would be for Windows computers. I don’t see it as likely that a cheap, generic dongle would have all the software issues sorted out.
It does seem possible that the phone could be an intermediary. Some latency would be introduced, but shouldn’t be an issue in a lot of broadcast situations.
@jim_lewis I got the impression that they expected telecoils to hang around for awhile.
This article mentions the phone as intermediary as a possibility. Bluetooth Auracast turns your phone into a radio station | Digital Trends
It also clarifies that when looking for compatible devices, one will look for “Auracast” (not BT 5.3, LE Audo or LC3). Plenty of room for continued confusion! :>)
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“If your headphones are wireless, but not Auracast-compatible, you may be able to use your phone as the Auracast receiver. I say “may” because this scenario would require your phone to receive and then re-transmit the Bluetooth broadcast — a capability that might not be supported by all Auracast-capable phones or tablets, etc.”
You might need two BT radios in your device maybe? Nice article btw. So many of them regurgitate press releases. This guy’s thought about the issues. The copyright question is a bit of an elephant in the room (although audio sharing using BT isn’t a whole lot different from turning on your radio in a public space).
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I did see a Bluetooth LE Audio development kit advertised in my email today (I’m a software engineer). It could do either side of Bluetooth. The target applications listed include “hearing aids”.
nRF5340 Audio Development Kit - Nordic Semi | DigiKey
nRF5340 Audio Development Kit
Nordic Semiconductor’s development kit features an nRF5340 dual-processor SoC that is optimized for LE Audio
Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF5340 Audio DK is a development kit for Bluetooth LE audio applications. It contains everything needed to get started with development. The DK includes the nRF5340 system-on-chip (SoC) and two 3.5 mm audio jacks for line-in and for headphones out. The kit can be used in different configurations. It can function as a USB dongle to output or receive audio data from or to a connected PC. It can act as a headset with a microphone and speaker. It can also serve as an earbud in true wireless stereo (TWS) applications or a broadcast receiver. For most use-cases, Nordic Semiconductor recommends using two or more DKs.
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A number of websites are saying that LE Audio has been announced as being complete. So finally, two and a half years later…
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Interesting that the FAQ at the BT SIG website emphasizes that products can be made to be compatible with both classic BT and BT LE Audio. It doesn’t have to be either/or. I wonder if Phonak will take that approach in a new generation of HA’s?
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Android 13 has been released and adopts Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) Audio support: Android 13 Customizable Apps & Security Controls - Android
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Wha? They just release official Android 12 3-4 months ago. Now Android 13?
This is for Google Pixel phones only at this point. 12 came out sometime in 2021. Other brands phones will likely get it notably later.
October 2021 is when Android 12 was released. Android 13 came a little early. Oticon More is supposed to be “ready for LE Audio”. Resound One has got Bluetooth 5.2 so might be upgradeable but I haven’t seen GE Resound commit to it in writing. One of our users was told by his audi that it would happen.
There are now phones out there that have LE Audio, so bring on those updates!
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I think Oticon More has BT 5.1