#7

It may be that they haven’t even disabled pairing with different LE Audio buds. Two possibilities that I can think of. They may not have had paid the licensing fee or had them certified (for whatever reason) to use the LE Audio brand. They may have tested them only on the buds that they’re including, and want to avoid support issues with other buds.

It’s only a money grab if they are going to make extra profit off whatever the buds add to the price they charge. I think people are paying for the Orsana unit really. They’d sell more units if they advertised them as using LE Audio. The buds are of unknown quality.

LE Audio is definitely what they’ve been developing towards.

#8

I am trying to extend an invite to the AT team to come and respond to some of your questions and comments. Hopefully that will happen soon.

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#9

Rick Radia used to post on here for a short time. Profile - r.radia - Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community

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#10

@r.radia Check it out!

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#11

@AbramBaileyAuD thank you for sharing. We appreciate you raising awareness of the work we are doing here in the UK.

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#12

Thank you for your comments and questions. My name is Rick the product manager at AudioTelligence. I will do my best to explain what we are offering and why.

Earlier this year we developed an Orsana prototype device that used Bluetooth LE Audio. This device was an evaluation vehicle for hearing aid and earbud companies. On discussion with these companies and based the work we were doing to get LE Audio working it became clear that LE audio standard is not viable yet. You may notice that many company say they are LE audio ready vs. have LE audio working fully. For evaluation purposes we built our own receiver that our customers could connect wired earbuds to. We expect in the next year companies will start offering LE audio solution.

At this stage we had two options:

  • either launch with Bluetooth standard and offer a solution with very high latency (70ms + depending on the earbuds) Based on our user testing this would not been acceptable.

  • or wait for Bluetooth LE audio solutions to be available. Unfortunately this was not the right thing for us to do commercially.

As a small startup in the UK neither of the above was really feasible so we had to make a compromise and take a different approach. We have therefore partnered with an earbud manufacturer which will allow us to use 2.4GHz wireless connection. This was not our preferred option but allows to bring our tech to market now.

What I would also like to assure you is that the objective of the project is not to make money. The crowdfunding will, validate market opportunity for the tech to our future partners, enable us to setup the manufacturing process for the product, taking us from prototype to finished product and hopefully support commercial discussions with our the big companies interested in our tech. Once we secure them we can work with them to get an LE audio solution in the market.

Thanks for the great questions and taking the time to read this and understand our story.

Kind Regards

Rick

6 Likes
#13

Thank you for the information, this makes sense.

I don’t quite understand what you meant by that:
‘You may notice that many company say they are LE audio ready vs. have LE audio working fully’

Pretty much all recent Android phones from major brands are released with working LEA stacks, plus there are LEA earbuds on the market. It’s out there and it works

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#14

Several earbud vendors have released earbuds, initially saying that they supported LE Audio, but are now either saying that LE Audio will be supported soon via OTA updates, or, in some cases, withdrawing any mention of LE Audio from their product descriptions. We are in touch with leading players in the industry, and it is simply the case that interoperability between different vendor’s products over LE Audio does not currently work.

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#15

It’s moving fast and I understand that you cannot aim for a moving target.
That’s already changed, as a one example, Sony said that they will upgrade some of their earbuds and they did [Linkbuds] plus their recent releases support LEA out of the box, at least with recent Pixel and Sony phones (which I have).

#16

Will check this out thanks

#17

Thanks @r.radia. It must be incredibly frustrating for you to see this standard with such potential rise over the horizon at snail’s pace. It is for us.

Is there any chance that the Orsana device that you’re crowdfunding will be upgradeable to LE Audio in the future?

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#18

Will it be suitable for severe losses ?

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#19

Lifted straight from a promotional email. Orsana with neck loop.

AudioTelligence-RGB-colour-logo
Copy of Problem (Instagram Story) (Facebook Post (Square)) (Email Header)-1

Dear XXXX

Orsana is now compatible with hearing aids!

At AudioTelligence, we are dedicated to improving the quality of life for individuals who face challenges with hearing in noisy environments. We understand the importance of clear and comfortable communication, and we are thrilled to share some exciting news with you.

Are you a hearing aid user who still finds it challenging to hear clearly in noisy environments?

We have designed a special bundle just for you. This bundle allows you to seamlessly connect Orsana to your hearing aid, enhancing your listening experience in those pesky noisy situations.

Using Orsana with your hearing aid is incredibly simple. Our new bundle includes a Neck Loop and Receiver.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Set your hearing aids to T Loop mode. This feature enables you to connect with compatible accessories like Orsana effortlessly.
  2. Connect the Orsana wireless receiver directly to the Neck Loop provided.
  3. Place the Orsana remote microphone on the table and wear the Neck Loop.

Once you have completed these easy steps, you will immediately notice the difference in your ability to follow conversations in noisy settings.

Our goal is to make communication effortless and enjoyable, regardless of the environment you find yourself in. Orsana’s advanced technology excels at separating speech from background noise, ensuring you can focus on the conversations and sounds that matter most to you.

If you have any questions or would like more information about the Orsana bundle with Neck Loop, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are here to assist you and provide any additional information you may need.

If you’re eager to supercharge your hearing aid and take your listening experience to the next level, back our Indiegogo project and reserve your Orsana assistive listening device for just £299.

Warm regards,

Rick Radia

Product Manager
Order now

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Have questions? Either respond to this email or contact us at enquiries@audiotelligence.com
AudioTelligence Ltd, Allia Future Business Centre, Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire CB4 2HY, United Kingdom, 01223 850 180

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#20

I guess they have no other option right now until we have LE audio universal across hearing aids but we’ll lose a lot of audio quality with the limited bandwidth of the telecoil

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#21

If they were cashed up you’d wonder whether it would be worthwhile coming out with a LE Audio product anyway. We’ll have people with ReSound Nexias in their ears soon. Maybe not enough to make a viable market straight away, but enough to create anticipation through word of mouth. There’s a bit of a danger that a suboptimal user experience (telecoil) might sell the device short.

3 Likes
#22

Great post. Most interesting.
Thank you

#23

Something’s going on with AudioTelligence (probably not good). There’ve been no announcements or promotional videos for some time and Rick Radia’s moved on. Hope the technology finds a good home.

2 Likes
#24

The major problem I have with earbuds is that they just do not deliver enough power (are not loud enough) for people with my kind of hearing loss. I believe this has to do with legal requirements to protect people with normal hearing. Yes, there are ways to boost audio in Android phones, but these tend to distort sound horribly. Apple’s rather costly “hearing aid” earbuds under-deliver, the more so when connecting to Android sources (then using a different codec). So I am very worried about the “teaming up with a commercial earbud manufacturer” part here.
If I would need a remote microphone I would plug one into my Phonak TV streamer, which has no noticeable Bluetooth lag.

#25

They teamed up an earbud manufacturer for the purposes of a crowd-funding campaign which never got off the ground. They needed to make it do something and that was what they came up with. It was a device that really needed LE Audio to be viable and LE Audio unfortunately has taken its own sweet time leaving the station. What they were pitching was a device that four people with Auracast-equipped buds or aids could tap into around a coffee table. I’d love to see it released.

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#26

Sadly, liquiidators were appointed 26th January.

1 Like