When Will Auracast Actually Be Enabled for Phonak, Oticon, Signia, etc.? (From a Device Maker’s Perspective)

[rrhale1957]

@tenkan Thanks for your response. My question was for @PhoebeY , in the context of her remarks about Auracast.
My understanding is that MFi hearing aids must be designed, built, and tested in compliance with Apple’s license - isn’t this correct?
If yes, it would seem to me that the communication interface with Auracast would be very important, and it would impact @PhoebeY ‘s work and concerns. AirPods Pro 2 features come to mind, for example.
Thanks again.
Best, Bob.

[StataHA]

Phones don’t have to be Auracast capable. Only the hearing aid has to be. The Auracast Assistant in the app just tells the hearing aids to stream the Auracast broadcast. The hearing aids are the devices searching for the broadcast and not the phone.

[wtolkien]

To reinforce this point:

Here is a picture of the ReSound/Jabra app running on a 12 year old iPhone 5S with Auracast active:

[Nerdrunner]

Sadly, many of the folks developing the Auracast Assistant apps misunderstood this point and want to require Bluetooth 5.2-5.4 on the cellphone itself in order to run the app. I’ve been testing a number of earbuds which claim to be Auracast-capable (and which probably are!), but it’s impossible to get them to operate without an “Assistant App”, and their App requires a much newer phone to enable Auracast. Prime example: Sony’s WF-1000XM5 earbuds; perhaps Sony is expecting everyone to purchase a $1000 Sony Android phone ?

[Nerdrunner]

Just received my FlooGoo, and have been running tests v EarFun Air Pro 4 and hearClear earbuds. The Win11 version of the FlooCast app sort of works, but needs some substantial additional polishing. Even with the “Dongle State” and “LE Audio State” and “Codec in Use” panels, it’s still difficult to tell what’s going on.
The User Guide isn’t all that helpful, either.
What’s needed is a tutorial for broadcasting: here’s how to set up the transmitter, here’s how to set up receiver #1, here’s how to set up receiver #2, etc.
Also, the instructions for vanilla Linux (Raspbian) on a Raspberry Pi don’t work – at least on the most recent version of 64-bit Raspbian.
Also, I notice that LC3 appears stuck at 24kHz – I assume that this is due to the fact that most hearing aids can’t handle higher rates? I was trying to broadcast LC3 to EarFun and hearClear earbuds which can (I think) handle 48kHz LC3 ??

[Ranson]

Thank you for your feedback — we’ll take your suggestions into account as we continue improving the firmware, app, and documentation.

For setting up the FMA120 as an Auracast receiver, we have a dedicated manual available here:

FMA120AuraRx.pdf

To enable 48 kHz broadcast, simply turn on the “Broadcast High-Quality Music” option in the app, then reset the dongle for the setting to take effect.

One helpful feature of the FMA120 is that once your headset, earbuds, or hearing aids are paired, you can switch to broadcast mode directly within the FlooCast app — no phone interaction is needed to change the connection. The dongle itself handles the transition as a broadcast assistant.

[Nerdrunner]

Thanks very much for the link. Yes, I was able to get LC3 @ 48kHz. You might want to change the wording “Broadcast High-Quality Music” to “Broadcast 48kHz Music” (or something similar) to make this point clear.

[Nerdrunner]

Thanks very much for the Auracast receiver info; I’m listening to an Auracast broadcast right now on my Android phone !
Could you please update the Floocast app on Android to indicate the codec info – e.g., “LC3 24kHz” or “LC3 48kHz” or whatever ?
It would be nice to have this info displayed next to the channel before connecting, as someone might have TWO different broadcast channels with the same info, but different rates – e.g., one for 24kHz, the other for 48kHz.

[Ranson]

Thank you for confirming and for the suggestion! It would be greatly appreciated if you could share your phone and hearing aid models in the thread where we introduced this feature — many users are looking for setups similar to their own, and your input could be really helpful to them.

Bring Auracast to Any Hearing Aids with the FlooGoo FMA120

First, I’d like to thank @d_Wooluf for introducing our FMA120 as an Auracast and LE Audio transmitter last year. Without that introduction, we might never have discovered this wonderful place to connect directly with our customers. Since we launched the FlooGoo FMA120 in November 2023 on Amazon, we’ve received tremendous feedback from early adopters of LE Audio and Auracast, especially from the hearing aid community. As with any new technology, Auracast faces some compatibility challenges, an…

[PhoebeY]

We have a customer using Phonak Sphere 90 with Samsung phone but no LE audio option. Anyone knows why?

[tenkan]

There’s no LE Audio with Phonak yet, still waiting for that firmware update…

[Bimodal_user]

I asked almost the same question in today’s AMA:

Artificial Intelligence AMA with Senior Phonak Experts

But does that mean that enabling Bluetooth LE in Infinios make them unable to receiving Bluetooth Classic signal? I ask because my smartphone already can broadcast Auracast and one-to-one LE signal.

My smartphone is Samsung S23.

[PhoebeY]

Hope Phonak will be the next

[wtolkien]

Hi @PhoebeY what’s the current status of the Avantree Voyager? Does it need special firmware to use the lower bit rate for hearing aids? Or is it a menu option?
What about PIN-protected Auracast?

[PhoebeY]

Hi @wtolkien, Avantree Voyager is now available on Amazon and on avantree.com. There are a few production batches:

• First batch: Requires DFU firmware update to support 24Kbps LC3 for hearing aids.
• Second batch onward: Already supports 24Kbps out of the box — no update needed.

Regarding PIN-protected Auracast: we now also support it via firmware update. You can find the latest firmware and update instructions here:
Firmware Updates

Let me know if you need help checking which batch you have or updating the firmware!

[hlaanm]

@TechieTim

At my church, latency is a non-issue. By the time the sound arrives from the overhead speaker, it is perfectly in sync with my hearing aids.

What and where is your church? I want to add it to my list of known Auracast served venues at www.nht.name.

[PhoebeY]

@hlaanm

www.nht.name

haha, UK is leading early Auracast deployments. Interesting

[TechieTim]

Thanks for asking. But unfortunately, my church hasn’t officially committed to Auracast, so probably shouldn’t list it yet. I am having trouble getting the head tech committed to it. Currently, I am taking my own transmitter to use in one of the three lesser attended venues where I occasionally run sound.

[Hearinghelp1]

Here is response from Philips Demant Customer Service to my query about Auracast.

Hello, I want to check availability of Auracast for Hearing Aid 9050. I have latest hearing link app 8512 (1.5.2) and firmware 1.2.1.

————————-
Thank you for reaching out to Philips Hearing Solutions Consumer Care. We will be glad to support you!

The model you mentioned is Auracast ready and the feature will be available in the coming months.

You will need to perform a firmware update at the clinic that provided the devices to use the feature, and also an app update will be need.

Please, ask your audiologist to inform you when the firmware update including the Auracast feature will be available to be installed.

[PhoebeY]

That’s great news! Thank you for sharing with us.