Auracast Explained: How Bluetooth LE Audio Is Transforming Hearing Aids and Accessibility

Connectivity plays a critical role in helping people hear their best, and few innovations are generating more excitement in hearing healthcare than Auracast™.

In this episode of Starkey Sound Bites, Dr. Dave Fabry welcomes Henry Wong, Director of Market Development for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG), for a discussion about Auracast Broadcast Audio, Bluetooth LE Audio, and what these technologies mean for hearing aid users, audiologists, and consumers alike.

Together, they explore:

• What Auracast is and how it works
 • The evolution of Bluetooth connectivity for hearing aids
 • The benefits of Bluetooth LE Audio
 • Why Auracast is often described as "Wi-Fi for audio"
 • Real-world applications in airports, gyms, stadiums, places of worship, and public venues
 • How Auracast can improve access to clear audio in noisy environments
 • The future of hearing accessibility and assistive listening technology
 • Resources for hearing care professionals looking to champion Auracast in their communities

Whether you're a hearing healthcare provider, hearing aid user, technology enthusiast, or simply curious about the future of audio accessibility, this episode offers a practical look at a technology poised to reshape how people connect with sound.

Transcript

Welcome And Why Connectivity Matters

Dr. Dave Fabry 0:04

Welcome to Starkey Soundbites. I'm your host, Dave Fabry, Starkey's Chief Hearing Health Officer. Now, before we dive in today, please go ahead and hit subscribe and like if you enjoy this session. But every time you do, you help us spread our mission of helping more people hear better and live better. Now, as many of our listeners know, connectivity is key when it comes to helping people with hearing loss. And Auracast is an exciting new technology that is truly game-changing. Today we're in for a treat because our guest is a leading expert on this very topic. Henry Wong is the director of market development for the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, or S-I-G, as it's known, or SIG, I guess they don't even abbreviate it. So, but but Henry, welcome to SoundBites. Thank you, Dave. Thank you for having me.

Henry Wong 0:57

I'm excited to be here to talk about forecasts.

Dr. Dave Fabry 1:01

Well, it is truly one of my favorite topics these days because as an audiologist who's been in uh the profession and the discipline for now 43, going on 44 years, um in a way, I will say that with the SIG group, the Bluetooth SIG group, uh it's it's felt at times like waiting for Godot. But uh having participated on standards and committees, this has to go. It's a it's a it's a tremendous effort to try to get people to agree upon a single standard that can be used for streaming across broad industries. And and you know, it it feels like it's been a long time coming, but now it's here. And uh and we're delighted to really have uh a little bit of your time today to talk about a variety of topics on this in this area.

What The Bluetooth SIG Does

Henry Wong 1:49

Yeah, so for those of you who are not familiar with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, or to say, we are a standards development organization and a community of the world's most inventive companies and people collaborating to fulfill the essential need to connect. Together, we advance, protect, and promote Bluetooth technology, the global standard for connection. We have over 40,000 members, and these members pretty much are anybody who makes a product that has Bluetooth.

Dr. Dave Fabry 2:16

I'm grateful that now it has aligned. And really now coming into our discipline, uh the audiologists and hearing instrument specialists, since uh the early days, 2014, of the first made for iPhone hearing aids, um, you know, I know as a practitioner that was uh an audiologist long before that, that you know, it was really that was a a milestone for us because it was now the first time that that that connectivity, at least for iPhone users at first, and then shortly after, Android users without the need for an intermediary device could connect their hearing aids directly to a smartphone. And and given that early on, people thought of connectivity as it related to hearing aids as connecting to their phone, to their hearing aids, so that they could communicate uh uh and have conversations on their phones by streaming. But um, you know, in many cases, we've seen that audiologists and hearing care professionals often spend more time troubleshooting connectivity than they do with the actual process of fitting the hearing aids, like when they were first trained.

Why Hearing Aid Bluetooth Feels Hard

Dr. Dave Fabry 3:22

Why has historically Bluetooth been rather difficult for hearing aid users? And what has the industry been working on to fix that, to improve the ease of connection and connectivity?

Henry Wong 3:36

Yeah, great, great question. I think in the past there were some proprietary implementation, right? So there's certain platforms that are using maybe for MFI, there's other platforms using Asha and so forth, and other proprietary implementation.

Dr. Dave Fabry 3:50

Um I'm sorry to interrupt, but for some people who might not be as deep into it, Asha is not a professional organization. We have an organization called the American Speech Hearing Association, but in your case, you're referring to Android streaming for hearing aids, correct? That's right, correct, Dave. Thank you.

LE Audio And The LC3 Upgrade

Henry Wong 4:08

And if you look at the journey of um Bluetooth, LE Audio and NordCast, you know, Bluetooth has been leading innovation, audio innovation in the wireless audio for over 20 years. And people have been doing stretching the Bluetooth classic architecture to its limit. But years ago, you know, a number of companies started looking ahead and planning for what's next in the wireless audio. And one group of members at the center of that initiative were hearing a manufacturer, an organization from hearing industries. They approached the thing and spearheaded a project that has now resulted in LE audio for the next generation of Bluetooth audio. LE Audio is a new flexible audio architecture that has been designed to support the next 20 years of audio innovation. LE audio brings a number of enhancements to the market today. One, higher quality, lower power, better performance. Two, standard new standardization for hearing aid to be able to connect hearing aid to one standard. So allows multiple flexibility choices for consumers or people who have harder hearing. And three, the introduction of ORCAS forecast audio.

Dr. Dave Fabry 5:23

Thank you for that summary. And you know, when I think of the differences, as you mentioned, Bluetooth Classic has been used uh for a lot of commercial audio examples. And working in that low power all-day application with um uh high fidelity, uh it's it's challenging uh as we've been in the hearing aid space because people uh have much uh uh they want to be able to wear the devices all day rather than, let's say, a few hours like someone would use a wireless headset for. And so can you summarize briefly? You you've already summarized nicely the difference between LE audio and uh uh BLE, if you will, um what has been used since 2014 and shortly after? Um but then Bluetooth Classic really wasn't developed at the start, if I'm if I'm correct, for hearing aid applications as an ideal, but but it did offer, let's say, more ubiquitous or more ease of connecting to Android and iPhone platforms. Will LE audio help with that connecting across the different hearing aid platforms and also the different phone platforms as a start? For many practitioners, they they simply want to say, why is LE audio? You you've listed three reasons there, but why is LE audio better than BLE or Bluetooth Classic in a hearing aid application?

Henry Wong 6:49

Yeah, so for a hearing aid application, it provides um new new codec. So the classic audio are using what we call SBC is a codec. The new LE audio architecture uses a new codec called LC3. And what LC3 is, is provide a much better audio quality, lower power consumption to allow device to last longer, especially for hearing aid, to allow users to be able to use hearing aid for the whole day.

Dr. Dave Fabry 7:18

Yeah. That's that's really fundamentally what we're seeing is that in addition to that phone use, people increasingly, especially those younger patients, want to be connected to all sorts of different environments in their ecosystem as they walk about their day. Can you talk about a couple use cases of what you might imagine or what you see as being the most popular cases beyond the phone, where someone with who's using hearing aids might benefit from this technology and the connectivity

Auracast Explained Without The Hype

Dr. Dave Fabry 7:50

that it provides?

Henry Wong 7:50

Yeah, sure. So before I provide some real-world examples of RCAS integrations, maybe let me step back and let me explain what RCAS is. This is not the traditional Bluetooth experience. There are no pairing involved. A single transmitter can broadcast high audio, high quality audio to an unlimited number of nearby pairing devices simultaneously. Now, when you look at AuraCast integration, there are the devices and the location. Let me talk about the devices first. We believe RCAS broadcast audio feature will find its way into all Bluetooth-enabled audio devices. Today, pretty much every major brand has devices with RCAST support. An RCAST transmitter can be anything from your smartphone to the TV, to the tablet, to laptop, and even to a public announcement system. RCAST receivers are hearing aids, earbuds, headphones, speaker, and any hearing instruments. And as for location integration, we're really pleased with the deployment momentum. Thousands of AuraCast locations today is deployed across 19 countries.

Dr. Dave Fabry 9:10

Yeah, it's been really fun. I still work with patients in my role. I work in RD, but as a component of that is ensuring to help ensure that the needs of the patient are met as we're developing the new technology. I still work with patients uh today, and as I upload them with our latest technology, we we have a device, Omega AI, that incorporates that uh Oracast finder. And and talk a little bit about the ease of connectivity that Oracast does provide. You've alluded to the broadcast and and uh you know one-to-many uh applications. And and to me, the one thing that patients are immediately responding to is it's almost as easy as just searching out and finding a Wi-Fi connection. And you know, that ease of finding that in the wild is something I send my patients out on a on a wild goose chase, if you will, when they're in a situation that is like one that you described, and to look to see if there is broadcast or cast streams available, if there are broadcast streams available.

Henry Wong 10:19

Yeah, that's right. So um an analogy that we use, as you mentioned, Dave, is just like on someone's a Wi-Fi for audio. You take out your phone, either on the phone or the app, you hit search, and you'll be able to search for any nearby oracast, broadcast or transmitters. And if there's multiple transmitters or broadcasts, you would be you're able to see them. And all the user has to do is select which one that he or she wants to listen into. And the beauty of this is the audio comes directly from the transmitter or the broadcast source directly to your hearing device, be it Hearing A or Earbox or headphones. It does not go through the phone. Um, so similar use case, you can imagine if you go to a gym uh or a bar that have multiple TVs and they have incorporated these TVs with AuraCast, then you're able to take out your phone as an AuraCast assistant to be able to discover different AuraCasts and be able to listen in to the one that you know you choose.

Finding Auracast Locations And Registering

Dr. Dave Fabry 11:19

You mentioned that there are already thousands of Oracast broadcast transmitters being used around the world. Um, are there resources for professionals or end users who might be listening to this podcast to find out if there are locations that they plan to visit where Oracast transmitters are already in use?

Henry Wong 11:41

Yeah, um that's a great question. Um we at the Bluetooth.com slash AuraCast, we have an AuraCast location profile page. And what this page is is pretty much highlights some of the location that has deployed AuraCast um as a um use case study. Now, this is not a comprehensive list. It does not include you know all a thousand of them, um, but it includes location that has to register with the Bluetooth for us to promote them on the AuraCast location profile pages.

Dr. Dave Fabry 12:18

Can let's say one of my patients who's who are familiar with going out and seeking to find those Oracast transmitters, if they discover a location that isn't on the list uh or a repository, is there a way that we can crowdsource this where people can put in locations where they have experienced the benefits of broadcast Oracast? Um, and then so that others can benefit from it as well.

Henry Wong 12:45

Oh, definitely. Um again, if you go to Bluetooth.com slash oracast, there's a uh location registration page. Um there's only like five five fields there for a location that has deployed AuraCast. We encourage them to register with us so we could track it and we could promote their location with these location profile case studies that we're doing.

Adoption Momentum Plus Reducing Stigma

Dr. Dave Fabry 13:07

You know, for me as an audiologist, I'm excited about the applications for hearing aids, but we also know from the history that when telecoils were used in places of worship and in other public spaces, um, it often was met in some cases with resistance by the people who owned those spaces because you know they had to they had to install a loop or they had equipment that they had to maintain, and it was only for people with hearing loss that had hearing aids with it that were equipped with a telecoil. One of the reasons that personally I'm so excited about Oracast and its potential, as you mentioned at at your opening remarks, that this is for in the goal really for the SIG is to raise awareness for this as a tool of anyone who's using wireless audio speakers or uh uh headsets of any form. And the fact that people with hearing loss or with normal hearing can use this ORCAST technology, I think, will really help with embracing and populating Oracast transmitters throughout the world.

Henry Wong 14:15

That's right. Um, you know, we believe AuraCast forecast audio feature will find its way into all Bluetooth enabled audio devices. And any location where there's a public address system or sound system can add AuraCast to enhance the visitor experience for people with all level of hearing health. We're already seeing you know great momentums in the market across both devices and locations. You know, ABI research has forecasts around 1 million locations will have AuraCast by the year 2029. And it takes time, right? I wish I could snap my finger. It takes time. I wish I could snap my finger and have every single location across the globe that has AuraCast, but these um these will take time. And also, I wanted to also add is um there are a huge number of people who have hearing loss are not using hearing aid. And one of the biggest reasons is the stigma of using and hearing aid. When people think about hearing aid, they think about old medical equipment. When orcast, we could help medicate that by trans by thinking these are not medical devices, these are tech devices for consumers.

Real World Demos Tours Airports Sports

Dr. Dave Fabry 15:34

Thank you for bringing both of those up because I think they're very important points to make. And I can tell you that when professionals come for training to our facility in Minnesota, we will now, when they're on the RD tour, use a wireless transmitter, and many of them are are fitted with products that are Oracast compatible. And so being able to go on the tours of our facility, and and no matter where they are, whether they're in the back of the pack or in the front, they can hear me or whomever is the tour guide as if they're right next to us. And and even another side benefit was when we go in anachoic chambers or reverberant chambers, they can actually pick up on the acoustics of it, even if they're not coming into the into the chamber, because the sound quality is that good, and they can even pick up on the nuances of the conversation. And we've heard that repeatedly from people. And then plus, they're not having to use these nasty headsets that are used by everybody and his or her brother, uh, but it's a BYOD, as you say, to uh to then have that be ready to work on museum tours or other areas. And one other area that I want to just hit on is, you know, the the hearing aid industry, we spent decades trying to improve speech understanding and noise. It remains the single biggest concern whether people are uh struggling with a decision to wear hearing aids or even it's the most challenging listening environment that we encounter. We've talked about tours and airports and things like that, but could this ubiquitous wireless access through Oracast ultimately have a significant impact on communication in the next generation of hearing aid signal processing? And I would just point to, again, I crept on your LinkedIn profile a little bit and saw that you at one time uh were working as a basketball coach. Um, and you know, could you think about using it at a live sporting event where there's a lot of noise and to actually be able to understand the announcer or other activities going on. But are there other examples you can think of where Oracast would interface with hearing aid signal processing to help beyond streaming functions, but thinking about in restaurants or noisy communication environments?

Henry Wong 17:41

Definitely. I think one of the one of the use cases for people to be able to hear hear better or hear the best, right? Uh any anyone, not just hearing aid user, even normal people at their restaurant or airport. I mean, how many times for those people who travel sitting on the gate when the public announcement comes out or does the gate change? I mean, I I currently don't wear any hearing aid, but I can't even listen, I can't even hear what they're saying, right? Wouldn't it be great if the broadcast audio comes clearly directly to my hearing device, my earbuds, be able to listen clearly to what the announcement is saying with the noisy and ambient noise um surrounding?

Three Big Benefits Hear Mute Share

Dr. Dave Fabry 18:25

So what do you see as the most significant benefits? You've already highlighted and predicted a million uh transmitters in in pretty short order in just a few years, but how do you think Oracast will benefit the average hearing aid user in five to ten years, kicking out even a little bit further into the future? What why should they be excited? Why should practitioners and end users be excited about ORCAST and the future potential of this technology?

Henry Wong 18:51

Yes. Um, so three three major use cases, right? One, be able to hear your best and for them to be able to receive clear audio directly to your their hearing device. Two, um mute your world. So what I mean by unmute your world meaning be able to listen into these item TVs, right? Be it that uh at the gym, in the waiting area, or the airport, for example. And and three, share your audio, be able to share your audio with friends in the family, right? So there are products out in the market that is a is a um portable mic streamer, right? So be able to put that somewhere or put that on yourself when you talk, you you got broadcasting audio to all your friends and family.

Dr. Dave Fabry 19:38

Yeah, I love that idea. I'd love to do that with just the producers here so that I would literally have their ear and they would have to listen to me or at least hear me. Listening is a different issue.

How Clinicians Can Drive Local Use

Dr. Dave Fabry 19:47

How can clinicians promote Oracast in their communities? Are you in in your role, are you providing input or guidance to them? And are there resources available for the practitioner who wants to sort of use this in their community to raise awareness and perhaps even look at assembling um uh Oracast transmitters for uh various applications that you've been talking about?

Henry Wong 20:13

Yeah, um clinicians can play a direct and practical role by one, educating and demonstrating use case of AuraCast to their patient, two, engaging and influencing location venues. You know, we have um advocacy materials on again Bluetooth.com slash orcast. And three, advocating through professional and community channels, right? Um audiologists, events, and so forth. I think the clinicians are critical for spreading the word about orcast forecast audio because they are the trusted voice and catalyst who connects patient, device, and venues, driving both awareness and real-world orcast adoption.

Myths Cleared And Closing Thanks

Dr. Dave Fabry 20:53

Well, that summarizes it very well, and I think I'll leave it there. Henry, I can't tell you uh thank you enough for being with us here today to help uh have this conversation because I think a lot of people, in the same way that in the we're living in a world where sometimes AI overload or AI fatigue is hitting all of us, I think within our discipline, you know, this Auracast, you know, it's it's out there and it's still a little scary for some people, but I think you've really helped uh dispel a lot of the myth about this and how that that ease and ubiquitous connectivity, sound quality, outstanding battery life will help um their patients uh better appreciate the way that they can connect to the people and the things and the places that they still struggle with, even when using modern hearing aids. Thank you, Dave, for having me. Pleasure. Thank you. And thanks to our Soundbites listenbytes listeners. We hope to uh hear you again really soon and uh may be able to demonstrate this technology if you happen to visit our campus. Thanks so much.