Bluetooth Hearing Aids
Your Hearing Healthcare Provider will ask you a lot of questions about what communication requirements you have, and they may ask you if you want a hearing aid with Bluetooth. But just what is Bluetooth and how can it assist you to reach your hearing goals?
What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is a way of allowing the sharing of signals between various electronic gadgets without any cords. It’s a great way for connecting small devices to other nearby electronic devices. Bluetooth is part of wireless technology boom (think radio waves), which is connecting us all in ways we now take for granted, or don’t even realise it is happening. Cordless phones, wireless internet, television and radio receivers all use wireless technology. Bluetooth is like this wireless technology but it is designed for communication between devices over a shorter distance – usually less than 10 metres. A good example of devices that use Bluetooth connectivity would be your mobile phone in the car (allowing for hands-free conversations), or perhaps a wireless mouse set up with your laptop, or maybe you download photos from your camera to your computer via Bluetooth.
How does it work?
Working across high frequency channels (centred around 2.45GHz) Bluetooth enabled devices send radio waves to connect with each other. You can have up to 8 devices connected at once, with each pair of devices using one of the 79 channels. Don’t worry about connecting to something you didn’t ask for! One Bluetooth device needs to be ‘paired’ with another device to enable them to ‘talk to each other’ or transmit data. One of Bluetooth’s best features is that has a low power consumption, but it does have a large drain on battery-operated devices (such as hearing aids). However Bluetooth technology, like everything else, is constantly improving and battery drain will hopefully be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Bluetooth is also a fairly secure method of transmission. This is because paired devices constantly shift the frequency they are using – not just once or twice, but thousands of time a second – amazing!
Bluetooth for hearing aids
You can now buy hearing aids that have Bluetooth connectivity. otc Hearing aids now have the capability to connect to your phone, TV, music players and a myriad of other devices. Bluetooth enabled hearing aids can now stream these signals direct to your hearing aids. There are made for iPhone devices and devices that have universal connectivity or ‘made for all’ streaming.
Not all Bluetooth hearing aids are made equal! Some are made for iPhone, others suit all types of hearing aids. You can connect your devices with your Bluetooth hearing aids in two ways:
- Made for iPhone hearing aids (Oticon Opn S, Starkey Livio AI, Widex Evoke) will pair directly with your Apple device – your Hearing Healthcare Provider can show you how to do this.
- If you don’t have an iPhone you can use a small hearing aid accessory which will connect with your devices and stream the sound directly to your hearing aids. This accessory is required to convert the Bluetooth signal to an FM signal for your hearing aid.
- Universal Connectivity (Phonak Marvel, Starkey Livio AI, Unitron Discover)
