- Hey guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video I'm about to blow your mind
with a new form of hearing aid Bluetooth technology coming
up the world quietly changed.
Back in 2014 when hearing aid manufacturer ReSound announced
their first made for iPhone hearing aids,
which allowed Resound links hearing aid users
to stream audio directly from their iPhones
into both of their ears.
And since this happened,
hearing aids have never been the same Before this,
some individuals could stream audio into their hearing aids,
but it required them to wear something around their neck
or plug something like this into the bottom
of their hearing aid, which was not very practical.
Now with today's modern hearing aid technology,
you can pretty much listen to anything that you want to.
This includes music, podcasts, audio books, YouTube videos,
and yes, even phone calls directly in your ears just
by simply hitting the play button or answering a phone call.
What made this direct connectivity possible was something
that we call Bluetooth.
Bluetooth was originally invented back in 1994
and was a form of short range radio connection using ultra
high frequency radio waves at 2.4 gigahertz.
This allowed small wireless devices
to communicate with each other.
If you're wondering how Bluetooth got its name,
it was actually named
after Harold Bluetooth, who was the king of Denmark
and Norway, circa 958 through 986.
This was based on the idea
that this Bluetooth technology will be able
to unite different wireless devices,
just like King Bluetooth was able
to unite the different tribes of Denmark into one kingdom.
Additionally, something that I found
to be incredibly interesting is
that the Bluetooth symbol is actually a combination
of his initials HMB using letters from an old
Scandinavian alphabet.
Now, at this point, most people are at least familiar
with Bluetooth because pretty much any electronic device
that you have that has wireless connectivity capabilities,
has Bluetooth inside of it.
Whether this is your tv, your smartphone, your dumb phone,
your computer, or even your vehicle.
The most common forms of Bluetooth are Bluetooth Classic
and made for iPhone Bluetooth low energy.
Now, most modern hearing aids use Bluetooth low energy,
and this is for obvious reasons.
Bluetooth low energy uses about half the amount of energy
as Bluetooth Classic, which makes it a really good option
for hearing aids that use small disposable batteries
or small rechargeable batteries
because you want to preserve
that battery life as much as possible.
However, even Bluetooth low energy is not perfect when it
comes to streaming audio directly into your hearing aids.
This is what led the hearing aid industry to work directly
with the Bluetooth special interest group
to develop a completely new form of Bluetooth
that will ultimately be the future
of wireless connectivity worldwide.
But before I explain what this new type of Bluetooth is
and why it's going to take over,
if you could do me a huge favor
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- Of new videos every single week.
That being said, I really appreciate
and a huge shout out to Resound
for sponsoring today's video,
but more on them in a little bit.
This new form of Bluetooth is called low Energy Audio.
Low Energy audio, often abbreviated LE Audio is a new form
of Bluetooth designed specifically for audio purposes
that uses an lc three codec made possible by version 5.2
of the Bluetooth core specification.
Now, don't worry about all of these technical terms.
A lot of this will start making sense here in a second.
This new audio using the lc three codec will provide better
sound quality than the older SBC codec.
Even its significant lower bit rates.
This is huge because you'll be able to maintain a high level
of sound quality without sacrificing the battery life
of your hearing aids and your other wireless devices.
Another added benefit of this form of Bluetooth is
that you will be able to independently connect each one
of your hearing aids to your other wireless devices.
One of the several limitations of Bluetooth classic is
that you can only pair one of your hearing aids up
to your other wireless device.
So if that particular hearing aid starts to malfunction,
not only do you lose the streaming capability into
that hearing aid, but it also cannot share that audio signal
with your opposite hearing aid.
Low energy audio Bluetooth will allow both
of those hearing aids to be connected up
to your wireless device at the same time.
So if one of your hearing aids malfunctions,
you can still stream the audio into your opposite ear.
LE Audio. Bluetooth will also become the universally
accepted form of Bluetooth worldwide, so you're not having
to constantly figure out if the type of Bluetooth
that you have inside of your hearing aids is going
to be compatible with the other wireless
devices that you're using.
And it is expected that by year 2027,
we will have 7.6 billion Bluetooth wireless devices
shipped annually.
But perhaps the thing that everybody is most excited about
when it comes to this new form of low energy audio,
Bluetooth is something called acast Broadcast Audio Acast
will allow hearing aid users to share their audio
with other hearing aid users or even earbud users
or tap into a transmitted Bluetooth signal
inside of a public venue.
What I mean by this is that if you're listening
to a song from your smartphone, you can actually share
that song with somebody else
who has Aura Casten enabled earbuds or hearing aids.
And if you happen to find yourself in a public venue like an
airport school or museum, you'll be able to share the audio
of that venue with anyone else
who has Aura Cast enabled devices.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself, well, that's great,
but are there any hearing aids out there
that actually use this LE Audio Bluetooth
that unlocks these different features?
Well look no further than the Resound nx A
hearing aids from Resound.
Today's video sponsor, just like in 2014 when Resound was
the first two announce their made for iPhone hearing aids,
resound has basically done it again
with their new Nexia line of devices.
Not only are the Resound Nexia hearing aids amazing hearing
aids, but they're also the first hearing aids to incorporate
- This low energy audio Bluetooth
that are Auracast enabled.
This means that as soon as your other wireless devices start
using low energy audio Bluetooth,
your hearing aids will be ready to go.
Now, I've been talking about low energy audio Bluetooth
for the past several years now,
and I've had a lot of people say, Cliff, I am not going
to get new hearing aids
until my hearing aids have this
particular feature inside of them.
That's because this new form
of Bluetooth will be completely revolutionary inside
of the hearing aid industry, just like other forms
of Bluetooth were when it first came out back in 2014.
So if you're one of those people who's been putting off
treating your hearing loss, or you've been waiting
to upgrade your hearing aid technology
because you've been essentially waiting for this feature,
I'm happy to say that that weight is finally over.
Resound even planned this perfectly
because their new TV streamer Plus even has Auracast inside
of it, which means that you can stream TV audio
directly into your Resound hearing aids.
And anybody else who has Resound hearing aids
or even just uses Aura Cast enabled earbuds,
can also stream audio directly from the TV
into their ears as well.
And if you have not experienced streaming TV audio,
you are missing out and you need to try it.
It is just a matter of time
before virtually every wireless device on the planet is
using low energy audio Bluetooth that is Aura Cast enabled.
And this has implications
that goes much further than just being beneficial
for individuals with hearing loss, which means
that we will see the widespread adoption of this new form
of Bluetooth much quicker than we saw previous versions.
At this moment, I'm getting a little nostalgic
because I remember how much of a game changer it was
to have this direct Bluetooth streaming capability inside
of hearing aids starting back in 2014.
And if I'm being honest, this pales in comparison to
what we're gonna be able to do with low energy audio,
Bluetooth and Auracast in the future, especially
for hearing aid users.