How to connect your hearing aids to your TV using Bluetooth?

My name is Andreas Seelisch and I’m an audiologist working with Hearing Solutions. I’d like to talk to you a little bit today about some of the wireless components that are available for hearing aids today. Hearing aids are able to connect to a variety of different devices through wireless technology, including Bluetooth. This means we can take cell phone calls directly from our phone and answer them into our hearing aids. It also means we can take audio samples from just about any audio signal. Most commonly this might be something like a television. The reason we want to do this isn’t because the hearing aid won’t work without a television [but] because it can just make it something better. Audio when it leaves something like a speaker is bouncing off of a lot of other objects and it’s losing energy on its way and it may be changing. We also may be introducing noise – another person talking, a fan, an engine – anything that’s going on in the background and all of this can reduce from the enjoyment or it can make the signal to noise ratio worse. When we use a wireless device like this we’re taking the audio directly from the television and putting it directly into the hearing aids. This means that the signal isn’t being converted from electrical energy into acoustical energy in extra time. It also means there’s less noise involved. Overall what this means to the patient is just a much better listening experience. Most of these systems make use of a base unit that gets attached to the TV. A lot of my patients are concerned that the set-up is something that’s scary and so they avoid doing it. But this is something that only needs to be completed one time. The first item is connecting it a power source. It should be some sort of power cable that gets connected into the base station and gets connected into the wall. This doesn’t typically require line of sight, meaning that it can be out in the open or it can be tucked away in a cupboard so that there’s no hassle with cords hanging around. The second cord is very important. This is the cord that’s going to be taking the audio signal from the television, stereo or wherever you’re trying to capture the music or audio from. Again, one plug is going into the back of the unit. This can be through something like an optical cable, a 3 ½ millimetre audio jack or an RCA or composite cable. One of the plugs is again getting connected to the back of this device and then the other side needs to be connected to the television. One of the most important aspects of setting this up is ensuring that the audio coming out of the TV is going into either an auxiliary – A-U-X or an Audio OUT. If this is connected correctly, the audio signal is then being transferred wirelessly right to the individuals' hearing aids. If people are not getting the signal that they want or questioning whether or not it’s working, it’s not set up correctly and so we just have to make sure that it’s connected to the correct Audio OUT. For example, if you’re watching television on Audio 3, you would have to connect to the Audio OUT 3 on the back of the television. So, one of the most common mistakes when connecting these units is that people are tempted to put the plugs in to first matching plugs that they see. In this case, they’d want to put these red and white cables in to one of these red and white cables back here. Unfortunately, that would be incorrect in this case. These plugs are video and Audio IN. Instead we want to pick an Audio OUT and so we we’re going to pick this cable right here. Instead we’re going to be using this optical cable and that’s going to be connected in to the Audio OUT right here. Now we have everything connected correctly. Thank you, my name is Andreas Seelisch and I’m an audiologist working with Hearing Solutions.

Channel: Hearing Solutions

Views: 177,201

Rating: 4.2791877 out of 5

Keywords: Hearing Aids, Assistive Listening Devices, TV, Television, Bluetooth, Digital, Technology, Hearing Loss, Hearing Impaired, Medical, Audiology, Audiologist, Hearing Instruments, Hearing Instrument Specialist, Mobile Phone, Cell Phone, Audio, Streaming

Id: Sz5E4a9sYp0

Length: 3min 49sec (229 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 26 2017