Aurahear is one: a whole year of reporting about Auracast Bluetooth LE Audio, and a whole year of adventure. It’s been a blast … and the best is yet to come.
Over the past 12 months, I have been writing about our experiences visiting venues such as the Everyman Cheltenham, St Paul’s Cathedral, Bristol Temple Meads railway station, and Frankfurt Airport. I’ve shared reviews of technology including the ReSound Vivias and (coming very soon) the Oticon Intent. And I’ve interviewed some of the people who are making Auracast an everyday reality.
It’s been a fun adventure, but it’s also only just the beginning.
Why did I start Aurahear?
I am profoundly deaf and have been since birth. I’ve also been a journalist for 30 years, specialising in local news for the area around Reading, Berkshire (it’s just to the left of Heathrow Airport). When I started researching my next hearing aids in 2024, I came across the Auracast technology and was excited: it looked like it would be possible to pair my next hearing aids directly to Auracast-enabled televisions, computers and mobile phones – it is, much to my delight.
For a journalist, connection is everything. The job involves talking to people on the phone, often in pressured situations. For a deaf journalist, clarity of audio is essential. When I was a cub reporter, I needed to record calls on tape and then spend hours painstakenly transcribing them to ensure an accurate report, winding and rewinding constantly. A 15-minute call could take three hours to turn into text, cross referencing notes taken to get a verbatim record.
Now, digital calls in real clarity opens up a whole new world. Live subtitles/captions on a call and instant transcriptions are great, but being able to hear perfectly is even better. It’s a joy!
When I discovered Auracast, I realised this is the technology I had been waiting 30 years for. I watched hours of excellent videos from the likes of Dr Cliff Olson and Matthew Allsop – honestly, the best places to start for people looking for impartial advice about hearing aids – and realised that Auracast was a transformative technology that people needed to know about it: what it is, what it is capable of, and what it will do.
So the website started with a simple aim: go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and everywhere. That meant being an Auracast evangelist: sharing experiences, knowledge and information so that others can discover the benefits of this exciting new technology.
Some of the highlights from the past year
Being able to visit Auracast installations has been a joy. I am still taken aback every time I experience a new Auracast for the first time.
Visiting St Paul’s Cathedral and hearing our tour guide so clearly – they were speaking into a Multi mic+ and a Samsung S25 – was a shock. In fact, I audibly gasped and nearly fell to knees because I was not prepared for the experience. It’s one thing to read about the potential of Auracast in noisy spaces, it’s another to experience it first hand.
The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham was my first theatre experience and they also captioned the show. This meant for the first time in a long time I could enjoy the play in its entirety. It moved me to tears.
A similar experience happened at Contact Manchester, where I learnt that the Auracast sound doesn’t just have to be the same as the main stage sound. It is possible to tweak the mixture so that voices can come out strongly. A good AV technician will have created the perfect blend for the best theatre experience.
The Auracast trial at Bristol Temple Meads is a milestone, showcasing the strength of the assistive listening technology in a public transport setting. I have hopes for the trains being built for Munich: while they won’t arrive until 2028, they will mark a significant expansion of Auracast into everyday life and make rail travel easier for deaf people. The same goes for the recently announced Auracast trial on London’s buses.
The EUHA Congress in Frankfurt last October was another significant step: using Bettear’s system, the entire academic programme was given a simultaneous translation so sessions were in both German and English. The exhibition area featured a wide range of Auracasts, and Oticon announced it was embracing Auracast in its newly launched Zeal and in its Intents.
In January, I was privileged to be a guest at the launch of Auracast at Frankfurt Airport: Sittig Technologies has devised a way to upgrade gate announcements to include the technology. We are looking forward to seeing it roll out further as the year goes on.
A roundtable event in November, organised by journalist Liam O’Dell, brought together a range of stakeholders from the arts and audiology worlds. The result was a vision to make Auracast the norm by 2030. One of the first to rise to the challenge was the National Theatre, which has installed Auracast in its Dorfman Theatre: we were among the first to try it.
Having The National Theatre on board is important as it gives other venues confidence that Auracast is a viable technology. Indeed, we know of other significant venues that are preparing to launch their own systems.
Auracast in technology
Across all the experiences, one thing has been a constant: wearing Auracast-enabled hearing aids.
Our journey started by buying the Starkey Edge AI hearing aids which, at the time, connected to Auracast through a Samsung S25 app. It’s now possible to do it via the Starkey app. Last spring, GN’s ReSound Vivias were added to the toolkit, and it is no exaggeration to say that these hearing aids changed my life. The sound clarity, particularly in noisy situations, is superb.
Earlier this year we visited Oticon in Copenhagen and was fitted with the Oticon Intents: a review will follow very soon. These offer a different experience again, and I wear both the Vivias and Intents interchangeably, by instinct.
It’s important to note that what is the best technology for us won’t necessarily be the best technology for others, a good audiologist will discuss options with you and let you try different aids to see which suit you the most.
Aside from the hearing aids, there have been Auracast gadgets: the MultiMic+ is now part of our kit bag that we take everywhere, while other microphones such as the EARISMax and Audeara are used on car journeys, around the house and visiting friends.
Headphones and earbuds are tested thoroughly in different places and situations to see if they really do work, while Auracast enabled TV streamers have been pressed into use in all kinds of settings including churches and pubs as we seek to show how easy it is to connect up an Auracast system.
Auracast and friends
The Auracast journey has been more than just visiting, writing and advising. We’ve made friends from across the globe: experiences shared, knowledge pooled and journeys made together. The audiology world is full of fantastic people who want others to hear better, and if that means working together we do. We all bring something different to the table, and it has been a privilege to work with them: So many lovely people have shared their experiences and stories with us.
Auracast advocacy
One of the biggest reasons for Aurahear existing is advocacy. Sharing by experience, by knowledge, and by showing what is possible. An Auracast life is an exciting one, and it’s also new. For some there is a reluctance to embrace the prospect of new technology that has benefits … because the existing solutions, such as Telecoils, work. However, we argue that Telecoils are prone to interference and rarely work as intended – if at all.
The reality is that we have gone into bat – and possibly put the backs up – against organisations, companies and some individuals who are happy with a non-Auracast status quo.
For us, the bottom line is Auracast is coming, it is better and it is easy. So we’ll continue to bang the drum for it over and above existing technologies. We will support users, audiologists and venues by providing accessible and clear help and guidance. We are happy to chat with people about the possibilities Auracast provides and we want to ensure they have confidence in
What’s next for Aurahear?
While we can’t talk about everything that is around the corner, we do know that this is going to be another exciting year. Auracast installations are coming thick and fast, new products are being launched and we are sure that more hearing aid manufacturers will be on board before the year is out.
You will see more news, reviews and interviews, more help topics and more advice. We are launching a free newsletter that you can sign up to and with it you won’t miss an important update.
Ultimately, we’ll keep doing what we do, because Auracast doesn’t just need advocates, it needs evangelists.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
If you want to support our work, which is self-funded, you can always buy us a coffee!
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