By David Bryce on 24th September 2015

Hearing Aids & The TV, Still A Challenge?

We find that sometimes our patients still have problems with the TV even with the best of hearing aids. A study was undertaken by Widex several years ago in the UK on the audio quality in TV shows. The research concluded that the sound quality of televised TV could be that bad that people with perfectly normal hearing had problems understanding dialogue. 

Where does that leave the hearing aid user? 

The problem was that the sound mixing was not done effectively to make the dialogue clearer than the background sound. So, if the sound mix is that bad, that people with normal hearing had difficulties, imagine how difficult it for people with hearing loss. If you think about it, even when your hearing is corrected, the dialoge is still as difficult to understand as it was for people with completely normal hearing. So what can you do to get an edge?

The joy of wireless!

This where the benefits of wireless hearing aids really shine. The wirless feature on all wireless hearing aids allows the devices to communicate with other audio devices. This allows other audio to be streamed directly into the hearing aids and your ears. Most hearing aid manufacturers offer different devices to deliver audio from TVs and other sound sources direct into a users hearing aids. 

The TV Dex

Widex introduced the TV-DEX a couple of years ago. It works with all of their wireless hearing aids from the Clear range on. The TV-DEX comprises two seperate pieces. The base and a remote streaming device. The base simply plugs into the audio connections at the back of your TV, cable or sattelite box. The base has ports for two different audio inputs, so you could have your stereo and TV running into it. 

The base acts as a streamer for the audio and a charger for the remote device. The remote device re-streams the audio instantly to your hearing aids. It  is also used to turn the TV Dex system on, and turn up and down the volume of the streaming audio. The volume change just happens on the audio that is being streamed, so the TV volume in the room isn't affected. There is also a button on the remote that turns off the microphones in your hearing aids so you are just listening to the streamed audio. 

The Unite TV Streamer

Gn ReSound also produce a device to deliver the same capability, however, because of the way their wireless capability is set up, you don't need an intermediary device like many of the other manufacturers. Their device is part of the Unite range and is compatible with all hearing aids from the GN ReSound Alera onwards. The streaming capability on the Alera wasn't great, it didn't sound very good and it absolutely ate batteries in the hearing aids. However, they really got on top of this in the Verso platform. In their new Made For iPhone LiNX and LiNX2 platforms the system works seamlessly and has very little effect on battery life of the hearing aids. 

The Phonak Entertainment Set

Phonak have also introduced a device, their one is similar in concept to the device from Widex. It comes with a seperate base and remote device which allows you to stream the audio directly into your hearing aids. The system is the TVLink II, combined with the ComPilot II, it provides high quality stereo sound directly to both hearing aids when watching TV or listening to music. The sound quality is excellent and again it has limited impact on battery life of the hearing aids. 

The Com Pilot device also connects to a bluetooth source such as a mobile phone or iPod, iPad etc. It also has a sound input using a wired cable which you can use to connect to any personal audio player that does not have blue tooth. 

Wireless hearing aids really benefit people with hearing loss. they mean that people like you can connect to your world in a deeper and more integrated manner with ease. If you want to talk to us about wireless hearing aids or wireless accessory devices, give us a call on 01224 637255 or book your appointment online now.