What is Auracast?

What if public sound worked like Wi‑Fi—discoverable, labeled, and just a tap away? We sit down with Dr. Dave Fabry and Dr. Heike Heuermann to explore Auracast, the new Bluetooth broadcast audio that lets a single source stream to many listeners at once, from hearing aids to everyday earbuds. No more chasing the wrong gate call or straining to hear through echoes; you choose your channel and get clear, direct audio where it counts.

We trace the path from proprietary wireless and telecoils to a unified, open approach that scales across homes and venues. Heike explains why Auracast is more than the next Bluetooth spec: it’s a usability leap. The MyStarkey  Auracast Assistant makes discovery feel like joining Wi‑Fi, while Google Fast Pair removes pairing pain so users can connect in seconds. Dave shares real‑world wins—targeted airport announcements, cleaner speech in train stations, and labeled streams in places of worship—showing how broadcast audio brings clarity without extra gear or complex apps.

This shift also changes who benefits. Instead of infrastructure serving only hearing aid users, venues can offer inclusive audio that welcomes anyone with compatible earbuds or headsets. That broader value speeds adoption: gyms can stream TV audio and class instruction side by side, classrooms can reach every student, and families can share the same TV feed without splitters. Along the way we compare telecoils’ strengths with Auracast’s flexibility, discuss battery and quality trade‑offs, and map how this technology becomes the default for public listening.

If accessible audio has ever felt like a workaround, Auracast points to a simpler future: discover, join, and hear what matters. Subscribe for more deep dives into hearing tech, share this episode with a friend who struggles in noisy spaces, and leave a review to help others find the show.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage: Auracast
• 0:29 From Proprietary Wireless To Bluetooth
• 2:09 One-To-One Vs Broadcast Audio
• 3:19 Telecoils: Strengths And Limits
• 4:51 Why Transition To Auracast
• 5:24 Pairing Pain And The Auracast Assistant
• 6:39 Google Fast Pair And Ease Of Use
• 7:28 Airports, Gates, And Targeted Announcements
• 7:57 Inclusion Beyond Hearing Aids
• 9:18 Gyms, Classes, And Shared Listening

Transcript

Dr. Dave Fabry: 0:00

This is the Friday Audiogram. Let's go. I think that is still unfolding of Auracast. And what does that mean? I mean, we've been now 12 years since made-for-iPhone technology. We had wireless technology prior to that time, but it was more proprietary on the part of different manufacturers. Starkey used 900 megahertz and other people use near-field magnetic inductance in combination with a wireless signal. Now we've unified on Bluetooth, and I think we're finally coming to the point where Oracast represents why it is that we all converged on Bluetooth. But talk a little bit about from where you were, you know, not disclosing any proprietary information. But what why should people, why should end users and professionals be excited about Oracast?

Dr. Heike Heuermann: 0:56

Well, you already mentioned parts of it, starting with the different types of wireless technology that we started with. You forgot to mention all the accessories that we needed some 15 years ago. And I remember the times when I was first uh participating in uh Bluetooth SIG meetings where people talk were talking about something that was so far away and so almost unrealistic. And now we have it in our devices. So for me, Auracast has been a long-lived dream. And uh okay, for others it may just might just be the latest evolution of uh Bluetooth, but for me it is much, much more. It is uh a major leap, um, and it it has multiple aspects usability, but also how we can use it. Uh let's start with the simplest thing. Um traditional Bluetooth as we know it is typically a one-to-one connection. Right. I have a smartphone that is connected with my hearing aids. And uh the best thing we could get out of it is that we could use it bi-directional. I could listen to a phone call and I could speak. But that was it. Decent quality, uh, the hearing aid could run for a day with that, that's it. Auracast now is uh a uh broadcast technology that means I have one sound source, a TV or a smartphone or a public communication system like this, and it is able to transmit to multiple uh recipients, listeners at the same time. I can listen to a TV, and at the same time, uh my partner who might also have a hearing loss or might want to use headphones can do it in the same time without any additional equipment. I can go to the airport and listen to announcement that are related just to my gate and my flight. At the same time, it's much easier to use. Uh if we think about the the telecoil, where we used uh to have a very complex uh technical setup that was built into the walls. In the future we will just have a transmitter in the churches, and everybody can listen to um the the the speaker.

Dr. Dave Fabry: 3:04

Yes, I think that's sort of the the one thing people uh are who have been uh using telecoils and assistive technology for decades really. It's not a new technology, and it and it has worked well for its purpose, I would say, for a long time. But but talk a little bit about um for people who do, let's say in their place of worship, have a loop system for purposes of uh during their worship. Um what sorts of, you know, the simplicity is once you have that loop done and then the hearing aids are equipped with telecoils, it doesn't require a lot of sophistication on the part of the end user. Once they learn that when they go there, they switch to the telecoil mode either using an app or a direct switch on their device, and then as long as the system is functioning properly and they're sitting within the loop, um, they will be able to hear what's up at the lectern or in the front easier than if they're listening just through ambient sounds. But now, why should they consider that if that works well for their purposes, why should they be excited about Oracast for that use case? Because I would argue that it's a very important one for people when they go and join other people and they're in a loop system. I mean, classrooms have used wireless technology for some time, and there still are some classrooms in the U.S. where they have a loop system. But I would say places of worship or senior centers are sort of the number one and number two use cases for that. But why should they think about when Oracast systems become available, transitioning from a loop system to an Oracast one?

Dr. Heike Heuermann: 4:51

Very, very good point. You mentioned a uh big advantage that um Telecoil has had so far over Bluetooth. Bluetooth might have been a hassle for some people because of the uh not so easy pairing process. Uh everybody uh may remember the times not very long ago when you had to start a complex pairing process. You had to go into the depth of your menus and the smartphone to find the right product you wanted to pair with, and then you had to do it every time again and again and again. With AuraCast, it will change, not only because of the Oracast codec, but more because of it comes with some additional tools, starting with the uh Oracast Assistant, which is an app that you can find on your smartphone. And this app works rather with uh like you are searching for a Wi-Fi network. It's not so much pairing, it's tuning in. Then on top, we have Google Fast Pair, which especially helps you with the initial setting up.

Dr. Dave Fabry: 5:52

Yeah, and I think that's such a big barrier, at least a um not not necessarily the the the it's the stigma of someone who says, I'm not I'm not technology savvy, and that initial pairing. And then, of course, with Bluetooth low energy, which is what we've used in our products now for some time, it's not done just on the Bluetooth setting that you would use for pairing wireless headsets or earphones or some some other wireless device. And a lot of times I've had frantic calls, either even from practitioners, after they first learned that we had to go in on the iPhone, for example, into accessibility, hearing devices, then pair, not just through that Bluetooth, but this fast pair that you mentioned. And let's uh that we commingle a little bit of the um of the topics today. But that Google FastPair is a a means to uh faster pairing. So from an ease of use standpoint, that that's killer. That's a that's a killer app, as they say, uh because it will it will expedite and uh and simplify the ability of an end user to connect to places where they are regularly going, whether that's a place of worship, the airport, I spend a lot of time there. That use case is particularly intriguing to me because I enjoy going to the airport and people watching. And what I see now at our airport in Minneapolis, many of the gates on some of the um circuits are quite close together. And so if they're quite crowded and there's numerous flights taking off, I'll see people get up when they hear an announcement for zone one boarding, go up to the boarding area only to discover that the agent says, no, no, no, that's the flight that's going to Detroit, not to uh Tucson. And so the ability to be able to lock in, as you mentioned, to a specific gate when you go to board and get only those announcements rather than all of the other cacophony of noises coming in from the other gate announcements, that will represent a big advantage, I think, too, for hearing aid users.

Dr. Heike Heuermann: 7:57

Absolutely. Or think about trains, where train stations where even for normal hearing people, what comes out of the loudspeakers is just some gibberish. Because everything comes at once, and then you have all the echoes, all these problems will be solved easily.

Dr. Dave Fabry: 8:11

Yeah. And I think the other advantage you just alluded to is that loop systems in the past have typically been used by people with hearing loss, hearing aid users. Yes. Oracast, and the reason that I'm so excited about the speed of this transition, we talk about the infrastructure has to develop, technologies have to come out, compatibilities have to come out. It will take time for Oracast to become more pervasive and ubiquitous in the way that for hearing aid users, the loop systems have. But the advantage and the reason that I think I'm I'm so excited about the speed of this transition is that not only hearing aid users, but uh wireless buds, headsets that are Oracast compatible and might be used by people without hearing loss, they also will benefit from this technology.

Dr. Heike Heuermann: 9:05

They will both people with hearing aid and people with normal hearing, they will both use it in the same way and they will both benefit it in the same way. Therefore, AuraCast is the inclusive technology that we can currently think of. And um one reason why AuraCast is so successful is not only that it's so easy to be used, it has also many more functionalities. Imagine when you're in a gym. Typically um there is some uh TV playing there, there is some music around, and you have your instructors. Whom do you want to listen to now? You can go to the gym with your friend and you can both be on the cross trainer and both listen to the same TV, talk about it. Or you go to the yoga class that is just next there, next door, and both listen to the yoga instructor. So it really brings people with hearing loss, without hearing loss, just back to the same point. There is hardly any technology that is more inclusive.