DATE: Wednesday, October 16, 2024 – 1 PM ET
SPEAKER: Ian C. Bruce, Ph.D., P.Eng., Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Abstract:
Over the past decade, the hearing aid industry has been working with the Bluetooth organization to develop a new Bluetooth audio standard that is capable of low-energy, low-delay, high-fidelity audio streaming and broadcasting. This standard was finalized in September 2020, with the names Bluetooth® LE Audio and Auracast™, and hearing aid and consumer audio products that support this standard are now starting to come on the market. Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast are now poised to supersede the interim Apple Made for iPhone (MFi) and Android Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocols, propriety TV audio streamers available from hearing aid manufacturers, and eventually telecoil hearing loop systems.
This webinar will provide an overview of what new capabilities are available via this new Bluetooth standard and what opportunities it presents for improved assistive listening experiences in a variety of scenarios. The presentation will also discuss a number of remaining challenges faced by hearing aid and audio equipment manufacturers, assistive listening system installers and audio system operators, and hearing aid users and audiologists, that will need to be overcome in order to provide an optimal listening experience for all users of the technology.
Learning Points:
- What are Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast, and how do they differ from previous versions of Bluetooth?
- How can Auracast be used in different assistive listening scenarios, and what are the remaining challenges in developing standards and best practices for Auracast usage?
- How will audiologists be able to advise and support their clients in obtaining the maximum benefit from Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast?
SPEAKER BIO: Ian C. Bruce, Ph.D., P.Eng., Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario
Ian Bruce completed his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Melbourne, Australia, in 1993 and then worked for a year as a Research and Teaching Assistant at the University of Technology in Vienna, Austria. He was subsequently a PhD student at the Bionic Ear Institute in Melbourne, receiving his doctorate from the University of Melbourne in 1998. From 1998 to 2001, Ian did a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
In 2002, Ian joined the faculty at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. He is currently a Professor in Electrical & Computer Engineering at McMaster, as well as being engaged in interdisciplinary research and academic activities in hearing sciences, biomedical engineering, neuroscience, psychology, and music cognition. His research is focused on applying cutting-edge experimental and computational methods to better understand, diagnosis and treat hearing disorders.
