My Auracast Experience: I Have Heard the Future

Teenagers dancing at a beach party to a song that only they can hear. That scene, or one much like it, will one day mark a key moment in the Auracast story. It’s a story that’s only just beginning, and so far, there are very few places where it can be found.

I had to come halfway around the world to experience what this emerging technology is capable of, and learn more about what promises to be a revolution in how we hear, not just for people with hearing loss but also for those with normal hearing. GN hosted something of a coming-out party for Auracast at a small nightclub in Seoul, South Korea, and it was my first opportunity to test-drive Auracast for hearing aids in a public venue.

In a nutshell, Auracast is a Bluetooth technology that allows multiple users to receive the same audio stream. As a person with severe hearing loss, I have used various assistive listening systems at concerts and theaters over the years that can do something similar, including the venerable loop (telecoil), infrared, and WiFi. All of them suffer from drawbacks that include high installation costs, finicky equipment, high latency, and poor-quality sound.

Auracast is designed to solve those issues in public venues and also enhance how we hear in private spaces, such as a living room. One benefit, for example, is being able to watch and listen to TV without having to use a streamer.

For me, it’s the promise of being able to fully enjoy plays and concerts again that has me feeling hopeful.

Big Ocean, Big Sound

The evening in Seoul featured a performance by a talented and engaging K-pop band named Big Ocean, whose members, like me, suffer from hearing loss. I was wearing a pair of GN Resound Vivia hearing aids, which are, so far, among the few prescription hearing aids that are fully Auracast-capable.

When the band took to the stage, all I had to do was open the app and select the Auracast channel. The hearing aids received the Auracast signal directly, but the controls are in the app.

A very useful slider control allowed me to mix the sound coming from the band’s soundboard with ambient sound picked up by my hearing aid microphones. In other words, I had the choice to opt for a clean feed from the band or slide it the other way to pick up more of my friends’ conversation or the crowd noise.

From the opening notes, I was astonished at the quality of the Auracast sound. It was crystal clear and none of those other systems came close to what I heard.

The question for me quickly became: when will it be available at a concert or theater near me?

The Future of Auracast

After the concert, I sat down with Thomas Olsgaard, Principal Engineer at GN and a member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the organization that sets the standards for Bluetooth technologies including Auracast. He has been working on Auracast for over 10 years, and he offered up some interesting insights into the technology, the rate of adoption, and why we should keep an eye on teenagers if we want to foretell the technology’s future.

The first point Olsgaard makes is that the future has already arrived. “We have passed the tipping point, that critical point for technology, because we have virtually all the technology companies backing it,” he said, quickly adding, "Although Apple hasn’t signed up yet, they are very active in Bluetooth.”

“Also, Auracast is a non-competing technology, the standards are open and universal, so it’s not like in the bad old days with VHS versus Betamax, for example.”

Importantly, that also means Auracast works not just with hearing aids but also with headphones and earbuds, the devices used by people with normal hearing.

“What is fueling its growth now is not the hearing aid industry, but it’s actually normal-hearing people who can use the same technology.”

Olsgaard says we can chart the growth of Auracast in four stages. “The first stage is setting the digital standards that everyone has agreed to, and we have done that.”

“The second stage starts in your private sphere, your phone, TV, PC, or tablet.  Already, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic are selling TVs with Auracast built in, and Samsung is working to integrate Auracast into its phones.”

“The third stage is workplace adoption, at the office, where you need to be connected with your computer for a Teams or Zoom call, or so you can listen in on remote meetings, for example.  All the new PC platforms have it mainly because it’s being driven by Microsoft.”

“The fourth stage is when we will start to see it appear in airports, theaters, museums, and concert halls, and other public spaces.”

Beyond that, Olsgaard points out we can’t foresee everything: “Because as with any new technology you gain insight and learn new uses along the way.”

But we can glimpse some of the possibilities. There was a Q and A with the band after the concert, for example. It was in English, but if you wanted to hear a Korean translation, all you had to do was tap on the app.

Watch the teenagers

If you want to spot the moment when Auracast will burst forth into the mainstream, Olsgaard suggests keeping an eye on what teenagers do with it.

“When I started my career in the mobile phone business, we were developing GSM technology—at the time, a new cell phone standard. It included a small feature called SMS text. But at first, nobody used it because they could simply make a phone call like they were used to.”

“But then teenagers figured out they could send secret messages to each other in the classroom or wherever without anybody noticing, and then texting went through the roof. It was the teenagers who made that feature so popular. Look where we are today. Texting is part of our daily lives, whatever your age.”

“So, if I am a teenager, I will find some music on my phone, for example, that I want to share, stream it on Auracast, and all my friends can listen in. You may stumble on a beach party, say, where young people are dancing, but to a passerby it would be silent. When that begins to happen, Auracast will really take off.”

Then it will be only a matter of time before the rest of us join the party.

For more information about GN's Auracast-accessible audio, please visit the GN website.