Auracast™: Enhancing the Listening Experience for All

Now, with the advent of Auracast™ broadcast audio, an entirely new and innovative technology is available with the potential to provide standardized universal hearing assistance directly to users’ personal Auracast-compatible listening devices, such as earbuds, earphones, hearing aids, and cochlear implants.  Many industry experts foresee Auracast™ broadcast audio offering the most direct, and accessible, path to hearing assistance, language interpretation, and exhibit description, becoming a true global standard.

For more background, visit our previous Auracast™ articles.

Of course, it will take time for manufacturers, venues, and users to adopt and deploy Auracast™ on a broad scale.  There are a few products available now, with more new products coming at an ever-increasing pace.  In fact, Listen Technologies and Ampetronic have partnered to develop an Auracast™ based assistive listening system scheduled for release this year: Auri™.  The first complete installed ALS solution, Auri lets venues and end-users adopt Auracast™ broadcast audio technology now, while serving the growth of Auracast™ users and products in the future. 

There will be a period of transition as manufacturers, venues, and users develop and implement Auracast™ broadcast audio.  Existing ALS platforms will continue to provide their valuable service, yet many venues have expressed a desire to be early Auracast™ adopters.  It is not expected that Auracast™ will necessarily replace any in-use ALS in the immediate future but, rather, that there will be a migration to this new technology.  This transition has prompted concerns about the ability of different and separate assistive listening systems to coexist.  So, what impact will Auracast™ broadcast audio have on existing ALS technologies and systems? 

The good news is that Auracast™ broadcast audio can coexist with any ALS system currently in use, be it RF, IR, Loop, or Wi-Fi.  In fact, barring anomaly, any venue, anywhere, using one or more of the aforementioned ALS platforms, can add Auracast™ to complement their existing system.   Indeed, we may see venues operating multiple concurrent ALS platforms depending on their users’ preferences or available equipment. 

Rest assured, Auracast™ broadcast audio will work alongside your current ALS, as we foresee it.  Or, as we 4C it:

Compatible

Coexist

Complement

Concurrent