Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Peer-reviewed study (repeated measures, small sample)

Effectiveness of Television Streaming on Cochlear Implant User Performance and Satisfaction in Quiet and in Noise

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/plyler-2025/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Plyler PN, Wade M, Dimlich A, Hausladen J, Humphrey E
  • American Journal of Audiology 34(2):270-280

Independent (Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center; the full text, with any funding or conflict-of-interest statement, could not be read)

Summary

Compared listening through a TV streamer, with the implant microphones turned down by 6 dB or muted, against the cochlear implant alone, in quiet and in noise.

Key findings

  • Sixteen implant users (15 bilateral) were tested with audiovisual sentences (the Connected Speech Test) in quiet and at +5 dB SNR with a competing message, in three conditions: implant only, streaming with the implant microphones attenuated by 6 dB, and streaming with the microphones muted.
  • In noise, speech understanding, clarity ratings and sound quality ratings differed across all three conditions: implant only was poorest, streaming with attenuated microphones better, and streaming with muted microphones best.
  • In quiet, understanding and clarity were significantly better with the microphones muted than with the implant only or with attenuated microphones.
  • Participants preferred both streaming options to the implant alone in noise, and the muted option in quiet; overall, streaming with attenuated microphones was preferred to the implant alone.
  • The authors advise counselling implant users on adjusting the microphone settings when using a TV streamer.

Limits

Read from the abstract only; the abstract does not name the streamer or processors. A personal TV streamer in a laboratory, cited here as evidence about a streamed input and its mix with the processor microphones, not about a venue system. Sixteen participants.

Read the original

doi.org/10.1044/2024_AJA-24-00204

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Plyler PN, Wade M, Dimlich A, Hausladen J, Humphrey E. Effectiveness of Television Streaming on Cochlear Implant User Performance and Satisfaction in Quiet and in Noise. American Journal of Audiology 34(2):270-280. 13 March 2025. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_AJA-24-00204 (accessed 9 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/plyler-2025/

Every finding here cites its source, and who funded each source is labelled. This site does not recommend products. Found an error or a missing study? Suggest a correction.