Helping People Hear Anywhere with Telecoils and Auracast

Summary

Two loop advocates advise audiologists to keep supporting hearing loops and telecoils, and to fit devices with both telecoils and Auracast, while Auracast assistive listening matures.

Key findings

• Advise audiologists to keep supporting hearing loop, FM/RF and infrared installations and to add Auracast assistive listening only once patients' own devices connect to it reliably, which they say was not yet the case in January 2025.
• Estimate that 99.9% of users then lacked Auracast-capable hearing instruments, so early Auracast systems would work like FM or infrared, with loaned receivers and headphones or neckloops; they note hearing instruments are typically kept 4 to 7 years.
• State that there is plenty of evidence that patients prefer hearing loops, because loops connect directly to their own hearing aids, while finding a receiver with a neckloop is a hassle and makes the hearing loss visible.
• Expect a phone or other assistant to be needed to select an assistive listening stream. Separately, the latency paragraph anticipates 30-40 ms or more for Auracast transmission, added to other system delays; it does not attribute this audio delay to the assistant. The following paragraph anticipates variation between transmitters in automatic gain control, which the authors say the loop standard requires.
• Call for hearing instruments with both built-in telecoils and Auracast for the next decade, noting consumer declarations on this since 2009, and expect FM/RF, infrared, loops and Auracast to coexist.
• Says locating an Auracast receiver with a neckloop is a hassle and "outs" the disability many patients try to hide.

Limits

An opinion piece by loop advocates, with no new data; the 99.9% figure is the authors' estimate. Written in January 2025 (the page's metadata gives 15 January 2025), before most Auracast hearing devices and transmitters were available. The statement that IEC 60118-4 requires automatic gain control has not been checked here against the paywalled standard. The authors' affiliations are from the Center for Hearing Access leadership page and a 2019 Hearing Review interview, not the article itself.

Read the original

canadianaudiologist.ca/helping-people-hear-anywhere-with-telecoils-and-auracast

Link checked 13 October 2026. We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

• Auracast, hearing loop, infrared, RF or Wi-Fi: which suits which room?Disputed
• How many receivers and neckloops does each code require, and how should a loan pool be run?Partly answered
• How many listeners carry a telecoil, an Auracast-capable device or a smartphone?Disputed
• What do listeners prefer, and how often do they use venue systems?Partly answered
• Should a venue keep its hearing loop when it adds Auracast, and can one system serve both?Partly answered

Cite this source

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/sterkens-whyman-2025/

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