Hearing aids by themselves are wonderful and helpful by themselves however there may be situations where the user continues to have difficulty hearing and comprehending. Manufacturers office wireless accessories which may be purchased separately to address specific listening issues. Discuss these with your audiologist for more details.
REMOTE MICROPHONE
The remote microphone is a small gadget that allows for a separate microphone to be attached to the collar, shirt, placed on a table, or hand-held near a talker. The remote microphone may help to reduce background noise or allow the hearing aid wearer to be at a further distance and still hear easily. The remote microphone may be given to a speaker on stage or to a teacher so that walking around and away from a standing microphone will not affect hearing what is being said. It can be placed in front of a television or radio to allow the pickup of sound and transmitted wirelessly to the wearer’s hearing aids.
TV SET UP
Television Wireless Devices are used as a plug and play system for streaming sound from the television directly into hearing aids. Using these wireless TV devices, which are manufacturer specific, the sound is transmitted to the hearing aids and the actual volume of the television may be adjusted for the comfort of others or turned down entirely. These wireless systems use a 2.4 gHz signal and sound streaming is high quality. The TV SET UP may be arranged to turn on either automatically, or with a remote/cell phone or using a program button on the hearing aid.
REMOTE CONTROL
Hearing aid users may use their cell phone as a remote control for their hearing aids. However, a separate remote control is also available to purchase allowing program changes, volume changes and some tonal adjustments.
CELL PHONE or TABLET USE
Each manufacturer offers an APP which may be downloaded to a Bluetooth cell phone or tablet to offer remote control features. Even without this APP, cell phones, mainly iPhones, to provide a native screen which allows for a few remote features. The use of the cell phone also allows for streaming of phone calls directly into the hearing aids. Cell phones and tablets allow for listening to media such as music, podcast, or audiobooks without sacrificing the user’s ability to hear surrounding sounds.