Has any Bimodal user successfully streamed in stereo from a Mac Laptop using AudioStream and not telecoil?

[willheim1114]

I am bimodal. I have a Rondo 3 CI with the AudioStream adaptor in my right ear. I have several HA's to use in the left, all ASHA, Telecoil and bluetooth compliant. Most of the conversations seem to center around iOS or phones. I don't care about the phone. Mary Beth watches TV analogue. Telecoil loops are all mono. That is what I use now to steam from my laptop. The minimum requirements in Apple-land are a mac with an M1 Max or pro chip which I own.

=I do not understand why Macbook Pros with an M1 Max chip or better can handle seven bluetooth devices, but only one CI or HA. 

I am involved in clinical testing at USC and Stanford for various modules, some of which require stereo to identify location and panning. In Stereo. Stereo.

The Med-El/Starkey "in development" alliance is trying to catch up with Cochlear's Smart Hearing Alliance with Resound. Nowhere is an estimated release date available. "In development" means nothing to a TV/Film guy.

Other information is murky. On the Mac side appears it should be doable with either Sonoma or Sequoia with a M1 Max chip and forward. Possibly unidirectional for some and directional for others, but that is not an issue for watching movies.

I will be working diligently starting tomorrow to solve this issue (for Mac). The technology will come. There probably is not much impetus on the computer/phone manufactures to put it on a fast track schedule because the demographic base of users is small, so it is investing a lot of money in solving a problem for a few people. Business is business. 

I really don't understand why Macs can run seven BLE devices but not a CI and HA concurrently. My son is a genius Virtual Reality programmer working on massive projects. We have started this conversation. He told me it is not as simple to solve as it seems. When he  explains it in words I understand I will share them. 

More later...

Cheers,

 

W

 

[Mary Beth]

@willheim1114

This may be possible with the new AudioLink XT when cabled to the computer as long as Rondo 3 is using the AudioStream adapter.

[willheim1114]

Replied a couple times -have tried most of your suggestions. Getting closer. Upgraded to sequoia on Macbook Pro M1 Max chip - 

[willheim1114]

Can't find the Audio Link XT on website store. I have an audio link but I do not think it is XT.

Would it stream directly thru bluetooth bimodally to my laptop, Rondo 3 Audiostream right and approved HA left? I know the Evoke in my pic is unidirectional, but it was close to working. My Oticon more, which is bi directional shows up the same. The problem is that when you pair one of them disappears. 

That is not supposed to happen And I wonder how the audio routing will have to be configured in sound settings. There has to be separate amalgamation device similar to Sunflower or Microsoft aggragate. 

Do not want to stream telecoil, I use the Artone for that - it is amazing, but mono. Electro noise bugs me. I want to stream movies right from my laptop using pure BLE bimodal connection. You can see from above pic I am getting close. 

Got some advice form apple and others but I done for the day.

 

THANK YOU OH MIGHTY ONE!!!!!!

[Mary Beth]

@willheim1114

Tbe screenshot from the computer seems to indicate that both the AudioStream and the HA are configured for the left ear.  Both are labeled with L.

AudioLink XT was recently announced by Med-El and we are discussing it in the AudioLink & AudioLink XT subject heading.  It seems like it would stream to both an ASHA HA and an AudioStream/Audiostream adapter while it is cabled to a sound source.

[willheim1114]

Yes, I noticed it and reconfigured both my Med El Audiostream adaptor using AudioKey2 on my iPhone and assigning them both to the right side. Same results.

When I configured them I checked information and in each case it shows the SN of the AS adaptor, not the Rondo3.

I went back a third time to the iPhone and used AudioKey2 to configure the device again and went the extra step of selecting "Direct connect" and then logged out. I took pics of everything. 

Huh.Can you go back and forth between two Rondo 3 devices with the same AudioStream adaptor

When you look at the information it sites the SN of the AS adaptor, not the device, on each device. 

I took pics of all the results. The one's marked DC were the attempt to see if Direct Connect had any affect, which it does not. 

I need stereo imaging for the beta testing I am doing. For now I am going to set up some Aurotone Mix cubes to the 1/8th inch out and run the testing in analogue rather than direct streaming. 

That's where I am at for now.

 

Thanks again!

 

W

 

[willheim1114]

Mary,

I went to the webstore to check after the XT version of audiolink, which seems not to be there. The audiolink that is there, which I own,  is about $650.00.  As a customer I wouldn't spend $$650.00 for the AudioLink XT and $300 for the AudioStream adaptor ($1,000.00 total) only to have the benefit of streaming bimodally to iSO and ASHA compliant devices through a tethered connection.

Especially with so many developments getting closer, like the Cochlear alliance. 

I also wonder if the Bimodal ISO ASHA compliant AudioLink device would sum the different devices into one mono stream, as the Artone loop does (through telecoil).

Oof.

Hooking up my Avantone Mix Cubes for the moment. 

Cheers,

 

Will

Edited October 5 by willheim1114
Clean up some of my egregious typos.

[John F]

So…

 

The AudioLink XT probably won’t be available until the new years as it needs to be approved still by the FDA and all that, unless outside the US and then you’d want to check with your rep which should appear before the new years.  

 

Far as Bimodal with macOS, unless one has Cochlear/Resound or Phonak/AB, then it won’t support a direct connection.  You’d only be able to connect the AudioStream or the HA, not both at the same time.  Apple simply doesn’t support the ability for MedEl Bimodal folks to connect both devices.  Have talked to them at lengths.  It’s a futile battle.  Maybe when the HA partnership happens, Apple will add the two to their system.
 

To save a headache, what I ended up doing the 3ish years I was Bimodal, after accepting Apples stance and limitations on this, is simply got a cheap Samsung phone and used that as my streaming device while out and about.  I tried a Samsung tablet but alas, that didn’t last too too long as I went Bilateral, but while I had it it did the trick of proper streaming to both my HA and CI.  I’m not a fan of Android products but they did the trick with their ASHA and Dual BT abilities.

It’s one thing every Audi should tell their patients going Bimodal with MedEl, consider ditching their Apple devices temporarily and go Android cause intermediary devices/telecoil/etc just isn’t too good imo.  

 

[willheim1114]

Mary Beth, I am settled in as well.

william anderson <willheim1114@gmail.com>	Mon, Oct 14, 9:40 AM (19 hours ago)
BIMODAL LINK ACHIEVED BY ACCIDENT

 

I got bi-modality running by accident. 

 

I used Soundflower on my old macs for composing (we all did). Soundflower takes internal signals and sends them to a Multi-output device set to aggregate.

 

Yesterday morning I was on my old MacBook pro mid 2015 which still had those plug-ins active. I was looking for an old demo. They got "grandfathered" in from earlier MBP's. We were using this software for at least five years before 2015.

 

I was looking for an old audio file. Found it. Double clicked. It played. But not through speakers, thru Rondo 3 CI and Widex Evoke HA. BiModally. No electrocoil adaptor in Rondo 3 - No AudioStream. No Artone loop. Nada.

 

The sound streamed both to my Widex Evoke and Med-El Rondo 3 at the same time without me doing a thing.

 

Photos attached - they show the set-up.

 

I checked three times.

 

It was definitely bi-modal. I checked other audio sources off of Yahoo as well.

 

I didn't do anything. It just did it. It still seems remarkable. Going to go through it today. 

 

I took a look thru the internet to see if Soundflower was still out there. It is. Apple bought it. Probably not a good thing.

 

Attached are pictures showing the setup. These plug ins existed before the iPhone I believe. Stream from the iPhone probably won't work.For me that isn't an issue. I want to binge shows easily on my laptop.

 

 

Will check it out again.

[Mary Beth]

@willheim1114

very interesting