Hearing Echo or Delay with Auracast in Live Venues

Short Answer

Auracast / LE Audio is low latency, but it is not zero latency.

If you hear an echo or delay while listening through hearing aids in a church or live venue, it is often because you are hearing the same sound twice:

• once from the room loudspeakers through your hearing aid microphones
• once from the Auracast stream

Even a small delay between these two sound paths can feel like an echo, hollow sound, or “double sound.”

What to Try First

• Turn down or mute your hearing aid microphones while listening to Auracast from your APP (90% will fix the problem).
• Use a hearing aid program designed for streaming.
• Sit farther away from loudspeakers or areas where the room sound is very strong.
• Make sure you are mainly listening to the Auracast stream, not both the room sound and the stream at the same time.
• Try Auracast-compatible headphones. If the headphones sound fine, the issue is probably caused by the hearing aid microphones picking up the room sound.

Why This Happens

This is most noticeable in live venues such as churches, classrooms, meeting rooms, or theaters.

In these places, the room speakers are often loud enough for your hearing aid microphones to pick up. At the same time, your hearing aids are receiving the Auracast broadcast. These two sound paths arrive at slightly different times.

That small time difference can be enough to make the audio feel delayed or echo-like.

This is different from watching TV at home. With TV, you are usually listening mainly to the streamed audio, and the TV speaker may be turned down or off. In a live venue, the room speakers are usually still on, so the overlap is much more noticeable.

If You Are Using a Neck Loop or T-Coil

A neck loop setup may add extra delay because the sound passes through more steps:

Auracast transmitter → Auracast receiver → neck loop → T-coil hearing aids

For this reason, a neck loop may feel more delayed than direct Auracast hearing aids or Auracast-compatible headphones.

If the Delay Is Still Noticeable

Ask the venue to check whether the audio feed going into the Auracast transmitter is already delayed by the mixer, DSP, or sound system.

You can also contact us with your transmitter model, hearing aid model, and how the transmitter is connected to the venue sound system.

Related article:
https://venucast.com/blogs/news/audio-latency-explained-what-is-acceptable-audio-delay-for-bluetooth-auracast-and-live-venues