This depends on how you are using your BeHear ACCESS, and your specific TV.

• If you are using BeHear in Personal Hearing mode to amplify nearby important sounds, others will be able to hear the TV as well.
• If you are using BeHear as a Bluetooth receiver, paired with your television, others will probably not be able to hear the TV. However, if your television (or set top box) supports simultaneous sound output to optic/RCA/3.5mm and the TV speakers, we have a recommendation for a workaround (see below).

If your television doesn’t support Bluetooth, or if it doesn’t support dual audio output when a Bluetooth device is connected, we recommend using a Bluetooth transmitter, such as our HearLink PLUS, to enable the television audio to be transmitted to both your BeHear headset and the TV speakers.

In any event, you should check your television manual for information about Bluetooth connections and dual audio output.

The degree of latency is determined by the transmitter. Paired Bluetooth devices can only communicate by using the same audio CODEC. If your transmitter* does not support the aptX-LL low-latency Bluetooth audio CODEC, even though your BeHear headset does, you may sense a delay in the audio delivery.

• aptX-LL provides the best performance with minimal latency. It is the recommended setting, and the BeHear default.
• aptX is similar to aptX-LL but the latency is slightly longer.
• SBC is the standard Bluetooth CODEC supported by all devices, latency is long and not fixed.

* The HearLink PLUS transmitter does support the aptX-LL low-latency audio CODEC, so you will not detect any audio delay when using it with your BeHear headset.

If you are using the HearLink PLUS Bluetooth transmitter to stream the television audio to your BeHear headset, the answer is yes.

A quick press on the middle button of the headset (left-hand side for NOW or ACCESS, right-hand side for PROXY) will mute the TV audio. Another quick press on the same button will unmute the sound. [Note that television audio is muted automatically if you receive a call to a smartphone that is paired to the headset (in parallel to the HearLink PLUS connection). Once you either reject or terminate the call the TV audio will resume automatically.]

If the television has built-in Bluetooth support, allowing you to connect your BeHear headset directly to it, you may also be able to mute and unmute the TV audio stream from the headset, as described in the previous paragraph. Consult the TV’s technical documentation.

If you are experiencing sound distortion while multiple Bluetooth devices are connected to your BeHear headset, we recommend that you modify the default CODEC (APTX LL) and choose either the APTX or SBC CODEC instead.

This can be done in the W&H BeHear app, while your headset is paired and connected to your smartphone.

1. Go to the Settings menu.
2. Choose Device.
3. Scroll down to the “ADVANCED” section and choose the desired CODEC from the dropdown list.

Note: You will need to turn your headset off and then back on to apply the modification.

You can use the BeHear headset to listen to the TV even without the HearLink PLUS transmitter, but HearLink PLUS will provide better sound quality, as the audio will be streamed directly to the headset.

1. To connect your BeHear headset to a Windows PC desktop computer, first you must place the headset into pairing mode (when the headset is OFF, press the power button for several seconds until the LED flashes alternating red and blue lights).
2. Then (and only then!) go to Settings > Bluetooth & other devices on your Windows PC.
3. Click the “Add Bluetooth or other device” option
   
4. Click “Bluetooth”:
   
5. Your BeHear headset will appear as an audio device in the list next to a “headphone” icon. Click on this device name to connect:
   

Note: If you don’t follow the sequence detailed above, and instead start searching for new device in the PC while your headset is simply ON (not in pairing mode), BeHear will appear in the list as unknown device, with no “audio” under the name and no “headphone” icon next to it. Connecting to this device will not activate BeHear as a headphone/headset.

Yes, our assistive hearing headsets are designed to give you personalized amplification for computer-generated audio and conference calls, as well as live conversations.

For conference calls with apps such as Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, Google Meet, and WebEx, you will simply need to pair the BeHear headset with the sound source (smartphone or computer) and select BeHear in the conference platform’s audio settings.

1. As the headset can be connected to two devices at any one time, you need to make sure it’s not currently channeling the audio from any other device you may have connected (iPad/tablet/HearLink, etc.)
2. In order to make sure your headset is connected to the computer, double-click the speaker icon on the Windows lower menu bar.  
   The name that appears should be “BeHear” and not “Speakers”. If you see the name “Speakers” click the ^ (arrow). If the BeHear is connected properly you will be able to see it listed under the list of playback devices. Choose the “Headset” option.
3. When connecting to a desktop / Windows computer, the BeHear headset can appear in two different listings, once as a “Headset” and once as “Headphones”.
4. Only the “Headset” listing will enable the BeHear microphones to transmit (the “HeadPhones” setting uses BeHear as a speaker only). Try switching between these two options.
5. If you are using a communication application, such as Skype or Zoom, it is not enough to specify in the computer settings that the BeHear headset should be the audio device. You will also need to specify it in the communication application’s audio settings.

Check these possible causes :

1. One of the headsets is out of range. The quality of the Bluetooth connection (and associated audio distortions) depends on the weakest connection of the two connected headsets. For example, audio distortions may be heard by the wearer of the headset closest to the HearLink/HearLink PLUS transmitter when the second headset is out of the transmitter’s range.
2. One of the headsets is not a BeHear headset. The active CODEC (SBC, aptX or aptX-LL) for the HearLink PLUS transmitter is determined according to the common denominator for the both headsets. Two BeHear headsets will always operate in aptX-LL mode. However, if one of the connected headsets is not a BeHear headset, and it doesn’t support aptX, both headsets will work in the lower quality SBC mode only.
3. Each headset is paired to a different mobile phone. It is not recommended to connect two headsets simultaneously to one HearLink PLUS and maintain separate smartphone connections for each headset. This is due to problems which may arise when the wearer desires to switch the audio stream between his/her phone and HearLink PLUS (e.g., for an incoming call from one of the phones).

The current versions of both our headsets (BeHear NOW and BeHear ACCESS) support both the Qualcomm aptX “classic” and aptX-LL (low latency) codecs.

This sometimes happens when ListenThrough is activated on a high transparency setting (the dot on the scale is set far on the right). In this instance, slide the dot to the left until the strange sound disappears.

Alternatively, turn off ListenThrough completely by sliding the dot all the way to the left (or tapping the mute button to the left of the scale), or by pressing the middle button on the headset’s right-hand control box.

You can also change the default settings for ListenThrough so that it will not be activated until you choose to do so. To change the default settings:

1. Tap the “Settings” icon at the bottom of the W&H BeHear app screen.
2. Tap the “Device” icon.
3. Scroll down to the “ListenThrough Music” section, and tap the ▼ symbol below the descriptive text to reveal the drop-down list of options.
4. Choose “OFF”.

Yes, absolutely!

Depending on the application, BeHear may appear either as a headset or as a headphone, just like most other Bluetooth headphones.

For most music players it will be listed as a “headphone” while for messaging services, such as Skype/Viber/WeChat etc., it will be listed as a “headset”.

If you have a set top box you may be able to use it to bypass the television’s audio output jack and solve this problem. Many set top boxes (cable boxes) have an analog audio output jack and/or an optical (digital) audio output jack. By connecting the HearLink PLUS TV transmitter directly to the set top box the audio may transmit simultaneously to the BeHear headset and the television speakers, allowing both the BeHear wearer and the other viewers to hear the audio.

If you have a set top box you can use it instead, as many set top boxes (cable boxes) have an analog audio output jack and/or an optical (digital) audio output jack. In this case, connect the HearLink/HearLink PLUS TV transmitter directly to the audio output jack on the set top box.

There are many audio transmitters on the market, but HearLink PLUS has some unique features that set it apart as the transmitter of choice for assistive hearing.

1. It supports ListenThrough™ technology to allow important ambient sounds (like a conversation with a TV viewing partner, or the doorbell) to pass through on top of the streamed audio.
2. During incoming phone calls the audio stream will be stopped and then automatically resumed when the call is completed.
3. It supports up to two BeHear® headsets simultaneously.