What is the typical range of Bluetooth in the BeHear NOW and ACCESS headsets?

Bluetooth range for Class II devices like our BeHear NOW and ACCESS headsets is up to ~33 feet (10 meters). This holds true even if you leave the room.
Note: There may be interference from other electronic devices or objects which will affect that range.

What range can I expect with the BeHear headset + HearLink PLUS combination?

The operational distance for the HearLink PLUS paired with a BeHear NOW or BeHear ACCESS is up to ~200ft (~60m).

If you are interested in a more detailed explanation, keep reading.

The BeHear NOW and BeHear ACCESS headsets are Bluetooth Class II devices, while the HearLink PLUS is a Bluetooth Class I device.

  1. A Bluetooth link between two devices is always bi-directional. The actual range depends on radio performance of the transmitter and the receiver on the both sides.
  2. The difference between Class I and Class II Bluetooth devices in radio transmitting power is 16dB (Class I – 20dBm, Class II – 4dBm). Consequently, the power transmitted by a Class I device is ~40 times greater than that of a Class II device (10^(16/10)). The distance is a function of the square root of the power, meaning that the distance can be increased by ~6 times (SQR(40)) from 10m for Class II to 60m for Class I.
  3. In addition, a Class I device has improved receiver sensitivity (by ~4dB), which leads to an increased distance of ~1.5 times. Consequently, typical distance for Class I is 100m vs. 10m for Class II.
  4. When a Class I device is connected to a Class II headset the expected distance is as follows:
    a. From a Class I transmitter to a Class II receiver – up to 60m (see paragraph #2)
    b. From a Class II transmitter to Class I receiver – up to 15m (see paragraph #3)
    c. For a bi-directional it is ~15m, based on the shortest range of #a and #b.
  5. HearLink PLUS as a Class I device provides additional improvements because of its dual-antenna design. The major effect is for the receiving part, since transmitting power is limited according to the standard. For communication with a Class II receiver, like our BeHear headsets, the distance is increased significantly because of this improvement. 

HearLink PLUS isn’t working right when two headsets are paired with it.

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).