The tour guide wore a remote microphone and I was able to hear her every word even though I was standing at the back of the group.

For anyone like me who suffers from severe hearing loss, remote microphones can keep you in touch with the world beyond the reach of hearing aids.  They can relay the voice of a speaker from the podium, connect you with a television or help you keep up with conversations around the dinner table.  In fact, I find my mic to be indispensable.

All of the big five hearing aid manufacturers offer remote microphones with varying features and capabilities. Some are straightforward clip-on mics while others boast features such as being able to stream audio, or offer sophisticated directional capabilities that can isolate a voice in a crowd.

All of this, of course, requires Bluetooth equipped hearing aids and a smartphone.  That also means you are pretty much limited in your choice of mic to those offered by your hearing aid manufacturer because each of them generally use incompatible versions of Bluetooth.

The two that I am most familiar with are Starkey’s Starlink Table Microphone and Phonak’s Roger ON.  Both are excellent examples of cutting edge technology.

They share many of the same features.  Both can be worn with a lanyard which can be worn by your tour guide or teacher, for example, which means you can you can even be at the back of a group or a classroom and still hear virtually everything they say.

Both can be placed in the middle of the dinner table and their multiple microphones are able to detect which of the people around the table are speaking then isolate and relay their voice.  The Roger ON also has a handheld mode so that you can aim it towards whoever you are listening to, even in a crowd.  It’s much like aiming a flashlight.  Pretty handy for cocktail parties or family gatherings.

As well, some remote mics, including the Roger ON, are capable of acting as streaming devices.  You can connect the optical audio output from your tv, laptop or stereo into the mic’s base unit and it will deliver the sound directly to your hearing aids.

For me one of the biggest plusses is using Roger ON in the car.  The combination of engine and road noise can make conversation difficult.  Putting a mic on the person you are having difficulty hearing not only makes it easy to understand them, it also has the added benefit of quieting all that extraneous noise.

In sum, the benefits of a remote mic are compelling and it could be very worthwhile discussing your options with your hearing specialist or audiologist.  For me it’s been a godsend and not only for me but for my partner as well.  We can now enjoy road trips and restaurants in a way that we haven’t been able to for a long time.