Problems Solved

PROBLEM OF THE FORTNIGHT

Why can’t I pair my TV and hearing aids?

Q I have some of the latest hearing aids from Specsavers. These have Bluetooth and work perfectly with my Apple iPhone. However, I’m not able to pair them with my LG TV, in spite of the TV having Bluetooth connectivity. My normal wireless headphones connect to the TV without problem. Any clues?

Gerard van Zwieten

A We have an inkling, yes. While we don’t know your exact model of hearing aids, it is very likely to have Bluetooth 4.0 or later. These newer versions of the wireless standard include a technology called Low Energy (LE), the purpose of which pretty much speaks for itself: it’s an innovation that keeps power use to an absolute minimum. This, obviously, is a vital factor for smaller devices – such as hearing aids.

Now, while the Bluetooth standard itself is broadly backwards compatible – meaning that a device that uses the latest Bluetooth 5.3 protocol can in theory communicate with one manufactured to the original Bluetooth 1.0 specification – there are exceptions. Specifically, if a device relies on a feature that’s available only in later versions of the Bluetooth standard then it won’t work with earlier versions.

We think this is the root of your problem. Your hearing aids are almost certainly making use of the LE aspect of Bluetooth 4.0 or later, while your TV is probably on Bluetooth 3.0 or earlier. Larger headphones with bigger batteries, or older models, might not have or make use of Bluetooth LE: this would explain why your existing cordless headphones connect to your TV without