Q: starkey halo

thanks for the info, I will pass it along to my audi.

I'm new to Starkey Halo. I tried the behind-the-ear with the Surflink Mobile first and now I have the Halo with the iPhone connection. I can't seem to find the equivalent to the "Focus" function on the Halo. With the Focus I was able to eliminate restaurant noise and hear my companions' speaking voices streamed directly into my ears. Does anyone know if this feature is available on the Halo? I have used the SoundSpace function but although the background noise can be lowered the speech doesn't feed into the aids.

The "live listen" feature might help. If you have not done so download the Halo manual from Starkey's website. "Select Start Live Listen to stream input to the iPhone microphone directly into your hearing aids. Direct the iPhone microphone toward the source of interest to provide additional input from that source. To minimize background noise and provide the best signal, place the phone as close to the source as possible.."

The Halo's are the Swiss Army Knife of hearing aids. There are five different pre-defined programs that your audiologist can customize for you for different needs. For example I mostly need Normal, Restaurant, Television and Streaming all of which are different. If your audiologist is familiar with Halo's and you are willing to experiment you should fine what you need. Nothing beats a dedicated and patient audiologist.

I believe that the aids you had prior to the Halos had multiple microphones, which were directive, and that the app you used selected (mixed) the microphones so you could select a given direction.  That isn't the Halos. 

I love my Halos, and they REALLY help me in all situations.  Directivity would be nice.  That may be coming down the road.

BTW: I use the Tru-Link APP maybe once a month for a special situation.  Other than that, I just use Apple's built-in controls, which you get with a triple click on the home button.  I guess I'm just an old-fashioned "keep it simple" kind of guy.

Jim in Littleton, Colorado

Dr. SantaFeNM, although I'm way up here in Littleton, Co., Right now I'm using iHeartRadio to stream KKOB in Albquerque to my Starkeys.  There's a program I listen to on Sunday afternoons (Bob Brinker's 'Moneytalk') that is carried in Denver, but our local station inserts EXTRA commercials, ruining the program for me.  So thanks to our New Mexico neighbors, I'm a happy man.  Love your KKOB!

CO & NM are wonderful places to live.

I also went from the Wii aids with surflink to Halos. The streaming focus function worked like the microphone tab in trulink.

at the bottom of the trulink app there are 3 tabs remoted, soundspace and microphone. Microphone is the phone's microphone, not the hearing aids.

click that tab if you click circle with the vertical line, it streams from the phone mic to your aids. If you click the red button it records. Then place the phone as close to what you want to stream as possible, it will work very similar to surf link.

LanB22 - one minor correction to your post. I think you meant the ideogram that contains a circle, a speaker and a diagonal line when you wrote "circle with the vertical line," as there is no circle with a vertical line. If you click that, you will mute the microphone of the Halos. This is true whether there is anything streaming at the time or not.

OldGnome,

On the microphone tab, there is a one graphic, when I first looked at it, I thought it was the outline of 1/2 the phone, and then I realized it is suppose to be a microphone. it has 4 sections, the top is a shape full of small circles, representing a microphone, there is an eye shaped section that has an incomplete circle in it, with a vertical line through the open section, under that are 2 sections,  on the left is a red dot, on the right a list icon. The red dot records the list icon takes you to any recordings. The mute button you mention, is on the remote page??

LanB22 - you are entirely correct. My mistake.

Thank you and Thank you all for coming to my "aid" (haha. little joke?) So happy I found this group!

I saw my "dedicated and patient" (thanks for that description SantafeNM, she liked it)  audiologist today and she approximated the Focus function by setting up a program called Restaurant in which she reduced the hearing aid sound level and chose the microphone. It's not "Focus" but approximates it.  She also said that Starkey is working on producing a Focus-like function on the Halo. Can't come soon enough for me! I haven't worked on the Television and Streaming programs yet! I don't watch TV but I do watch DVDs and will happily accept a program that sends sound to my HAs instead of having to insist a DVD have subtitles.

I'm not sure either Television or Streaming is going to do what you might think. "Television" is merely a preset with a particular shape to the sound coming through the Halo's microphones. Streaming will take the sound being produced by your iPhone, whether through the iPhone's microphone or another program such as Music, and push it through your hearing aids. If you want to use Streaming to watch TV by using the iPhone's microphone, be aware that it will pick up all sounds and feed them directly to your hearing aids.

It's amazing to hear the dog scratch behind his ear and listen to the sound his collar and tags make at that kind of boosted volume....

I still use subtitles when watching TV and DVDs.

I use a Sony wireless headset to watch TV with closed captioning. I have severely decreased word recognition and have always relied on lip reading when speaking to anyone in person. For me when the TV sound goes into the air, so much is lost even when I am wearing my aids, I can't enjoy the show, I have to work to hard to try and figure out what is being said. Some actors are easier then others. I am much more successful with the headset. Of course the sound isnt enhanced for my loss as it is with the aids, but at the end of day, when I do watch TV or a DVD I've already had my aids in for over 12 hours, so I like being able to take them out and still somewhat hear. I recently switched to Dish TV, the closed captionings appearance is very customizable, you can remove the black box entirely or make it translucent, you can also change the color of the text, I use a translucent box with cyan colored text, much less obtrusive then the opaque black box with white text, My family finds closed captioning very distracting. Not so much in this mode. So that's a win! I also have an LG Tones headset that is blue tooth, it will connect to the Dish's main hopper and I can watch TV with my family, the BT headset allows sound into the room, the sony headset uses the microphone jack and doesn't. Which is great for my bedroom TV when I don't want to disturb my husband.

Different tools for different applications is sometimes the path of least resistance.

Has anyone tried pairing the iPhone 6 to more than one Bluetooth device simulantansly? For instance hearing aids plus a Bluetooth speaker.

I Have my phone paired to my halos and to an LG tones 730 headset. I use the iOS audio button to toggle between the 2 devices.