Using one of the BeHear headsets on its own in Personal Hearing mode will pick up sound from the television and amplify it according to your hearing profile (if you have performed the Hearing Assessment in our W&H BeHear app to personalize the device). This may be sufficient for your needs.

However, the benefit of the HearLink (or HearLink PLUS) transmitter is that it captures the TV audio and transmits it directly to the personalized headset, eliminating distractions (such as room reverberation, and ambient noise).

Additionally, since your headset can pair simultaneously with two Bluetooth devices, if you receive a phone call on your paired mobile phone while watching television the TV audio will be muted automatically, and then resume once you disconnect the call.

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.

If you have a set top box you may be able to use it to bypass the television’s audio output jack. Many set top boxes (cable boxes) have an analog audio output jack and/or an optical (digital) audio output jack. If you connect the HearLink/HearLink PLUS TV transmitter directly to the set top box the audio may transmit simultaneously to the BeHear headset and the television speakers.

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.

To reset an unresponsive HearLink transmitter, connect it to the charger while pressing the MFB (Multi-Function Button).

The BeHear NOW and BeHear ACCESS headsets are Bluetooth Class II devices, while the HearLink PLUS is a Bluetooth Class I device. As a result, you many wonder what kind of transmission range you can expect with this product combination. Here is a detailed explanation:

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. According to experimental data the operational distance for the HearLink PLUS and a BeHear NOW or BeHear ACCESS: up to ~60m (~200ft).

The Bluetooth version in BeHear headsets is v. 4.2 and in the HearLink PLUS it is v. 5. However, the range depends on the class of the Bluetooth device (Class I or Class II) rather than on its version (v. 4.2 or v. 5). BeHear are Class II devices while HearLink PLUS are Class I. Operation range between these two devices is larger than for two Class II devices (10m or 40ft) though less than for two Class I devices (100m or 400ft). We expect that for the BeHear + HearLink PLUS combination you can get a 20m or 80ft range, in open spaces.

The HearLink PLUS Bluetooth transmitter (using the aptX-LL CODEC) achieves low latency of only 40ms, avoiding lip sync issues.

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.

If your HearLink or HearLink PLUS isn’t operating to your satisfaction, check possible causes below:

1. 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. The active CODEC (SBC, aptX or aptX-LL) for the HearLink/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 SBC mode only. (Note: HearLink does not support two connections with the aptX CODEC. If paired with two headsets simultaneously it will work in SBC mode only.)
3. It is not recommended to connect two headsets simultaneously to one HearLink/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/HearLink PLUS (e.g., for an incoming call from one of the phones).

First, verify that you are within Bluetooth range (~10 feet, 3.5 meters for HearLink; ~200 feet, 60 meters for HearLink PLUS).

If that is not the issue, and a long time has passed between uses, or if the smartphone has been playing an audio stream, the headset may not automatically reconnect with the HearLink or HearLink PLUS transmitter when you are within range. In this case, a short press on the headset’s Power button should re-establish the connection with the transmitter.