Listening ACCESSability

Making Listening Accessible

Connecting Assistive Listening Devices to SMART Products

We have struggled through getting devices connected up to our SMART Interactive products, including SMART Boards and TV’s. This guide is designed to help you to get started in connecting either, the Roger Touchscreen Microphone, the Roger Inspiro Microphone or the Roger Multimedia Hub directly to a SMART device. These instructions will also work for other assistive listening devices which have a 3.5mm aux input.

Digimaster or Roger On

If you are using a Roger Digimaster, we would recommend that you connect the Digimaster to the computer, and circumvent the speakers on your SMART hardware.

If you are using the Roger On, this can be connected via USB, or via the USB-C to AUX cable which Phonak provide in the box.

To get started, choose the heading of the SMART product that you use in your classroom, and then choose the connection type that you use.

Traditional Smart Boards

Any type of SMART Board falls into this category

HDMI Audio (You only plug in a HDMI Cable)

More than likely your setup has a cable plugged into the Audio Out port on your projector which takes the HDMI audio in, and sends it to your speakers. You will need to split your audio at this point using a 3.5mm Audio splitter.

You will:

  1. Remove the audio cable from the Audio Out port on your projector
  2. Plug the splitter into this port
  3. Plug the audio cable that you removed into the splitter – this will reconnect your speakers to the projector
  4. Connect your audio cable for the FM/DM system to the splitter
  5. Plug the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter.

You may need a longer cable than normal for this, especially if this is a permanent installation.

3.5mm Audio (You plug in an audio cable and a HDMI)

If you plug a 3.5mm audio cable into your computer, you have the easiest setup.

You will need:

  • 2 x audio cables
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the cable from your speakers that used to go to your computer into one of the female splitter jacks
  3. Connect the additional audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  4. Finally plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

USB Audio (Your sound doesn’t work without the USB Cable)

To use a splitter in your setup with USB audio, you will need to replace your USB cable with a 3.5mm to RCA cable. This has one end which looks like a headphone cable and then two larger round ends which can connect to your SMART Board USB Speakers.

You will need:

  • 1 x 3.5mm to RCA Cable
  • 1 x audio cables (3.5mm to 3.5mm)
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the 3.5mm end of the RCA cable to the splitter
  3. Connect the RCA end of the cable into the Dual RCA input in the speaker (as shown in the second image on the left)
  4. Connect the additional 3.5mm audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  5. Plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

You are now sending audio to the speakers via the RCA cable instead of using the USB audio which we cannot split and send to the FM/DM Transmitter.

You will still need to connect the USB cable to your computer, as it is required to connect the touch aspect of your SMART Board. You will need to change the audio output of your computer to the headphone port instead of the USB audio.

The base of the SMART USB speakers
Your final setup

3.5mm Audio (You plug in an audio cable and a HDMI)

If you plug a 3.5mm audio cable into your computer, you have the easiest setup.

You will need:

  • 2 x audio cables
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the cable from your speakers that used to go to your computer into one of the female splitter jacks
  3. Connect the additional audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  4. Finally plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

USB Audio (Your sound doesn’t work without the USB Cable)

To use a splitter in your setup with USB audio, you will need to replace your USB cable with a 3.5mm to RCA cable. This has one end which looks like a headphone cable and then two larger round ends which can connect to your SMART Board USB Speakers.

You will need:

  • 1 x 3.5mm to RCA Cable
  • 1 x audio cables (3.5mm to 3.5mm)
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the 3.5mm end of the RCA cable to the splitter
  3. Connect the RCA end of the cable into the Dual RCA input in the speaker (as shown in the second image on the left)
  4. Connect the additional 3.5mm audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  5. Plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

You are now sending audio to the speakers via the RCA cable instead of using the USB audio which we cannot split and send to the FM/DM Transmitter.

You will still need to connect the USB cable to your computer, as it is required to connect the touch aspect of your SMART Board. You will need to change the audio output of your computer to the headphone port instead of the USB audio.

The base of the SMART USB speakers
Your final setup

Smart TV

Interactive Smart TV’s

HDMI Audio (You only plug in a HDMI Cable)

For the SMART TV Series TVs and the BenQ TVs you will need to use an Optical (SPDIF) to Analogue audio converter. This is an affiliate link, but it’s the unit that we have used.

To use this unit:

  1. Plug the SPDIF optical cable into the SMART TV
  2. Plug the other end of the SPDIF cable into the Optical input on the converter
  3. Plug the 3.5mm audio cable into the headphone jack in the converter
  4. Plug the USB cable into the peripheral port on the SMART TV as this will provide 5v
  5. Plug the other end of the USB cable into the DC5V socket on the adapter.
  6. Plug the other end of the 3.5mm audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter.

The TV will now automatically output audio via the SPDIF port to the converter

An image of a printable resource for the BenQ TV
Download this resource
An image of reproducible resource showing how to connect a Roger device to a SMART TV
Download this resource

3.5mm Audio (You plug in an audio cable and a HDMI)

If you plug a 3.5mm audio cable into your computer, you have the easiest setup.

You will need:

  • 2 x audio cables
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the cable from your speakers that used to go to your computer into one of the female splitter jacks
  3. Connect the additional audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  4. Finally plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

You told us that you’re using an audio cable. For assistive listening this is the easiest option.

This means that you’re going to need to use an audio splitter no matter the device. This plugs into the side of your computer.

You will need:

  • 2 x audio cables
  • 1 x FM/DM Transmitter
  • 1 x 3.5mm audio splitter

Instructions:

  1. Connect the male part of the splitter to your computer audio jack
  2. Connect the cable from your speakers that used to go to your computer into one of the female splitter jacks
  3. Connect the additional audio cable to the other female splitter jack
  4. Finally plug in the other end of the audio cable into the FM/DM transmitter unit

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