Choosing the Right Wireless Headset System For Your Office Phone

So, what is this Bluetooth anyway?

The technology was developed in order to allow many devices to communicate in what has been coined a ‘personal network’ with connections being established on the fly by Bluetooth enabled devices. What this means to you and me is that my Bluetooth cellular phone can share an address book with the hands-free kit in my Bluetooth enabled BMW. And my Bluetooth enabled Macintosh can connect to my Bluetooth enabled printer without a wire. It also means that my Bluetooth Headset can connect to any of these devices if it makes sense to, and give me a wireless headset connection to that device.

It’s an ambitious plan that is starting to bear fruit. Wireless headsets were among the first Bluetooth devices to be manufactured and although the early headsets were far from perfect, more recent models are starting to perform at the levels we expect.

There are three things to consider with Bluetooth headsets – firstly, the range is short. In order to conserve battery life the Bluetooth specification demands only that devices can communicate over 10 meters (that’s about 30 ft). This is a lot shorter range than a 2.4GHz or 900MHz wireless headset systems – whose range can be as high as 100 meters (300 ft). Second is that the devices are designed to go in and out of synch with each other as they go in and out of range – and although that sounds nice, we’ve found that they can go in and out off synch with each other at the most inopportune times – namely in the middle of a call. This ‘feature’ of Bluetooth headsets has seriously hampered their adoption. Finally, the majority of Bluetooth headsets are ultra-portable – which means that sacrifices to sound quality have often been made in favor of a headset that looks better. This ‘form over function’ mentality often leaves users looking cool, but sounding terrible.

What are all the version numbers?

There have been several revisions to the Bluetooth specification in an attempt to iron out these issues. Version 1.1 added support for non-encrypted channels while trying to improve some of the bugs in Bluetooth v1.0 and it’s hastily rolled out successor Bluetooth v1.0B. More recently Bluetooth 1.2 headsets have started to appear – the Jabra JX10 Bluetooth Headset from GN Netcom and the Plantronics Bluetooth Voyager 510 Headset would be our favorites and they do seem to perform better than earlier models. On the horizon is the Bluetooth 2.0 Specification which promises to deliver increased reliability through four initiatives

• Faster transmission speed (at least 3 times, and up to 10 times).
• Lower power consumption.
• Improved Bit Error Rate (BER) performance.
• Simplification of linking to multiple devices.

Do we recommend Bluetooth?

For those people that want a wireless headset to connect to their Bluetooth cellular phone, and are prepared to have the occasional dropped call and are also prepared to go through the occasional ‘dance’ of re-synching the headset to the phone – we say a resounding “Yes”. However, if you are looking for a mature, robust, never goes wrong, never miss a call cell headset technology, then against all our economic best interests as a headset vendor, we say “No”. Stick with a corded headset until Bluetooth 2.0 headsets become available and reassess the situation then.

For user of desktop phones that are considering a Bluetooth solution, our advice is to stick with the more traditional non-Bluetooth solutions as the features that they offer, namely wide roaming range and the elimination of almost all synching problems. The only exception to this is if you really need to use the same headset with both your cellular phone and your desktop phone, in which case we feel that the Plantronics Voyager 510s Bluetooth Headset System offers the best performance on the market at the time of writing.

Bluetooth, in its current incarnation, has failed to deliver to the masses. Things are getting better, and we hope that the next release delivers all that it promises.

Why is it called Bluetooth?

Harald Bluetooth was king of Denmark way back in the late 900s. He managed to unite Denmark and part of Norway into a single kingdom. He was known as a man who could communicate. He left a large monument, the Jelling rune stone, in memory of his parents. Interestingly he was killed in battle with his son, Svend Forkbeard, so it seems his communication skills weren’t perfect. We think the tragic irony is perfect for Bluetooth. It promises much, but has some weaknesses.