Oticon

Brand Profile: Oticon Hearing Aids

Oticon is the flagship hearing-aid brand of William Demant Holding A/S, one of world’s largest manufacturers of hearing aids. Oticon got its start in 1902 when Hans Demant, whose wife was hearing-impaired, was inspired by the Danish-born Crown Princess Alexandra, who wore a hearing aid for her coronation as the Queen of England. Demant traveled from Denmark to England to buy the same type of device and became so enamored of the potential of hearing aids that he began importing reselling hearing aids to Denmark for resale. His son William eventually began manufacturing hearing aids under the Oticon name.

Today Oticon is one of the world’s leading hearing-aid brands. In 2010 Oticon introduced the Agil family of hearing aids as the premium-performance flagship of its product line. Based on a new speech processing platform, the new hearing aids improve comprehension of speech in noisy situations. Its wireless Speech-Guard platform provided a two-fold improvement over its previous digital signal processing system, and seamless integration with Oticon’s Connectline wireless assistive listening devices makes the new Agil family one of the highest-performing hearing aids on the market.

Oticon Hearing Aid Product Line

Oticon is also a leader in pediatric hearing aids as well as very high power hearing aids for patients with severe-to-profound hearing loss.

 

Recent Posts About Oticon Hearing Aids

Oticon’s New ConnectLine Microphone Completes End-To-End Connection Between Hearing Aids And Your Conversation Partner

Oticon’s ConnectLine communication devices have made it easier for users of hearing aids to listen to their Apple iPods and personal MP3 players, their TVs, and their Bluetooth mobile phones for a while now. But with yesterday’s introduction of the Oticon ConnectLine personal microphone, you’ll finally be able to hear your dinner companion as well, even in a noisy restaurant.

The new wireless Oticon ConnectLine Microphone clips to your conversation partner’s lapel and picks up his or her voice while filtering out unwanted background sounds. It transmits the audio directly to the ConnectLine Streamer, which you wear on a loop around your neck, and the streamer transmits the unadulterated audio signals directly into your Oticon Agil hearing aids. It can also be adjusted to transmit at frequencies most compatible with the listener’s hearing-loss profile and hearing aids.

Ever since the big hearing aid makers began incorporating communication receivers directly into hearing aids, there’s been a not-so-quiet revolution in people’s ability to connect to more of the sounds of the modern world. But strangely enough, it’s taken some time for the major manufacturers to come up with workable assistive-listening solutions for the most common complaint of hearing-aid wearers–comprehension of speech in noisy surroundings. The ConnectLine Microphone is one approach to the speech-in-noise problem that is small and easy enough to actually be useful in the real world. When you add to the Oticon ConnectLine solutions for your TV, phone and personal listening system, you end up with a complete, end-to-end listening and comprehension system. Read more

Oticon Chili And Safari Super-Power Hearing Aids Pack More Punch In Smaller Packages With Premium Features And More Natural Sound

Oticon’s Chili and Safari super-power hearing aids, introduced last Fall, have kept the Danish company on the forefront of highly functional solutions for adults and children with severe hearing loss. Often the super-power hearing aid user suffers because there are comparatively fewer consumers in that niche than in the mainstream market of hearing aids for users with mild or moderate hearing loss. So manufacturers can be slow to deliver the same new features and functionality that they put into their hearing aids for people with less serious hearing loss. And because hearing aids for severely impaired users require so much amplification, the danger of over-amplification of environmental sounds, distortion of speech and feedback noise is greater than with hearing aids requiring less amplification.

So it was welcome news to severely impaired consumers when Oticon introduced Chili and Safari with numerous features in its hot mainstream Agil hearing aids, including wireless connectivity with audio devices, Oticon’s next generation Speech Guard sound processing software, advanced adaptive directionality, and spatial noise management, all in a much smaller behind-the-ear processing unit than its earlier super-power hearing aids. Read more

Oticon To Double The Processing Power Of Its Hearing Aids With New Flagship ‘Agil’ Family

William Demant Holding Group’s Oticon hearing-aid brand is getting ready to introduce a new line of hearing aids with twice the processing power of its current flagship family and a new set of sound processing algorithms that the Denmark company claims will substantially improve users’ comprehension of speech in noise. Oticon’s new Agil family will be formally launched in March and be shown for the first time at the American Academy of Audiology convention in San Diego in April. The Agil family will serve a broad range of hearing needs from moderate to severe hearing loss and will come in form factors ranging from behind-the-ear (BTE) to receiver in the ear (RITE). Oticon is promoting two innovations enabled by the more powerful processing platform: Speech Guard and Spatial Sound 2.0.

Oticon says Speech Guard is based on a new wireless platform with twice the calculation power of its current flagship Oticon Epoq family. It includes a new processing kernel that it says will preserve signal fidelity–quality of sound, especially human voices–far more effectively than in the past. At the same time, Spatial Sound 2.0, a “spatial noise management system” that “maintains natural acoustic cues.” The platform integrates seamlessly with the Oticon ConnectLine wireless listening system. Read more

Rock & Roll Icon Stephen Stills Talks About How Hearing Aids Alleviate His Lifelong Hearing Loss

Oticon USA has used the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock concert to do a nice PR piece on Crosby, Stills & Nash player Stephen Stills, who uses Oticon Dual hearing aids. The group’s performance at Woodstock was a centerpiece of the film made about the event and kept their music at the top of the charts for years.

Unlike many rock musicians whose first deafness was a direct result of constant exposure to too-loud music, Stills was diagnosed at nine years old with a slight hearing loss in one ear. In the interview published on the Oticon web site, he shares some good insights on what it’s like to gradually accept your hearing loss and do something about it. He’s also a good example of someone who’s managed to cope with his hearing loss and continue doing what he loves:

“Now when I perform, I am able to hear the top end of the music and get back in tune….Now I can hear the subtleties of the music. This has improved my playing and my singing.”

Buy Oticon Delta ‘Think Pink’ Hearing Aids And Fight Breast Cancer

Oticon is putting its money where its mouth is with donations to the American Cancer Society tied to purchases of its Delta hearing aids during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October. Read more

Oticon Integrates Wireless Bluetooth Receiver In New Epoq Hearing Aids

Oticon’s latest new technology is whiz bang, integrating a Bluetooth receiver inside its new Epoq family of hearing aids. Epoq also provides wireless binaural communication between right and left hearing aids to make stereophonic sound more natural. But to me the most exciting innovation is the integrated Bluetooth, which enables mobile phone reception directly by the hearing aids. Read more

Oticon Introduces Kid-Friendly Amigo FM Assistive Listening Devices

Hearing the teacher’s voice without the stress and strain of speech-reading can mean the difference between long-term success and failure in school, especially for younger children. When hearing-aid manufacturers target school-aged customers, they do well by doing good. Read more

Oticon Introduces High-Function, High-Fashion Behind-The-Ear Hearing-Aids

Last year the hottest innovation driving the fastest-growing segment of the hearing-aid market was the “thin-tube, open-fit” design for behind-the ear (BTE) aids. This year, will the hottest new products be RITE? Oticon will show its new Delta “Receiver-in-the-Ear” hearing aids featuring the RITE architecture at the American Academy of Audiology annual conference in Minneapolis this week. Read more

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