Oticon to Introduce Agil Hearing-Aid Platform

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.

“With Oticon Agil,we have virtually improved all the advanced features already available in Oticon Epoq,” William Demant Holding President and CEO Niels Jacobsen said in a statement to investors. “Our almost three years of everyday experience with wireless audiology and connectivity has given us valuable insights enabling us to bring forward a significantly better hearing solution.” Among those insights is the fact that better comprehension of speech based on more natural processing of spatial sound reduces the cognitive “overhead” required to understand speech, enabling hearing-aid users to better understand speech with less stress, Oticon said. The company said it is focused on new research showing that struggles to comprehend speech can significantly increase fatigue and impair performance of everyday activities in ways that lead directly to loss of income.

Every few years the major global hearing-aid manufacturers release their new processing platforms, promising to deliver breakthroughs in comprehension of speech in noise. It’s gratifying to see a major manufacturer linking its new product platform so tightly to new research on how hearing loss directly effects people’s health and incomes.

Phonak Primero DPD Integrates Hearing Enhancement and Protection

For a long time, the standard in hearing protection for the military, police and workers in noisy industrial environments was little more than a set of ill-fitting ear plugs. But blocking your hearing is often more dangerous than potentially losing it in noisy environments where inability to hear your colleague’s voices or failure to hear warnings of an imminent threat can put you in harm’s way. It’s no surprise, then, that hearing loss among soldiers who don’t wear their earplugs because they don’t feel safe not being able to hear what’s going on around them has become one of the biggest problems for veterans of the Irag war and other conflicts. That’s why it’s gratifying to see hearing-aid manufacturers have finally start applying advanced hearing enhancement and hearing protection technology to the problem of environmental noise. Phonak is the latest manufacturer to come up with an advanced hearing system for people trying to get their jobs done in noisy and dangerous environments, and it integrates some impressive technology.

Phonak Primero DPC Communication System

The new Phonak primero DPC boomless radio headset features “dynamic hearing protection.” Custom ear molds that sit in the user’s ears integrate wireless technology which measures and dampens environmental noise while enhancing speech tones. The sound-dampening completely protects users from load blasts or noise from heavy machinery while enabling them to continue speaking with others over a wireless link. A tiny microphone integrated within the ear jack and an innovative signal processing algorithm pick up the user’s voice from inside the ear canal. This allows the user to be heard by others over the wireless link more clearly than with previous technologies. Designed with teams such as rapid intervention, SWAT, police, emergency and homeland security professionals in mind, the primero DPC system raises the bar of safe radio communications by enabling conversation in noise of up to 115dB with hearing protection guaranteed even when loud ‘impulse’ noises such as shots or crashes occur.

By integrating both hearing enhancement AND protection, Phonak’s new system is leading the charge for a new class of products that put sophisticated hearing aid technology to work in a market for hearing-protection systems that is potentially even larger than the global market for hearing aids.

Super Bowl MVP Brees Puts Son Baylen's Hearing First

Credit Super Bowl MVP Drew Brees and his wife and partner-in-parenting Brittany with the biggest assist of the year for hearing protection advocacy. The feel-good story of the afternoon was when the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback shared a special moment with his year-old son Baylen just before hoisting the Lombardi trophy in front of 70,000 fans and millions of TV viewers. The first question out of many viewers’ mouths was, “What’s with the headphones?” Drew and Brittany let everyone who asked know that the huge hearing-protection headset covering little Baylen’s ears has been standard issue since their son attended his first game at the tender age of three weeks. The New York Times parenting blog captured the moment beautifully, giving both parents an A+ for putting their son’s precious hearing first. Now here’s a question: who was the manufacturer of that hearing-protection headset? I can’t tell the brand or model from the pictures. Whoever it is now has the world’s most valuable product endorsement!

01/11/2009 UPDATE: This just in–a Hearing Mojo reader named bob has identified Peltor as the maker of Baby Baylen’s hearing-protection headset. Inc. Magazine got on the story quickly. Peltor, located in the home town of the Indianapolis Colts, apparently had no idea their Peltor Junior Earmuffs would be getting such a great endorsement. For more on Peltor see our previous story on Peltor’s hearing protection headsets.

This is a huge story for the hearing aid industry, which is going through a wave of consolidation as the leading global players try to simultaneously gain market share by broadening their distribution at the low end of the market while building war chests for a new generation of R&D-led innovation at the high end of the market. Putting the very high end digital technologies required for cochlear implants under the same roof as mainstream digital hearing aids will give a shot of much-needed energy into high-end hearing-aid innovation.

Sonova CEO Valentin Chapero kicked off the industry’s consolidation charge in 2007 with his failed bid to acquire GN Resound and vault to undisputed leader of the global industry. Undaunted, in November 2009 Sonova made a bid to acquire Advanced Bionics (AB), the U.S.-based cochlear implant maker. Then in January 2010 Sonova acquired InSound Medical, developer of an innovative hearing aid implanted deep within the ear canal. Assuming the AB deal passes regulatory approvals, Sonova have a vertically line of hearing assistance products, offering everything from inexpensive entry-level hearing aids all the way up to the most sophisticated cochlear implant technologies available.

Cochlear’s strategy appears to be similar to Phonak’s, but it will enter the market from the opposite direction by leveraging its strong position in high-end cochlear implant technology to move into the mainstream hearing-aid market with the acquisition of Siemens Hearing, one of the world’s seven largest hearing-aid suppliers.

America Hears Independence Hearing Aid

The new, high-performance, low-cost hearing aids feature a Voyageur II digital signal processor from Sound Design Technologies, Ltd., that processes 32 independent streams of sound to provide tuned amplification at the broadest range of frequencies available in the industry. And the Advanced Dynamic Range Optimization (ADRO) sound processing software from Dynamic Hearing Pty Ltd. features a new, improved enhance speech in noise (ESIN) algorithm that amplifies the high-frequency sounds that comprise 60% of speech, attacking the problem of hearing speech in noisy environments such as crowded restaurants.

The America Hears direct-from-factory-to-consumer Internet sales model enables the company to keep costs to the end user low. At the same time, its user-adjustable programming software enables you to take charge of tuning your own hearing aids after they are programmed to your audiogram at the factory.

The America Hears Independence hearing aids come in a range of styles, from receiver-in-the-canal, to open fit, to behind the ear, to custom models. There are up to four user-selectable four program settings for different listening environments. And it features data logging–the ability to record and track the output of your hearing aids over time to understand how they are being used in different listening environments.

HearUSA Signs Distribution Deal With AARP

The arrangement is good news for Siemens, which is a major investor in HearUSA and supplies most of the hearing-aid products sold by the company. In addition to providing a financial boost to HearUSA, the AARP deal may enable geographic expansion of its retail chain, which currently sells hearing aids through 180 company-owned hearing care centers in 10 states in the U.S. and its Hearing Care Network comprised of over 1,900 affiliated audiologists in 49 states.

HearUSA this week also announced second-quarter net income of $1.1 million, compared to a half-million-dollar loss in the previous quarter. Like other companies in the hearing-aid industry, HearUSA has seen a falloff in sales due to the recession, but cost-control measures in addition to the sale of its Canadian subsidiary boosted both the bottom line and balance sheet in the second quarter of 2009.

Stephen Stills uses Oticon Dual hearing aids

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.”

Hearing Aid Pricing Should Be More Transparent

And there are good alternatives to the established brands now for cost-conscious, tech-savvy do-it-yourselfers: America Hears, which builds top-quality digital hearing aids and sells them online, programs them to your audiogram at the factory, sends you the software to make your own adjustments, and has licensed audiologists at the end of the phone to give you as much help as you need. All for under $1,000 a hearing aid. But most other comparable top-quality digital hearing aids still cost two to three times that much. Why? The answer is in the cost of the service required to get a custom fit. If you don’t dare do it yourself, a good audiologist truly is worth his or her weight in gold, especially if your hearing profile is complex. Getting a comfortable fit and programming assistance tuned to your audiogram usually requires multiple tries and is seemingly as much art as science. An audiologist who will stick with you through multiple adjustments is worth a significant mark-up. But it’s fair to question the value of the markup above and beyond the wholesale price of the basic hearing instrument components.

The hearing industry for the most part remains stuck in a very old distribution model which has restricted growth and shut off affordable options for a large segment of potential buyers in need of hearing assistance. Today most hearing aids are sold by audiologists who charge a single price for the hearing instrument and the service they provide. They give you a hearing test and fit you with hearing aids that meet your specific needs. Their invoice most often does not include line items for the cost of the hearing test, for the ear molds, for the hearing instrument, or for follow-up service. If it did, you would see there’s a lot of cost built into the time they put into helping you out. If you don’t need much help, they make a lot of money. If you are a difficult case requiring a lot of adjustments, they make less. This model worked well until recently. But now, digital technologies are making many more options available for people with different kinds of hearing loss. Open-fit designs mean many consumers don’t need an earmold fitting, and good digital amplification is making it possible for many people to get the hearing assistance they need from low-cost manufacturers selling direct, over the counter. One manufacturer, Songbird Hearing, is even offering disposable hearing aids that you can buy direct from their web site to address mild hearing loss, without a hearing test if you sign a medical waiver.

The big established manufacturers hate the idea of hearing aids being sold over the internet or over the counter. They would like to protect a business model that protects high margins for increasingly low-cost technologies by restricting availability to the audiology channel. That way they can maintain quality control and customer satisfaction by ensuring customers get the right product, the right programming and a good fit. They also need healthy gross profit margins to fund research on new technology, especially better software for digital sound processing. But unfortunately that business model also keeps prices high and hearing assistance out of reach for many consumers who simply can’t afford it. I’m a big believer in the value audiologists provide as part of the hearing industry supply chain. However, I think they will have to start publishing more detailed pricing for their services as well as for the products they provide. Competition from direct-to-the-consumer vendors will force them to. However, the competition won’t put them out of business, and won’t eliminate the premium end of the market. It’s okay to charge for valuable service, but customers should know what they are paying for.

And have no doubt customers will continue to spend for hearing assistance, especially when the industry makes it easier to buy exactly what you want at affordable prices. As the big established brands and new and established distribution channels offer a broader range of prices, products, services and solutions, the market will start expanding as fast as it should be, given the demographic increase in hearing loss. Everyone will win: the manufacturers, audiologists and other resellers will continue to make money, and, most important, more consumers will hear better.