Assisted Listening

Amplicom Enters North American Market With PowerTel 500 Amplified Phone For Consumers Who Need Hearing Assistance

Amplicom, the German supplier of amplified telephones and other assistive listening devices (ALDs) for hard-of-hearing consumers, has entered the North American market with first shipments of its family of PowerTel corded and cordless amplified phones. Amplicom USA, based in New York, said the new phones meet the Telecommunications Industry Association’s TIA-1083 hearing-aid compatibility standard and are among the few amplified phones to offer DECT 6.0 technology, the interference-free frequency that is standard in Europe but only recently being widely adopted in North America.

The initial entry in the product line, the PowerTel 500, is a cordless handset with hands-free speakerphone, caller ID, and a large two-line illuminated display. It provides amplified volume of up to 50 dB and offers five frequency settings. Featuring Amplicom’s yourSOUND technology, the PowerTel unit has settings on the PowerTel unit that can be adjusted and set for multiple hearing profiles, enabling each member of the household can switch to his or her own preferred volume and frequency.

Suggested retail for the PowerTel 500 is $139.95. Amplicom also said it will soon start shipping the PowerTel 501, an expandable handset that works with all cordless base PowerTel phones, for $89.95, as well as a series of combination telephone and answering machines. It enters a competitive but by no means crowded market for amplified phones, including other vendors such as Clarity Products and ClearSounds.

Phonak Dynamic Soundfield Technology Turns The Classroom Into A Giant Hearing Aid

Soundfield classroom amplification systems have improved the education and lives of thousands of schoolchildren who otherwise would miss valuable instruction simply because they cannot hear their teachers well enough to understand what they are teaching. Now Phonak has put its vast experience designing hearing aids to use with a next-generation soundfield system featuring a 12-speaker array that reduces echoing and reverberation and automatically adjusts frequency and volume levels to achieve optimum signal-to-noise ratios in changing listening environments.  The new Phonak Dynamic Soundfield system essentially turns the entire classroom into a giant hearing aid that can dramatically improve comprehension and learning.

Classroom amplification systems have been around a long time, as have FM-based systems transmitting the teacher’s voice into headsets or hearing aids worn by individual hard-of-hearing students. But the experience of users varies tremendously depending on the placement and quality of speakers, the quality of the microphones and amplifiers, and the acoustics of the classroom itself. The drawbacks of earlier systems were so pronounced that the Acoustical Society of America found that “improperly maintained microphones and loudspeakers or poor user skills can cause even poorer speech communication than no amplification system.” In other words, amplifying unintelligible noise only makes voices that much more unintelligible.

But long-term studies have indicated that amplification and other forms of assistance in the classroom can dramatically improve learning The Mainstream Amplification Resource Room Study (MARRS), which found that “significant educational instruction effects can be achieved by sound field amplification” and that “these gains can be cost effectively realized within the regular classroom without the need for stigmatizing labeling and segregation as well as expensive and scheduling complications of special class placement.”

Phonak’s Dynamic Soundfield system addresses the reverberation and echoing that makes comprehension more difficult with amplification by its array of directional speakers that automatically adjust frequency and volume settings to the acoustics of the room to reduce rather than increase reverberation. Years of research into how directional microphones in hearing aids can achieve a higher signal-to-noise ratio to make voices easier to understand in difficult listening environments have been applied to the acoustical problems amplifying a teacher’s voice in a noisy classroom.

The new Phonak Soundfield system is also the first to operate simultaneously in multiple modes, permitting the teacher to broadcast directly through a Phonak inspiro FM transmitter to individual students wearing headsets or hearing aids while broadcasting to the rest of the class over the amplified system. The new system also is “future proof,” providing flexible integration with standard computer and audio systems, and eliminates interference issues through automatic frequency hopping, allowing the Dynamic Soundfield to co-exist alongside a school’s WiFi and Bluetooth networks.

ReSound Alera Hearing Aids Provide Wireless Connectivity To TV And Mobile Phones

GN ReSound’s new flagship family of Alera hearing aids will provide wireless connectivity directly with mobile phones and television sets equipped with ReSound’s new Unite assistive listening device (ALD) accessories.

Like other new wireless ALD accessories from Widex and other hearing-aid manufacturers, the ReSound Unite accessories eliminate the need for transmission through the hearing aid’s telecoil from a neckloop attached to the transmitter. And because the new ReSound Alera hearing aids communicate with the Unite accessories at 2.4 gigahertz, they eliminate the interference and delays sometimes experienced with slower wireless transmission speeds used by other manufacturers.

The ReSound Alera hearing aids use wireless technology effectively to make the user’s life easier in a variety of ways. ReSound Unite TV is a small transmitter box that attaches to the television and transmits audio from the TV directly into the hearing aids. The ReSound Unite Phone Clip is a small device with a microphone that syncs with your mobile phone and transmits the caller’s voice directly into your hearing aids. And the ReSound Unite Remote Control hand-held unit gives users push-button control of their hearing aids to manage volume controls and program settings.

The ReSound Alera hearing aids also integrate other advanced features, including:

• ReSound SurroundSound, a sound-shaping system that optimizes amplification for understanding speech, reduces amplification of unwanted noise with personalization options in seven different environments, and suppresses feedback.
• iSolate™ nanotech coating, which covers all elements of the hearing aids with a thin protective layer that bonds at a molecular level with the internal and external components, so that liquids or moisture coming into contact with any element of the hearing aids will simply roll off without being absorbed.
• And for audiologists, the ReSound Airlink wireless fitting technology, a simple plug-in to a personal computer’s USB port that communicates wirelessly with the client’s hearing aids, enables adjustments to the hearing aid programs without being tethered wires.

The new ReSound Alera hearing aids were announced at the American Academy of Audiology Conference in April, and ReSound said first shipments would start in June. The company’s web site, however, still says the new hearing aids are “coming soon,”so they may not be widely available just yet. But when the Aleras do arrive they will signal GN ReSound’s continuing commitment to innovation as a standalone company, following the saga of its brush with acquisition by Sonova in 2007, a transaction stymied by a German antitrust court. The restriction on the sale was reversed on appeal in April, but by then both Sonova and ReSound parent GN Store Nord announced they would not pursue the transaction, with GN restating its commitment to the ReSound brand and affirmingit had “no concrete plans” to sell the unit.

With FDA’s Blessing, New Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids And Personal Sound Amplifiers Promise To Disrupt Global Hearing Industry

Improvements in technology and performance have enabled a new class of over-the-counter hearing aids and personal sound amplifiers to gather momentum in the global hearing-aid market. A new breed of manufacturers is bypassing traditional distribution channels with products that have the potential to dramatically change the price/performance equation and disrupt the traditional ways hearing-aid manufacturers have done business around the world.

In the U.S., the powerful Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates hearing aids, has given this new class of of devices its blessing with a new name–Personal Sound Amplifier Products (PSAPs)–and a new set of guidelines for consumers who may want to buy and use them. It has also opened the door for a new class of over-the-counter hearing aids, sold directly to the consumer without the assistance of an audiologist.

The new products cost hundreds of dollars, versus the thousands of dollars that most name-brand hearing aids cost today. They are easy to acquire over the internet or through the mail. And they have the potential to start meeting the entry-level requirements of the largest market of consumers who need hearing assistance–the swelling ranks of fifty- and sixty-something baby boomers who are gradually losing some hearing and in need of mild-to-moderate hearing assistance.

Everyone has seen ads for low cost hearing assistance devices on late-night TV or in the back of the Sunday newspaper, but until recently they had little impact on the hearing-aid industry and even less on customers in need of true hearing assistance. Simple amplification doesn’t do the trick for most people who need to hear better in various situations, especially in challenging listening environments such as restaurants and at work. So while these low-cost sound amplifiers promise to solve your hearing problems, they often fail to perform as promised.

Until recently, there was no mistaking personal sound amplifiers for true hearing aids–sophisticated devices that often cost thousands of dollars, but which provide finely tuned correction to hearing impairments. True hearing aids provide digital sound processing tuned to the user’s hearing-loss profile along with features such as directional microphones, feedback cancellation and noise suppression. But as digital signal processors and other components have gotten more powerful and less expensive, it’s become easier to come up with alternatives to traditional hearing aids that do many of the same things just as well at a fraction of the cost.

Now a few manufacturers are taking the plunge with a new class of devices, sold over the counter rather than through audiologists, that look and feel just like the newest open-fit digital hearing aids from established hearing-aid manufacturers. These higher-end sound amplifiers cost several hundred dollars each, versus the cheaper sound amplifiers that often cost well under $100. But they are fully functional digital hearing aids with many features previously found only in high-end hearing aids costing thousands of dollars each.

The FDA spent a long time struggling with how to regulate hearing aids and sound amplifiers. There is no doubt some level of medical oversight is warranted, because if you over-amplify the sound going into your ears, you can damage your hearing. Just ask any physician dealing with a 20-something patient coping with self-inflicted hearing loss from extended iPod over-amplification. For years the FDA has required manufacturers to get its approval for hearing aids designed to rectify hearing loss in patients, to ensure the devices work without doing additional harm. Therefore it classified hearing aids as medical devices that audiologists would need to prescribed and fit for patients with medically diagnosed hearing problems.

But problems arose in accurately defining what kind of hearing assistance device would be a “hearing aid,” and what other kinds of devices could be sold over the counter without a prescription. Because the foundation technology of a hearing aid is so simple–basically a speaker and a microphone–you could call any amplification device a hearing aid. Radio Shack, for instance, for years has sold a two-by-three-inch microphone with amplifier that you can use with a set of cheap plug-in ear buds and hear much better than you could before. It’s the same technology as the body-worn hearing aids worn fifty years ago. But today you would be hard-pressed to define it as a hearing aid subject to regulation by the FDA.

The FDA finally settled on a definition of hearing aids as any devices whose specific purpose is to rectify medically diagnosed hearing impairments, whereas PSAPs, or personal sound amplification products, are devices used to amplify hard-to-hear environmental sounds for people with perfectly normal hearing:

PSAPs are intended to amplify environmental sound for non-hearing impaired consumers. They are not intended to compensate for hearing impairment. Examples of situations in which PSAPs typically are used include hunting (listening for prey), bird watching, listening to lectures with a distant speaker, and listening to soft sounds that would be difficult for normal hearing individuals to hear (e.g., distant conversations, performances). Because PSAPs are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or mitigate disease and do not alter the structure or function of the body, they are not devices as defined in the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. As such, there is no regulatory classification, product code, or definition for these products. Furthermore, there are no requirements for registration of manufacturers and listing of these products with FDA. (From Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff: Regulatory Requirements for Hearing Aid Devices and Personal Sound Amplification Products, Feb. 25, 2009)

Clarifying the definition of hearing-aid devices meeting users’ needs for hearing enhancement rather than hearing correction opens the floodgates for technology and market innovators. For instance, Cabela’s, the hunting and outdoor supply store, sells behind-the-ear and in-the-ear devices developed by Walker’s Game Ear which integrate sophisticated hearing aid technology that enhances as well as protects the hunter’s hearing. It amplifies the slightest sounds of the forest to help the hunter listen for prey, but instantaneously shuts down when a shotgun fires, protecting the hunter from the noise of the blast, which otherwise can seriously damage hearing. Prices for the Walker’s Game Ear products range from under $200 to more than $600.

The FDA has also clarified regulations on the fitting and distribution of hearing aids it has approved for sale. While it very strongly recommends that consumers get a medical evaluation and hearing test before purchasing either a hearing aid or a personal sound amplification product, it allows them to purchase hearing aids without a medical consult if they sign a simple waiver form:

A prospective hearing aid user must provide to the hearing aid dispenser a written statement from a licensed physician that the prospective user has been medically evaluated and is a candidate for a hearing aid. This evaluation must occur within 6 months prior to the date of purchase of the hearing aid. If 18 years of age or older, the prospective user may waive this requirement for medical evaluation provided that the prospective user signs a waiver statement under the conditions outlined in this regulation. (From Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff…)

Credible manufacturers are emerging who offer fully functional digital hearing aids directly to consumers costing hundreds, not thousands, of dollars. Songbird Hearing, utilizing digital signal processing technology originally developed at the famed Sarnoff Labs in New Jersey, has a line of hearing aids available over the internet. Its Flexfit ($179.90) and Ultra ($269.90) hearing aids offer people with mild to moderate hearing loss good sound processing and enough amplification to help hear the TV and get along better at a noisy dinner table, with the Ultra offering high-end features such as feedback cancellation, noise reduction and a button for four “Sound Boost” settings. Its Flexfit Disposable offers 400 hours of hearing for $79.90, at which point you just order another; it’s good for occasional users who will get many months of use out of the device and don’t want to bother replacing batteries. (We’ve just acquired an Ultra and will be reviewing its performance in Hearing Mojo in the near future).

For higher-end users, America Hears offers premium-performance hearing aids at less than half the cost of hearing aids from the leading manufacturers. America Hears hearing aids use top-end digital signal processors, advanced sound processing software, and include all the advanced features high-end hearing-aid users expect. We’ve written about America Hears before and have tested their products, and found them to be as good as the leading name-brand manufacturers. America Hears requires a recent audiogram that’s been administered by an audiologist or certified fitter, but programs the hearing aids at the factory to your unique specifications. It then ships them directly to you along with a programming kit that you can use to fine-tune the aids yourself, or download changes you want from the America Hears audiologists who will make the programming adjustments for you. America Hears hearing aids range from approximately $800 to $1,300 each, well under half the price of comparable products from leading brands.

These products and others like them have the potential to unleash the growth potential of the global hearing-aid market, which has been stuck with single-digit growth over the past decade even as demographic changes would lead you to expect much higher growth rates. Lower costs and better technology and products add up to a disruptive force that has the potential to dramatically change the structure and growth outlook of the global hearing industry.

At Hearing Mojo we intend to follow the markets for over-the-counter hearing aids and personal sound amplifier products as closely as we follow traditional manufacturers’ products. We will look at all the announcements we see and try our best to determine which products come from credible manufacturers with good technology.

Able Planet’s Noise-Canceling Headphones Introduce True Hearing-Aid Technology To Consumer Electronics Industry

Able Planet has been around a long time developing assistive listening products for the hearing-assistance industry based on its Linx Audio sound processing technology. But recently it has taken on a new look with a high-profile branding campaign and a new, broad line of high-end noise-canceling headphones, earphones and accessories attacking the heart of the consumer electronics market. At the AudiologyNOW! conference they stood out with a booth promoting “I Am Able” professional athletes who endorse their products, and they were showing new headphones and headsets that are successfully competing head-to-head with Bose and other popular high-end brands.

I caught up with Able Planet’s CEO Kevin Semcken and Chief Audiology Officer Dr. Christoper Schweitzer. Both have vast experience in the health care, medical device and hearing-aid industries. But what stood out for me is their commitment and savvy about what high-end audio consumers are looking for, and how previously arcane hearing-aid technologies such as digital signal processing will play an essential role in consumer electronics. By integrating Linx Audio into all its headphones and headsets, and promoting the technology as its critical advantage, Able Planet is distinguishing itself as one of the very few companies driving high-end hearing technology into mainstream products.

Able Planet’s noise-canceling headphones are head-to-head competitive with Bose, the gold-standard in noise-canceling headphones. Don’t ask me, ask CNET, which did a review of one of Able Planet’s earliest noise-canceling headphones as long ago as 2007 and said that it provided better noise suppression than Bose and an equally rich if not superior listening experience. The only negative in the review is that Able Planet wasn’t a known consumer brand and therefore would have a difficult time overtaking Bose, even with a better product.

Able Planet will continue to differentiate its products by providing value-added features that enable users to customize their listening experience — with what Dr. Schweitzer calls “chameleon-like” digital platforms that are easily modified based on the user’s unique hearing profile. Things as simple as plug-replaceable cords that can provide volume control, left-right balance and equalization adjustments can make all the difference for a boomer suffering unequal levels of hearing loss in one or both ears. Able Planet is also looking at ear-cup sizes that can accommodate behind-the-ear hearing aids on certain models. And it is working on wireless technologies that will enhance the chameleon capabilities of its products even more in the future.

I’ve used headphones from Sony, Sennheiser, Bose and others. Each has its advantages and all provide pretty good sound. But none of the brands has ever made me feel they are focused enough on people with mild or severe hearing impairments to give me any comfort that they are developing products that will continue to meet my needs better and better as new hearing-enhancement technologies become available.

The traditional hearing-industry leaders are no better, by and large choosing to focus on a narrow market of hearing-impaired patients served by audiologists rather than aggressively pushing new products into consumer channels. There is no doubt that within the hearing-aid industry there is enough mind-blowing new technology which, if packaged and promoted properly, could change the landscape of consumer electronics. It continues to amaze me that, as the baby boomer generation continues to lose its hearing at predictable rates, so few manufacturers are positioning themselves to meet the needs of high-end consumers of electronic products who need better and more intelligible sound. By showing up at AudiologyNOW! positioning itself to serve that broad space between high-tech hearing aids and high-end consumer electronics, Able Planet is showing that it “gets it.” Let’s see how many others in the industry follow their lead.

Hearing Aid Technology Is Finally Going To Work In Hearing Protection Market

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.

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.

Peltor Headset Communicates Safely Even In Noisiest Environments

A tree came down in our yard this week prompting a visit from our treeman, Conor Gleeson. Something was different this time: in addition to their usual safety helmets, Conor and his crew each were sporting a pair of bulky two-way communication headphones.

I’ve seen them with hearing protectors in the past, because the noise of a high-speed wood chipper combined with several chain saws running at once can ruin your hearing in no time. But the new gear went way beyond hearing protection. Conor said he’d been saving up for a while and gotten the Rolls Royce of two-way communications and hearing protection systems from 3M’s Aearo Corp.’s Peltor manufacturing subsidiary. Conor showed me how the headset has an external microphone to catch ambient sound, which he can turn on when the machines are off but shut down for hearing protection when he needs it. A two-way radio connection lets him communicate with up to seven of his employees, replacing his more cumbersome previous setup using hand-held walkie talkies. A sturdy boom mike on a 360-degree hinge avoids snags on branches while letting him communicate even when he is climbing. And a Bluetooth connection to his cell phone lets him stay in touch with customers and juggle work schedules with crews at multiple locations. Conor started his company a few years ago and is in his early 30s. So he is not from the macho generation of tree men who eschewed hard hats and other protective gear as unmanly. He says he’s seen too many of his colleagues in their late 40s and early 50s barely able to work because of their hearing disabilities, even though they are perfectly fit otherwise. You can get fully equipped Peltor headsets in the $500 range, although models with fewer bells and whistles cost considerably less.

‘Hearing-Aid Hacking’ Gives The Inside Word On Assistive-Listening Technology

I just discovered a LiveJournal site called “Hearing-Aid Hacking” which gives great do-it-yourself advice on using assistive listening technologies with hearing aids. It features tips and new technologies from real hearing-aid users, everything from how to work with the direct-audio-input (DAI) connections on your hearings aids (if they have them), to the latest on new Bluetooth technologies (especially for mobile phone users) and on the new bells and whistles that hearing-aid manufacturers seem to constantly announce. Here is the site’s mission statement: “For high end users of hearing aids. We’re frustrated that we’re behind the technology curve and pay huge dollars/pounds/euros for good hearing aids that are unaware of and incompatible with anything resembling recent advances in consumer audio tech. We’re willing to blaze our own path because no one will do it for us until they realize there is money in them thar hills.” If you are a new or experienced hearing-aid user, there is probably something there for you.

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