Bluetooth

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

GN ReSound Alera Arrives With Wireless Features Setting The Bar Higher For Premium Hearing Aids

The wireless features in the new GN ReSound Alera family of hearing aids, which start shipping this week, are very similar to those found in several other high-end hearing aids already announced by other manufacturers. But, taken together, they help set the bar higher for premium hearing aids and assistive listening devices in general. The only question is how much better the new wireless features will make the new hearing aids from GN ReSound and other manufacturers when users start trying them out in the field.

One of the first things you learn in Marketing 101 is that  ”first,” “best” and “only” are some of the strongest words in the English language. So it’s no surprise that in the increasingly competitive hearing-aid industry, manufacturers are starting to use those words more often. GN ReSound’s news release announcing first shipments of the Alera hearing aids is a good example, claiming the company has come up with “the first truly wireless hearing aid with no strings attached.” The news release goes on to announce “a new approach to the way a hearing aid receives sound from devices such as TVs, stereos, cell phones and computers,” claiming that, “for the first time the patient can receive sound directly from the device without cables, wires or the need to wear uncomfortable accessories.” Read more

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. Read more

Jawbone Bluetooth Cell Phone Headset Is A Hearing Aid In Disguise

Since its introduction late last hear, the Jawbone earpiece for Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones has seemingly taken the world by storm. It is offered in many major consumer electronics outlets as well as at Apple stores as an iPhone companion, by AT&T Wireless and at Best Buy stores. Read more

Bluetooth Hearing-Aid Products Debut

Starkey Laboratories announced its Bluetooth Eli (Ear-Level Instrument) last week in a news release on the Advance for Audiologists website. Read more

Bluetooth Bandwagon Builds Momentum, But Where Are The HOH Products?

Every week it seems we hear of another new product for hard-of-hearing (HOH) consumers utilizing the Bluetooth wireless communications standard. In addition to my post last month on Sound ID, I’ve recently discovered that Starkey Laboratories, Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, Sonomax Hearing Healthcare, and Gennum Corp. are also getting into the act. And I’m sure there are more. My only comment on all these efforts is, “Sounds great, guys, but when will we actually see (and hear) the products?” Read more