- In this video, I'm gonna teach you the best way
to maximize speech understanding
in a complex listening situation.
Coming up.
(funky music)
Hi guys, Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem Arizona,
and on this channel,
I cover a bunch of hearing related information
to help make you a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
make sure you hit that subscribe button,
and don't forget to click the bell
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If you're like everyone else with hearing loss,
you likely struggle in complex listening situations,
like background noise, reverberation,
and even an increased distance
between you and the person talking to you.
Now hearing aids have come a long way
when it comes to improving your ability
to perform in these listening situations.
Everything from the use of noise reduction algorithms,
to directional microphones.
You even have remote clip on microphones, and telecoils.
The main goal of these technological innovations
is to improve your signal to noise ratio,
which is the difference between the sounds
that you don't wanna hear,
and the sounds that you do wanna hear.
The larger that difference,
the better you're gonna hear in that situation.
Think of signal to noise ratio like this,
imagine that you're in a restaurant
that isn't very busy, with only a few friends.
You may find yourself
with a favorable signal to noise ratio,
of let's say plus plus 15 decibels.
This means that the voice of your friend that is talking
is 15 decibels louder than the sound of the noise
that is in the restaurant,
which means that you will likely have
very little difficulty
understanding what one of your friends are saying.
On the other hand, imagine that you're in a restaurant
that is very busy, and you're with a large table of friends.
In this situation, you may find yourself
with a signal to noise ratio of only plus two decibels,
which means that the voice of a friend
that is speaking to you
is only two decibels louder than that surrounding noise.
This would result in more difficulty
understanding your friends,
and could even result in not being able to engage
in conversation with your friends at all.
Without a doubt the absolute best way
to maximize your ability to understand speech
in a complex situation, like a noisy restaurant,
or a big room with a bad echo, or over a long distance,
is to use an assisted listening device.
Why, because the best hearing aids in the world
can get you a five decibel improvement
in signal to noise ratio, but an assisted listening device
can get you up to 15 decibels
in signal to noise ratio improvement.
And Phonak, today's video sponsor,
manufactures some of the absolute best
assisted listening devices out there,
that have the ability to dramatically improve
your ability to understand speech
in those situations that I just mentioned.
Take the Roger Pen for instance.
This accessory is my favorite assisted listening device
for several reasons.
1st, it lets you connect directly to a phone,
so you can stream phone calls
into both of your hearing aids.
2nd, you can use it as a table microphone
that can pick up the voices
of the individuals at your table,
without picking up as much of the noise
that might be around you.
3rd, you can pick it up and point it
at an individual person that you want to hear,
separating their voice from other voices
that are around you, even if you're in a noisy location.
4th, you can hang it around the neck of another person,
and it will send their voice
directly into your hearing aids,
removing difficulty if you need to hear someone
at a distance, or in close proximity,
while in a noisy environment.
5th, you can connect it to your television,
and stream that audio into both of your hearing aids,
while anyone else in the room
can listen to the TV at their desired level.
And 6th, you can connect it to a device like a phone,
to stream music and other audio directly into your ears.
Another option that they have is the Roger Select.
The Roger Select is a versatile microphone,
ideal for stationary situations
where background noise is present.
It's MultiBeam Technology
uses six different directional microphones
to calculate and compare speech,
from 360 degrees, allowing it to automatically select
the direction that has the best signal to noise ratio.
It will then take this sound
and send it directly into your hearing aids.
It can also be worn as a lapel microphone
to pick up the voice of a single person,
either in close proximity to you, or at a distance.
Like the Roger Pen, you can also connect it to your TV,
so you can send the sound directly into your hearing aids,
while allowing others to listen to the TV
at their desired volume,
and one of the coolest features of the Rogers Select
is your ability to select which direction
you wanna pick up sound from.
So you can control which conversation
you want to be a part of,
if more than one conversation is going on at the same time.
Then you have the Roger Table Mic II,
which is a microphone that's dedicated
for working adults who participate in various meetings.
Multiple table mics can be wirelessly tethered together
to pick up the voices around a meeting table,
automatically switching between each meeting participant,
and sending their voices directly into your ears.
You can also use it to stream audio
from other multimedia, like a computer,
or even use it with a conference call.
Now these Roger devices do work
with a variety of different hearing aid
and cochlear implant brands
that are currently on the market.
But one of the coolest things about them
is that you can directly connect them
with a Phonak Audeo Marvel hearing aid,
starting in the fall of 2019.
Now how they are able to fit a Roger receiver
inside of a device this small, I have no idea.
But what you're gonna be able to do in the fall of 2019
is actually have that Roger receiver activated
inside of your device.
That means that when you use one of these Roger accessories,
you're gonna be able to send
that audio directly into your hearing aids,
without using any kind of an intermediary device.
This means no more neck loops,
this means no more extended battery doors
with the receivers in them,
because these receivers are already installed
inside of the Marvel hearing aids.
When I got a sneak peek of this direct link
in my recent trip to Phonak headquarters,
the wireless connection was crystal clear,
and even better than I expected.
At the end of the day, I tell all of my patients
that if they wanna maximize their ability
to understand speech in a complex listening situation,
then great hearing aids programmed perfectly
is a great start, but if you wanna take it over the top,
you have to use an assisted listening device.
So now you know if your hearing aids just aren't enough,
then assisted listening devices
can dramatically improve the way
that you hear in these complex situations.
You just have to be willing to use them.
That's it for this video, if you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you liked it, please share it,
and if you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
I'll see ya next time.
(happy electronic music)