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The GN ReSound Alera Hearing Aid Family Sets The Bar High For Next-Generation Wireless Features
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.”
That’s an exciting claim, except for the fact that, at least two other leading manufacturers that I know of have already announced products delivering very similar benefits by streaming wireless audio directly into their hearing aids. The new Widex Clear 440 family of hearing aids provides wireless streaming of cell phone and television signals directly into the hearing aids, without cables or wires, and the Oticon Streamer has been transmitting Bluetooth signals from a distance of up to 20 inches into hearing aids since its introduction along with the Oticon Epoq family of hearing aids in 2007. So it’s worth a close look at how GN ReSound is the “first” or “only.”
- UPDATE (Aug. 9): According to Karen Sams, a marketing representative for GN ReSound (see her comment at the end of this post), the Alera hearing aids’ proprietary 2.4 GHz transmission scheme eliminates the transmission delay that causes echoing and signal degradation in other wireless hearing aid products. It also transmits over longer distances than other hearing aid manufacturers’ wireless products, with the Alera Unite TV streamer broadcasting directly from your television set into your hearing aids — without requiring a second device worn on the body to relay the signal into your hearing aids. Not requiring an intermediary relay streamer is a real advantage that I’ve only seen with the GN ReSound Alera products. Most wireless hearing-aid products still use near-field magnetic induction, transmitting from the streamer through an induction loop into the telecoils in your hearing aids. I’ve experienced widely varying results with wireless induction, especially the signal distortions and delays that GN ReSound says it is solving with the Alera wireless products featuring near-field induction technology. So GN ReSound is backing up its claim to be first to deliver new technology with new user benefits.
However, while bragging rights about who is first may be important for a while, at the end of the day the market will vote for “best.” And on that score it’s clear GN ReSound is in a neck-and-neck competition with other makers of premium-brand hearing aids to lead in delivering new wireless features that will substantially improve the experience of hearing-aid users. In the past, the only way to get audio from an MP3 player or your cell phone or your TV was to either plug them directly into a Direct Audio Interface (DAI) shoe, a clumsy connector at the base of your behind-the-ear hearing aid that wires you directly to the device, or else stream the audio through an induction loop you wear around your neck which transmits through the telecoils in your hearing aids. The new technologies from Widex, Oticon and GN ReSound skip that intermediary step with devices that transmit directly into your hearing aids from distances ranging from 20 inches to more than 20 feet.
The Bluetooth phone streamers are small and have enough range to transmit from within your coat pocket; however, as you need to speak as well as listen, you need to fasten the microphone to your lapel (GN ReSound Unite Phone Clip) or hang the device from your neck (Oticon Streamer) or hold it up and speak into it like any cell phone (Widex M-DEX). The TV streamers are more interesting, with the new GN ReSound Alera’s Unite TV Streamer an impressive product that plugs into the TV and transmits TV audio directly into your hearing aids over a distance of up to 7 meters (23 feet).
So I am looking forward to the marketplace voting on which of the new packages of wireless features from high-end hearing-aid manufacturers is best. Most likely, different brands will meet slightly different sets of needs for different users, who will gravitate to the solutions based on whether they are heavy Bluetooth phone users or whether they watch a lot of TV. In any case, the new wireless technologies are setting the bar a notch higher for all makers of high-end hearing aids, where the market soon will be demanding more and better ways of integrating hearing-aid users with all the listening, communication and entertainment environments they encounter.