Innovative technologies further enhance the outstanding speech clarity of Signia AX hearing aids

Patients can often find it extremely challenging to hold conversations in noisy environments such as large conference halls, restaurants, a busy street, and many more situations they may find themselves in throughout the day.

 

Fortunately, Signia has created an innovative way to further enhance the award-winning Augmented Xperience (AX)¹ platform so we can master this real-world challenge comprehensively. As a result, first-time and experienced wearers are more likely to be satisfied with their hearing aids.

Revolutionary split processing for increased satisfaction

Successful hearing relies on the right balance between making speech audible and ensuring that all other sounds are recognizable. Only then can wearers perform at their best. Many environments and situations come with specific challenges. The type of speech, the type of sound, the wearer’s behavior, and each room’s acoustics contribute significantly to the wearer’s ability to hear and perform throughout their day.

 

Signia AX bridges all these variables so wearers can hear and perform brilliantly in every situation. It is based on our proven Augmented Focus™ technology, which splits the signal into different streams and processes them independently of each other with dedicated processors. This brings speech closer to the wearer with unprecedented clarity, while allowing them to still be aware of background sounds comfortably.

 

A recent study confirms that Signia AX is the popular choice:

• 94% of wearers report excellent speech understanding with Signia AX²
• 3 out of 4 wearers experience less listening effort with AX than with their previous hearing aid³

Now, three significant technological advances build on the revolutionary split processing power of Signia AX to deliver an even more powerful experience for hearing aid wearers:

 

Auto EchoShield

This innovative feature adds a new dimension of automated sound control through real-time analysis of the room acoustics in every situation. The result is an excellent hearing experience without irritating echoes, "boominess," or blurred sounds.

 

It works by automatically analyzing the room acoustics and adapting the signal processing accordingly. Hearing aid wearers enjoy a more exquisite listening experience in any room and environment regardless of the quality of the room’s acoustics. This includes homes with high ceilings and tiled floors, large auditoriums, and more. Their experience is comfortable and optimized for increased speech clarity and excellent room perceptions in high and low reverberant environments.

 

Our Auto EchoShield solution builds on the way Signia AX’s split pathway processing separates speech from background noise. Thanks to real-time room analysis, the room acoustics’ contribution to the background noise is assessed and addressed instantly. The result is seamless hearing. Auto EchoShield is always active, addressing different kinds of reverberant rooms so that different environments sound just as engaging as they should but not overwhelming.⁴

 

Signia AX with Auto EchoShield offers: better speech clarity, less listening effort, better room perception (interaction between room and sound), higher overall satisfaction, higher listening comfort, and better perceived speech intelligibility.⁴

 

Own Voice Processing 2.0

 

A unique feature in the hearing aid industry, this individualized algorithm automatically adjusts the sound of the wearer’s own voice independently from all other voices and sounds. Signia pioneered its original Own Voice Processing (OVP) to help hearing aid wearers feel comfortable with the sound of their own voice while wearing hearing aids and thereby accept their new hearing aids more quickly. This is because the wearer’s own voice sometimes sounds different when amplified.

 

The patented split processing technology of Signia AX is the perfect framework to take our ground-breaking OVP technology to a whole new level. When the wearer’s own voice is detected via its unique pathway, our newly developed Own Voice Processing 2.0 fully dedicates one processor to handle that signal, while the other processor controls the acoustic environment. There is absolutely no need to compromise between the two thanks to Own Voice Processing 2.0.

 

In this way, the wearer’s own voice sounds even more natural to prevent any distraction. Wearers perceive their own voice as sounding less loud, leading to more enjoyable conversations. This is possible for both closed and open fittings.

HandsFree for iOS

Our new HandsFree feature lets the hearing aid wearer use their Signia AX hearing aids for hands-free calls via Bluetooth® with their iPhone⁶ in different environments – even in noisy ones. This gives them more freedom to combine mobile phone calls with other activities or to listen to music or podcasts via their hearing aids.

 

By using the split pathway processing of Signia AX, background noise is reduced, allowing the hearing aid wearer to hear clearly what is being said on the phone. And the hearing aid’s built-in microphone lets conversation partners hear the wearer’s voice in high quality.

 

Signia Delivers for you – and your patients.

 

These exciting new features are available with the full range of Signia AX hearing aids, depending on their performance level.⁵ With Signia AX, your ability to help your patients perform at their best in all conversations everywhere just became even more brilliant.

 

 

¹ CES Innovation Awards 2022 Honoree
² Visit signia-pro.com/en-us/claims-data for more details
³ Jensen, Powers, Haag, Lantin, Høydal: Enhancing Real-World Listening and Quality of Life with New Split-Processing Technology (AudiologyOnline, 2021)
⁴ Visit signia-pro.com/en-us/claims-data for more details
⁵ Auto EchoShield is available at performance level 7. Own Voice Processing 2.0 and HandsFree are available at performance levels 7, 5 and 3 in binaural RIC AX fittings. (Insio Charge&Go AX offers Auto EchoShield and HandsFree.)

⁶ HandsFree is available with iPhone 11 or later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5^th and 4^th generation), iPad Pro 11-inch (3rd and 2nd generation), iPad Air (4th generation), and iPad mini (6th generation), with software updates iOS 15.2 and iPadOS 15.2 or later.

 

Apple, the Apple logo and iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S.and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc.