Oticon OPN S

Oticon launched their new and improved OPN S hearing aid in Toronto this past weekend. Matthew, Alex and I (Jill) left the comforts of Carleton County and headed west to the big city of Toronto. Launches are always full of information, hype and some fun as well. Matthew and Alex even squeezed in a Raptors Game!

To summarize some of the research and claims:

1. “Breaking a law of Physics” In 1911 a Danish Physicist, Soren Lawson discovered that if you amplified a sound and fed it through a microphone it will cause feedback. Our clients know feedback as that annoying squeal that sometimes happens. Well Oticon has discovered a way to remove feedback before it happens. How cool is that to have broken a law of Physics????? So part of the microchip takes 56, 000 measurements per second and it will detect Feedback, break up the feedback loop in 60 milliseconds and the brain doesn’t even perceive it as it happened so quickly.
2. Proven Speech understanding with less effort in noisy environments. An estimated 15 % increase in speech cues to the brain and speech understanding. This is achieved by offering a little more gain on the high frequencies because we don’t have the risk of feedback anymore.
3. Bold claim of being on par with listening in noisy environments compared to those with no hearing loss. This could be a total game changer for many!
4. An improvement to the OTICON ON App as well , when in a challenging situation you can activate what they are calling the Open Sound Navigator and turn the Boost on. This will decrease the effort needed in groups by +10 % and increase memory recall by +10 % too.  It does this by scanning the environment more than 100 times a second to identify noise and separate it from speech. It will reduce the levels of noise coming from specific directions, while keeping the speech. It will also decrease the remaining noise.
5. At present this technology is only available in the RITE option or BTE option. But I assume the custom will be following shortly. All the research was done on what is called an Open fitting. So that means the RITE or over the ear type of aid with a small open dome on the end of the receiver that goes in to the ear canal. It will be interesting to see if having a mold on the end changes performance.
6. Rechargeable Lithium Ion battery- suppose to last at least 3 years. Fast charging within 3 hours. Nice little light indicator on the hearing aid to show if aid is on and charged etc.
7. Hearing Fitness App – gives hearing aid users advice and encouragement on ways to hear better, protect their hearing and improve their health.
8. Same 2.4 GHz Bluetooth connectivity so you can connect to your cell phone and other devices.
9. They also launched a pediatric version of the OPN S and it is called the OPN Play. All the same advances but in way better colours. So if you are feeling adventurous and want to spice up your wardrobe, you can pick purple, pink, green blue or red hearing aids!

With all of these features, we’re excited to be offering the Oticon OPN S to our clients in Woodstock and Grand Falls, New Brunswick.