All nonlinear hearing instruments change gain as the input level changes. However, the control over the timing of these changes is key. Historically, hearing care professionals have had to choose between slow acting and fast acting systems, invariably making compromises to the quality or clarity of the speech signal.
Traditional approaches to compression can cause some information in the speech signal to get lost or distorted. Speech Guard E controls the dynamic properties of Oticon’s multichannel nonlinear hearing instruments, applying gain and compression in a way that is designed to fully preserve the details of the speech waveform.
What makes Speech Guard E unique is the ability to monitor the speech signal in two ways:
-
One system focuses on the long-term, on-going level of the speech signal
-
A second system looks for changes in sound level that occur quickly and are beyond the normal changes in the speech signal
Inium Sense provides the power to take these two sets of inputs and drive changes in gain. The goal is to provide stable amplification across the broadest bandwidth possible, yet still respond appropriately to the full, natural dynamic range of the signal in complex environments.
The gain of the instrument is determined by the long-term average of the speech signal in the environment. However, any time there’s a change in signal conditions outside the normal dynamic properties of a stable speech signal, the system is temporarily managed by the rapid response gain adjustment system.