One of the most common complaints for those with hearing loss, is how difficult it can be to understand speech in noisy environments. Most people will experience some difficulty listening to conversations in the presence of background noise, but people with hearing impairment may experience significant difficulty. It can also be especially difficult over longer distances or in the absence of visual clues. While most hearing aids have specialized settings or technology to reduce certain amounts of background noise, this problem can still occur even for those using hearing aids.
That’s where additional accessories come in. While hearing aids come equipped with microphones in the device, there are external hearing aid microphones, which are often referred to as remote or companion microphones, that can help improve performance by maximizing the help hearing aids can provide in the most demanding scenarios. Remote microphone technology can significantly reduce the strains associated with listening at a distance, because the sound is brought directly into the hearing aids from wherever the microphone is placed, negating any reduction in volume and the addition of reverberation or distortion.
Oticon’s ConnectClip is one such example of a companion microphone, and it can transform your OTICON hearing aids into a wireless stereo headset by streaming high-quality sound from your smartphone, tablet, or computer. You can also use it as a remote microphone for clearer conversations in busy places, and to have hands-free calls. It also works as a remote control, so that you can subtly adjust the volume or program as needed.
The ConnectClip allows Oticon users to:
- Listen to someone speaking from a distance using the remote microphone function
- Simply hand the ConnectClip to a speaker at a lecture, or to a friend in a noisy restaurant and experience clear speech directly in your hearing aids
- This will help make it easier to hear in a wide range of challenging listening environments such as:
- Lectures and classrooms
- Places of worship
- Inside a car
- At very noisy restaurants
- Work meeting and presentations
- Make hands-free phone calls and stream music from your smartphone, whether iPhone or Android (especially in cases where it is not convenient or possible to directly connect)
- The device transmits the call to both of your hearing aids, while its built-in microphones pick-up your voice allowing others to hear you
- The noise reduction feature ensures your voice comes through clearly, even if it’s noisy around you
- Speak over the computer via Skype and other platforms
- Adjust your heading aids discreetly using the remote-control function
- Change your volume up or down
- Change program to suit your environment
- Mute hearing aid microphones