Hi-tech hearing help for business meetings

HEARING LOSS is not just an inconvenience. It can impair your ability to work effectively, especially if your job involves negotiation or meetings, where understanding exactly what is happening is crucial to success.

“Ask just about anyone with hearing loss what their biggest problem is and they’ll say ‘hearing speech in conversation’,” says Nathan Gluck, a north London audiologist. “You can’t simply turn down the background noise or conversely turn up the volume of those you want to hear. While socially you might try to avoid these tricky situations, at work it just isn’t possible.

Fortunately, advances in hearing technology mean Gluck can offer sophisticated solutions — hearing aids specially designed to enable the user to hear much better in work situations such as meetings and on the phone — and which also work particularly well at social or networking functions.

In addition to tiny, sensitive hearing aids, there are assistive devices. For example, Phonak makes a small receiver that can be carried in a pocket or bag and then, when needed, discreetly placed on the table, allowing the user to hear each speaker more clearly. It connects to hearing aids wirelessly (using Bluetooth) and has multiple built-in microphones pointing in six directions, providing 360-degree listening, allowing it to detect who is speaking and home in on their voice.

It seamlessly switches between the voices of various speakers and at the same time reduces background noise. If, as often happens at meetings, everyone starts to talk at once, the user can select the person they want to hear at the touch of a button. Tests show that, using this equipment, the understanding of a group conversation is 61 per cent better than with hearing aids alone.

Top-of-the-range hearing aids can also be used via Bluetooth for phone calls and the system is not only for work. It can connect to the TV, music players and computers.

“Instruments like these are lifestylechanging,” says Gluck.

If everyone talks at once, you can tune in selectively’

Nathan Gluck Hearing Care, 0800 781 0422