Accessories

Accessories are devices that work with your hearing instruments to help you hear more effectively. They are optional. They can improve your listening experiences by providing more convenient operation of your hearing instruments, allowing you to connect to external audio sources (like telephones, TV, MP3 players, etc) and helping you become more aware of your surroundings. There are different types of accessories available to enhance your listening experience such as:

•  Specialized accessories – products designed for specific types of hearing loss. For example, if your hearing loss is worse on one side than the other, a CROS or BiCROS system may be recommended for your use. This type of device would send the audio signal received at one ear across to the opposite ear.

• Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) – accessories that help you hear in particular situations (ie. When on the telephone, watching TV, listening in a classroom, or while sleeping). A Pocket talker, FM personal listening system, or TV Ears would be examples of this type of device. Many ALDs are designed to be used without hearing instruments while others (such as FM) may be use with or without hearing instruments.

• Wireless Accessories – While these devices technically are ALDs, these are devices that make adjustments to your hearing aids automatically or that assist with making changes discreetly (such as a remote control) and are more complex than traditional ALDs. Included in this category are devices that allow the user to stream a television or telephone signal (or any other type of digital audio signal) to the individual’s hearing instruments. It's difficult to imagine life without TV, mobile phones, computers, satellite navigators, and a wide range of entertainment systems. Sophisticated wireless accessories utilize Bluetooth technology or megahertz wireless technology to provide users relaxed participation in all the important aspects of modern living. Bluetooth technology is a short-range, wireless, digital communication standard. Devices with Bluetooth technology can carry either audio information or data from one device to another - computers and their peripherals, telephones, entertainment systems, personal digital assistants and more. In achieving connectivity across devices, Bluetooth also eliminates the problems of routing and sorting the many wires, cables, connectors and plugs that would otherwise be needed to link devices. Bluetooth provides agreement across devices at the physical level by using radio frequency transmission in the 2.4-gigahertz ISM (Industrial Scientific Medical) band. It also provides agreement on communication protocols: in order to communicate accurately, devices must agree on the scheduling and packaging of bits of data so they are understood at both ends of the line. When using wireless accessories, the user does not have to wear any devices but the hearing instruments. You can easily handle some of the more difficult listening situations such as watching television, listening to music or using your mobile phone.