Company announcement No 2010-01 1 February 2010
Oticon's leadership in premium hearing care enforced by the launch of Oticon
Agil, a next generation wireless high-end hearing solution
Oticon introduces the most advanced signal processing concept ever with the
launch of Oticon Agil, a new second-generation wireless Premium hearing
instrument family. The new product family defines a new approach to hearing care
by taking speech understanding in noise to a new level using significantly
reduced cognitive efforts.
The global launch of Agil in early March 2010 will be the most comprehensive
introduction from Oticon to date, addressing the widest range of hearing losses
and style preferences in one product brand and offering an extensive range of
premium features and end-user benefits:
Exquisite speech understanding in noise
The cognitive efforts necessary to understand speech are significantly reduced,
leaving more mental energy to reflect, remember and respond
Audio through wireless technology is improved for open fittings and enhanced
with 3D listening
New audiological concepts: Speech Guard, Spatial Sound 2.0 and Connect [+]
New RISE II processing platform with twice the calculation power of RISE
New very cosmetically attractive miniRITE style - 30% smaller than Epoq
New Power CIC allowing users with severe hearing losses to be fitted with a very
small custom solution
Highly flexible RITE speaker solution covering mild to severe losses with the
same instrument
Two ranges: Oticon Agil and Oticon Agil Pro
Most comprehensive style and fitting range launched in one brand: RITE/RITE
Power, BTE/BTE Power, CIC/CIC Power and other custom styles and fitting options
Fully ConnectLine-compatible
Three new audiological concepts in Oticon Agil are designed to preserve the
natural characteristics of speech, while enriching the sound quality to enable
the brain to use fewer of its resources for listening purposes. As a result, the
end-user should have more residual energy for other important tasks such as full
social interaction.
Spatial Sound 2.0 maintains natural acoustic cues, which the brain needs to
organise the sound environment. Speech Guard preserves the fine modulation and
details of the signal even in environments where sound levels change rapidly or
where audibility of soft sounds would be a challenge to conventional compression
systems. Connect [+] enhances the perception of bass or low frequencies by
adding depth and spatial quality, while the user listens to streamed music.
The family will be released in two price points, Oticon Agil Pro and Oticon
Agil, covering a wide range of needs in the market for premium hearing care.
"With Oticon Agil, we have virtually improved all the advanced features already
available in Oticon Epoq. Our almost three years of everyday experience with
wireless audiology and connectivity has given us valuable insights enabling us
to bring forward a significantly better hearing solution. For William Demant
Holding, I expect Oticon Agil to be a important driver of growth and market
share gains," says Niels Jacobsen, President & CEO of William Demant Holding.
In connection with the upcoming US hearing aid convention AudiologyNOW! (AAA),
which takes place in San Diego, California, from 14 through 17 April 2010, the
Group plans to host a presentation for investors, analysts and journalists. Our
event will take place on Thursday 15 April 2010 at 3:00pm
(local time) at San
Diego Marriott Hotel and Marina, located next to the San Diego Convention
Center. The presentation is expected to last two hours and will provide
participants with more insight into Oticon Agil and other products from the
Group as well as an update on the hearing aid industry. To sign up for the
presentation, please contact Tine Ribergaard at +45 3913 8366 or tij@demant.dk
Further information:
Phone +45 3917 7100
www.demant.com
Contact:
Niels Jacobsen, President & CEO
Other contacts:
Stefan Ingildsen, VP Finance and IR
Søren B. Andersson, IR Manager
Appendix - Insight information on Oticon Agil
With Oticon Agil, Oticon makes another significant leap in its pursuit to create
audiology that complies with the natural processing of the human auditory
system (brain and ears). The acknowledged concept of Oticon's wireless products
to preserve naturally occurring spatial cues, which conventional hearing aids
risk neglecting, has now been enhanced with an equally groundbreaking concept
called Speech Guard. The compelling fact about Speech Guard is that it preserves
speech cues better than any other known technology in any situation. Signal
fidelity (sound quality) is of the essence, and conventional compression systems
and the use of frequency-lowering strategies are examples of manipulation that
distorts and corrupts signal fidelity.
Speech Guard is based on a whole new wireless platform with twice the
calculation power of
Oticon Epoq and a new processing kernel that is unique to
Oticon Agil. With this scale of processing power, a whole new type of signal
processing becomes available where signal fidelity (sound quality) is preserved
to an extent never seen before.
Researchers have long been aware that preserving as much of the original signal
as possible is key to reducing the listening effort and thus revolutionising
speech intelligibility. Apart from speech understanding, researchers identify
listening effort as the next important area of improvement for the hearing
impaired. Listening effort relates directly to the cognitive competence, and
hence the ability to be socially active. In essence, this is what Oticon Agil
brings within reach. It takes speech understanding to a new level and at the
same time takes the hard work out of listening and understanding.
In Oticon Agil, significant enhancements of the Spatial Sound concept are also
found with the introduction of Spatial Sound 2.0. With the addition of a spatial
noise management system, Oticon has increased product performance in the spatial
domain, confirming its leadership by utilising wireless technology to create
true end-user value. This is also confirmed when it comes to streaming of audio
with two new audio features specifically directed at creating a natural
listening experience. Oticon Agil is 100% ConnectLine compatible.
Oticon Agil covers hearing losses of up to 110 dB. From the time of launch, the
family will be available in BTE/BTE Power, RITE/RITE Power, CIC/CIC Power and a
choice of other custom styles as well as fitting options. The "jewel in the
crown" is the new miniRITE style, which is 30% smaller than Epoq, fully wireless
and invisible behind the ear. It comes in three output levels from mild
to
Power and naturally encompasses all the new audiological advances.
About the name
Agil comes from the Latin word agilis or agile in English. Defined as flexible,
energetic, smart,
capable and active, agile also refers to many other positive
personal skills. The key outcome of
the advanced audiology in Oticon Agil is
more mental energy to enable the user to take an active part and be more agile
in conversations.
