Affinity Compact: Features and functions

Hi. I'm Dennis Mistry. I want to show you this wave installation that we have here, which showcases the five different configurations that we have of the Affinity Compact. At each of the stations, I'll highlight to you one of the important features which can help to make your hearing aid fittings easier.

Clean-desk configuration

So here we have the Affinity Compact in its clean-desk configuration. Here you can see that the unit is mounted to the bottom of the table. We call it the clean-desk configuration because we've mounted the hardware and brackets for transducers to the bottom of the table here, and it can be configured for both audiometry and REM setups.

Ambient noise

Now the feature that I want to talk to you about when we're at this station is the ambient noise feature. In the development process, when we were investigating what we wanted to include in the product, and what was a necessity to make the product future-proofed, we realized there were many patients that had complaints that were linked to a poorer audiometry session from the start. And all good hearing aid fittings begin with good audiometry, so we tried to create a solution for this, and that is our ambient noise feature that we see here.

So the ambient noise feature is this section that you see here on the left of the screen. Let's just take a look at the software and what you'll see is a live recording or a live indication of the noise levels in the room, which are being provided by this dedicated microphone that we see at the top here. So the levels that we see and the bars that we've set here are standard.

You can then choose and configure for different transducers as well should you wish to. And if the level is below the indicator or the bar, as you'll see here at 125 hertz, then it will be fine, and we're not working in elevated levels within the environment. If you look at these levels here where they're slightly elevated at 500 and 1000 hertz, the indicator will highlight yellow orange, which means that when I'm testing at these frequencies, if I was to store a threshold and this noise level was to persist then maybe it discredits the quality of that audiometry point, so it may make me want to rethink and re-edit that ahead of storing that point again.

So yeah, this Affinity Compact ambient noise feature helps us to get real good quality audiograms when we're going ahead in our fittings.

Desk-based configuration

So here we have the second configuration of the Affinity Compact, and this configuration is the desk-based Affinity Compact which has an outward-facing speaker, so it can sit in this position. This device can be configured to perform audiometry and Real Ear Measurement.

High-frequency amplification

And what I want to show you here at this configuration is actually that we followed a trend in the development phase of what the hearing aid industry was doing. And one of the main trends that they're following is to increase the bandwidth to amplify up to higher frequencies, and this is beneficial for a few reasons:

1. Better naturalness perception
2. Better music appreciation
3. Better ability of directionalization

So if you are in a space to localize where the sound is coming from. We felt that this is a trend that we needed to capture in our hardware both to make it more functional and also future-proof. And to do this we've improved the microphones in our REM headset, and also the speaker technology for the forward-facing rem speaker here, so we've got better microphones to measure up into higher frequencies, and also better loudspeakers that allow us to stimulate into these higher frequencies as well.

So let's see how this translates into our software. Here we can see our measurement - one that I performed earlier, and we have a nice measurement response all the way across the frequency domain. We can see here that we're measuring above eight kilohertz and into twelve and a half kilohertz, and it's not only this frequency increase that we're seeing an improvement for, but actually these slightly lower high frequencies that we see here have a better measurement response, and sustainability, and preservation of the actual measurement signal because the measurement microphone does measure into these higher frequencies.

This is a really important point, especially considering the measurement reliability comparing the system to systems that do not measure into these high frequencies as well.

Wall-mounted configuration

So here we are in our third configuration and the hardware configuration here is exactly the same as what I showed you before on the desk-mounted configuration. However, the difference is that we've mounted this to the wall. So this system here can do audiometry and/or Real Ear Measurements.

Delta values

In this configuration, I'd like to show you the delta values feature, which is something that we've developed to help you to match hearing aids to target when you're doing your fine-tuning and fittings.

The delta values feature helps you to compare your measurement curve in relation to your target. And actually the software is working out the difference for you between that measurement curve and the target so, you know exactly how much you need to alter your hearing aid software by to get a target match. So here at 1.1 kilohertz we can see that this is negative one decibel, meaning that the measurement curve is below the target by one decibel. And for the values that show positive values of the delta value, then it means that the measurement is above target, and an absolute target match is where you hit a zero db level.

Of course, a target match and a quicker location of the target match is your starting point to your fitting, and once you've attained this then you can go ahead and fit the hearing aid and counsel the patient further with extra fine-tuning.

Open test box

So here we are in the fourth configuration of the Affinity Compact, and this is the open test box Affinity Compact. This device allows you to perform audiometr, real ear measurements, and coupler fitting of hearing aids.

"Listen to"

The feature that I want to describe to you or explain at this station is called "listen to". Now when you're fitting hearing aids and you're trying to understand the patient's feedback along with what you can see on the test screen, it can sometimes be difficult to fully understand what the patient's trying to explain or convey.

This feature allows you to use the monitor headset here and listen directly into the measurement microphone. This could be either on-ear measurements or in-the-coupler measurements, and this will allow you to use that subjective feedback better to get to the desired hearing aid fitting quicker.

It also has a second application, and this is where you can use this monitor headset and give this to the patient's support. And this helps to involve them in the hearing aid fitting process much more in depth and explain and perform that counselling in a much better way. Especially when you're trying to explain the benefits of different hearing aids.

Full and complete version of the Affinity Compact

So here we are in the fifth and final configuration of Affinity Compact. This allows you to configure it to perform audiometry, Real Ear Measurement and Hearing Instrument Testing. And you can also perform coupler hearing aid fitting in the test box.

Hearing aid transition

At this station, I want to show you the hearing aid transition feature and this is something that we discovered, or we created whilst doing the development phase of the Affinity Compact. And it supports the scenario where you have a patient that's attending your clinic for the first time, but they already have hearing aids, and yet, you've never seen them before.

So this tool, and this feature can allow you to upgrade your patient to newer technology, but actually record and copy the audibility settings that they like from their existing hearing aid. This is really nice also when trying to upgrade the patient, but also when trying to keep the settings they like and also to understand proprietary fitting algorithms, so we can keep the momentum with their fitting rehabilitation.

So here we have the measurement that I've just made a moment ago on their existing hearing aid, so this is the hearing aid here. We can use this measurement to then compare its actual performance against what a standard fitting algorithm would perform. And again, remember this is the sound that the patient likes. This is what they're used to. This is their preference for audibility. 

We'll now change the hearing aid in the box to the new hearing aid that we're going to fit for the patient. And now we can go ahead, and make the measurement on the new hearing aid to then fit it against the existing and previous hearing aids output. So we're keeping the audibility that they like, yet we're upgrading them to the new technology of the newer device.

So here we have an example of the hearing aid that's been matched to the previous hearing aids audibility. And we can also on a second program match the hearing aid to a third party fitting algorithm like NAL or DSL. And this will give them the best of both worlds. First off, all the audibility that they prefer, but on their second program the correct audibility that will help them to rehabilitate, and hear speech language better.

Summary

Thank you for watching.

I've now explained five important features in the Affinity Compact:

1. Ambient noise
2. High-frequency real-ear measurements
3. Delta values
4. "Listen to"
5. Hearing aid transition

All five are really important in your adult rehabilitation and hearing aid fittings on both adults or pediatrics going forward.