Last Month we hosted our first ‘Lunch and Listen’ event. We invited a dozen patients to bring a plus one, to experience the latest hearing aids in one of the most challenging listening environments - a busy local restaurant.
Rather than testing devices in a quiet clinic room, we booked an area of The Farmhouse Mackworth for lunch and encouraged our patients to experience the newest hearing aids in a social, echo-filled restaurant environment, complete with background chatter, clinking cutlery and the natural acoustics of a bustling dining space.
For the trial, we utilised Phonak’s latest hearing aids: the Infinio Sphere Ultra, with the dual chip processing (one of the chips with built-in AI to solely focus on detecting and reducing background noise and to enhance speech). We set the aids up with a program with the noise reduction chip function off, a second program with the noise reduction on as well as the automatic program - so that our patients could truly experience the difference the aids were able to provide.
The results were striking. Our patients wearing the newest hearing aid technology reported being able to follow conversations with greater clarity and confidence - in some cases hearing more easily in noise than their guests without hearing loss. During conversation, our audiologists Hayley and Lauren were struggling to hear more than our patients over the noise!
We also demonstrated a remote microphone - the Phonak Roger On v3, with our Audiologist Hayley talking quietly into the microphone amongst the noise. It was remarkable to see the dozen wearing the hearing aids immediately turn around and look to see where she was in the restaurant - whereas their guests not wearing the hearing aids had no idea she was even talking amongst the noise. The Phonak Roger On remote microphone has a range of up to 25 metres so even when Hayley walked to the other side of the restaurant, those wearing the aids could still hear her talking quietly into the Roger, as if she was standing right in front of them. It was brilliant to test the range and see people’s immediate reactions to hearing better than their guests.
The event provided attendees with:
- The opportunity to trial the latest cutting-edge hearing aid technology.
- Real-world listening experiences in noise.
- A chance to provide open and honest feedback.
- Greater confidence in social situations such as dining out.
Feedback from both patients and their partners has been overwhelmingly positive, with many expressing surprise at the noticeable improvements in hearing speech clearly over the background noise.
Our Audiologist Hayley commented:
“Restaurants are one of the most difficult environments for people with hearing loss. We wanted to create a realistic setting where patients could truly experience the difference modern hearing technology can make. The response has been incredibly encouraging - we are tempted to run another one later in the year.”
We wish to thank all of those that attended and joined in and provided their feedback.
If you couldn’t make it this time or would like to trial new devices, get in touch, we offer free trials of hearing aids so that you can make an informed choice, to hear the difference and feel confident in us finding the right device for you.
