Mini Mic Interview with Kevin Mensink

ReSound’s Kevin Mensink, VP of Marketing, was recently interviewed by AudiologyOnline about the release of the Unite Mini Microphone.  Here’s what he had to say.

“The Mini Microphone is a great new addition to our 2.4 GHz Unite accessories line.  The unique thing about the Mini Microphone is that we are connecting listeners to people.  A lot of other connectivity devices have been about connecting people to things, like computers and MP3 players.  In those cases, they may make the hearing aid work a little bit better, and help the person with hearing loss function closer to like someone without hearing loss would function.  I think the Mini Microphone, however, frequently gives the wearer a definite advantage, even over those who may have good hearing.”

“Listening in a noisy restaurant is difficult, even if you have good hearing.  Imagine having a device that allows someone’s voice to be streamed directly into your ears, or in this case, through your hearing aids.  This is a huge advantage.  It marks a departure from what traditional connectivity has been able to do up to this point.  The Mini Microphone takes people beyond hearing thresholds and allows them do things that maybe even normal hearing people can’t do that well.”

No Intermediary Devices

“I think the biggest advantage with our technology is that you don’t need to have an intermediary device for connectivity.  In this case, the Mini Mic is placed with the primary speaker and transmits directly to the hearing aids.  With other technology, the person with hearing loss needs to use an intermediary device.  Because we use 2.4 GHz, we have none of those intermediary devices, and the sound goes directly from the Mini Microphone into the hearing aids.”

Demoing in the Practice

“Many practices have a Unite Mini Microphone in the office. It’s simple to pair it and demonstrate it right at the initial hearing aid fitting.  They might have the patient’s companion wear the Mini Microphone and then take a walk while speaking into it. Or they may turn on some background noise and show how much easier it is to hear their companion when using the Mini Microphone.  It’s simple for patients to immediately experience the benefit.

Customer Support

“We do have a series of videos to help make it easy for professionals to fit and for patients to use.  In the development of the Mini Microphone, we designed it to be very easy to pair not only for the professional pairing them in the software, but also for the patient at home in the event they lose the connection with their hearing aids.  It’s as simple as slipping the back cover off, pushing a button, and pushing a button on the hearing aid.  We produced the videos so that their patients would have a resource as well.”

Patient Support

“We’ve also given customers an 800 number to provide to patients so they can call us and we will help them walk through that process at home, rather than occupying the clinician’s phone and chair time.”

Read the complete interview on AudiologyOnline.com.