Digital hearing for the world!

From: From: Canada NewsWire (press release), CA
Sept. 10, 2002

Oticon's new Atlas hearing aids offer outstanding performance at an affordable price.

TORONTO, Sept. 10 /CNW/ - In an effort to help more hearing impaired people with a hearing solution that offers state-of-the-art digital technology at an affordable price, Oticon Canada has introduced Atlas, an exceptional new line of fully digital hearing instruments.

"Never before has it been possible to offer a hearing aid with a comparable selection of digital features and flexibility at such an attractive price", says Ross Harwell, Audiologist. "We have made a dedicated effort to combine state-of-the-art technology and audiology with the latest production methods to offer an affordable solution for the majority of people with hearing loss. An important development for the estimated 500 million hearing impaired people worldwide."

In order to be able to offer Atlas at an attractive price, the instruments have been specifically designed for industrial manufacture by robots. Using a minimum of components, the robotic assembly not only ensures reduced production costs but also increases reliability.

Outstanding Performance
A pioneer in the development of advanced digital hearing aids and successful audiological tools, Oticon provides Atlas with a range of successful proven digital features, such as two-channel non-linear amplification, fully automatic operation, adaptation manager, four frequency shaping bands and an automatic feedback manager. In addition, the Atlas instruments offer a clear and comfortable digital sound quality.

Quick Acceptance
Atlas uses the well-known rationales NAL-NL and DSL i/o to ensure quick fitting and good overall benefits for the user. Quick user acceptance is ensured with the adaptation manager and through a carefully designed compression strategy. The adaptation manager facilitates the acclimatization process and the compression system in Atlas uses short attack times to ensure comfort and long release times to deliver a good comfort and good overall benefit for the majority of users. The instruments can be fitted with the latest version 2.0 of Oticon's easy-to-operate fitting platform Genie or the hand-held programmer EasyFit version 6.0. To assist the counselling process in an effective way, Genie offers an integrated fine-tuning guide and a comprehensive selection of sounds and pictures.

Superior Looks
The Atlas family offers cosmetically attractive solutions with a wide selection of styles and options. From tiny Completely-in-the-Canal (CIC) instruments -- some of the smallest in the world -- to Behind-the-Ear instruments (BTE) housed in an award-winning light and slim shell design. All instruments have superior battery performance and the Atlas family includes a number of attractive options such as programmable volume control and programmable telecoil.

About Oticon
As one of the world's leading manufacturers of hearing instruments, Oticon has always maintained a leading position in the research and development of hearing care solutions and as a result millions of people in more than 100 countries rely on Oticon hearing instruments every day. In 2000 William Demant Holding, the parent company of Oticon, was ranked by Forbes Global as one of its top 20 of the best 300 small companies in the world. For more information on Oticon and its products please visit www.oticon.ca.

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For further information: please contact: Ross Harwell, Audiologist, Oticon Canada, (905) 677-3231, email: rh@oticon.ca; or Susan Lucas, Marketing Manager - Oticon Canada, (905) 677-3231, email: sl@oticon.ca