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23/08/2022 | 08:00 CEST | Product news

Media Release

Sonova to enable fully immersive conversations in virtually any situation with new Lumity platform

Stäfa (Switzerland), August 23, 2022 – Sonova Holding AG, a leading provider of hearing care solutions, today unveils the new Lumity platform, which is designed to further improve speech understanding and reduce listening effort1,2,3,4 – to support fully immersive conversations in virtually any situation. This latest innovation, which builds on the strong success of the Marvel and Paradise platforms, will power the next generation of Phonak hearing instruments.

Arnd Kaldowski, CEO of Sonova, says: “Lumity is a major step in our 75-year Phonak and Sonova journey to significantly improve hearing and allow people to actively participate in all moments of life. With this next-level platform, we build on the foundations laid with Marvel and Paradise, our two most successful technology platforms to date. This strongly underlines our continuous commitment to innovation, as also reflected in our steadily increased R&D investment, which has grown by a double-digit percentage in each of the last three years.”

Robert Woolley, Sonova’s Group Vice President, Hearing Instruments, says: “With the launch of Lumity, Sonova is very well-positioned to extend its industry-leading position. We want to provide an ever-better hearing experience in each new generation of hearing instruments, and cater to the needs of consumers and hearing care professionals by providing the best possible solutions.”

Lumity provides 16% better speech understanding from the front* and an average of 15% better speech intelligibility from the back and sides**. It integrates Phonak’s proprietary SmartSpeech™ Technology for improved speech understanding and reduced listening effort1,2,3,4, particularly in challenging environments. The wearer will be able to fully immerse in conversations and enjoy easier hearing in many situations, in quiet or even in environments with background noise, such as a restaurant.

The platform delivers a new dimension in directional microphone technology with improved speech detection and speech understanding through new StereoZoom 2.0  and SpeechSensor. StereoZoom 2.0 provides a smoother, gradual and continuously adaptive focus on a conversation partner and SpeechSensor provides 360-degree speech detection.

In addition, Lumity includes universal Bluetooth® connectivity and allows users to track a range of personal health data with the myPhonak app, including step count and the distance walked and ran.

For more information please refer to the media release of the Sonova brand Phonak, which you can find in the Newsroom section of the Sonova webpage at https://www.sonova.com/en/media-release.

*compared to fixed directional
** Compared to conventional acoustic coupling

1 Appleton, J. (2020) AutoSense OS 4.0 - significantly less listening effort and preferred for speech intelligibility. Phonak Field Study News retrieved from www.phonakpro.com/evidence, accessed February, 2022. 

2 Latzel, M & Hobi, S (2022) ActiveVent™ Receiver provides benefit of open and closed acoustics for better speech understanding in noise and naturalness of own voice perception. Phonak Field Study News retrieved from www.phonakpro.com/evidence, accessed May 2022

3 Thibodeau L. M. (2020) Benefits in Speech Recognition in Noise with Remote Wireless Microphones in Group Settings. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 31(6), 404–411. "

4 Woodward,J and Latzel, M (2022) New implementation of directional beamforming configurations show improved speech understanding and reduced listening effort. Phonak Field Study News in preparation. Expected end of 2022.

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