ListenThe world of Widex CHOOSE YOUR OWN AGE #01 2009 www.widex.com Printed by FB / 05-09 9 502 1441 001 #01 ¡9 502 1441 001c¤ ¡#01v¤ Editor-in-Chief Writers Art Director Translation Peter Hentze Knudsen Andrew Somerville Lone Olai Lærke Christensen [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Isabella Y. Jespersen Editor [email protected] Photographers Jeanette Blom Jesper Mehlsen Marc Fluri [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Martin Holm Mathiesen [email protected] Listen – The world of Widex Listen TECHNOLOGY TRENDS WIDEx AROUND THE WORLD 26 NanoCare 16 Choose your own age 44 Communicating with the heart Revolutionary technology to protect Technology transcends generational Ethiopian children with hearing loss. hearing aids. bounderies. 46 The Chinese challenge 34 Compass widex news A success story from a market in Ensures fitting precision. 38 New Widex headquarters rapid development. 36 SCOLA PRODUCTS 48 Widex Marathon Teams To assist your listening. 6 The pleasure of hearing The new mind440 hearing aid series. PROFESSIONAL PARTNERS 37 CAMISHA 28 ORCA A unique patent. 14 Size does matter At the forefront of research and Passion – one of the world’s smallest education. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT hearing aids. 20 Moving the boundaries of 40 Widex goodwill ambassadors technology 18 Maximum elegance – minimal Famous sportsmen and sportswomen Widex’ Development Laboratory is dimensions raise awareness about hearing- the driving force behind the Both technology and design are related issues. company’s R&D activities. important for users. 42 Love of music and co-operation 22 Audiologists and engineers society across boundaries working side by side 30 Noise - an often ignored problem Widex sponsors European Union The Audiological Lab is central in Few think about the negative Youth Orchestra. Widex. influence noise pollution has on our health. 42 Widex sponsors sport CHILDREN 10 Increased focus on paediatric PEOPLE hearing aid solutions 8 Family-owned company through Hearing aid solutions for children. three generations Widex is still owned by the two 12 WHISPER founders’ families. Children with hearing loss have special needs in connection with 24 An international family language acquisition. Listen – The world of Widex “Widex will not compromise on quality. Therefore, all production and assembly is carried out in Denmark and Belgium, close to development and quality control.” editorial 5 Welcome readers Widex sells hearing aids in almost 100 ment and production. Therefore, the and thereby spread awareness of the countries and is in contact with a wide magazine includes coverage of projects way Widex works to develop and pro- range of people and businesses within that contribute to improving technology. duce hearing aids which please and ben- audiology, technology and marketing, as efit people with hearing loss. well as with hearing aid users. It is our In contrast to many other hearing aid wish that with this magazine, we will of- manufacturers, Widex has prioritised in- An estimated one out of ten hearing aids fer readers a current look at the work ternal research, development and pro- sold on the international market is devel- we are doing and the things we stand for duction since the company’s start in oped and produced by Widex. That does at Widex. 1956. Teamwork between the different not make us the largest supplier, but our parts of the company is vital in order for ambition is only to be the best – both We are presently engaged in significant us to reach our goals – and crucial to our technically and in relation to our many professional communication efforts for market growth. That is why we recently business partners around the world. audiologists. This magazine is aimed at decided to build a new headquarters an even broader communication, in order close to the current facility. Here, each Pleasant reading to give a fuller picture of the company. individual department will have optimum We would also like to further develop working conditions under the same roof, Jan Tøpholm contact with our business partners and with plenty of room for future expansion. President other interested parties that make up the links between the hearing aid user Widex will not compromise on quality. and Widex. Therefore, all production and assembly is carried out in Denmark and Belgium, Independent studies show that Widex is close to development and quality con- widely considered to be a technology trol. leader among hearing aid manufacturers. This makes us happy and proud, as the It is our hope that readers of this maga- people at Widex commit an extensive, zine receive a positive impression of the dedicated effort to research, develop- effort made by our talented employees – Listen – The world of Widex 6 Products Listen – The world of Widex Products 7 The pleasure of hearing he market for high-end hearing the Latin ‘fractus’, meaning ‘frac- also makes mind440 one of the few Taids is becoming increasingly tures’ or ‘broken’. hearing aids in the world with a competitive. Never before have con- bandwidth of over 10 kHz. sumers had so much choice in this Zen uses fractal technology to gene- segment, with numerous manufactur- rate random numbers to produce ran- For Henriette Knutzen, mind440 suc- ers offering a wide range of quality dom, infinite tones that are both har- cessfully promotes new technology and technologically advanced hearing monic and non-repetitive. while emphasising the importance of aids. With the new mind440 there- sound. “Personally I think of mind440 fore, it was vital for Widex to create Also making life easier for the user is as a new car model with a stronger not just a first-class product but one mind440’s speech synthesis system, and more complex engine, resulting that contained truly groundbreaking SmartSpeak, which literally talks us- in cleaner and efficient fuel combus- features and could clearly be differen- ers through various hearing aid func- tion - pleasure on the road.” tiated. tions such as programs and settings. And ultimately, this is what mind440 In order to emphasise these factors, Such features are of benefit to both aims to do – make hearing a plea- the mind440 campaign has focused hearing care professionals and end- sure. on the hearing aids’ unique features users alike. “mind440’s wide range of while articulating the novelty and ex- new and unique features gives the clusivity of the product. user and the audiologist the handles to fine tune and optimise the hearing www.widex.com/mind440 mind440, successfully launched at aid specifically to the user needs and EUHA in Germany last October, is preferences,” says Henriette Knutzen. the first hearing aid ever to offer a dedicated relaxation and tone pro- Also new to mind440 is a revamped gram, the revolutionary Zen. Accord- and upgraded signal processing sys- ing to Henriette Knutzen, project tem. Widex’ unique ISP technology manager for mind440, Zen has great has been refined to create Dual ISP – potential for the user. “The Zen tones adding an extra dimension to the are unique tones generated by the hearing aid’s sound. As Henriette hearing aid itself,” she says. “Based Knutzen explains, “mind440 provides on fractal science the hearing aid an uncompromised clear and comfort- generates the tones itself - the tones able sound for the hearing impaired. are not recorded. By giving the user With mind440, the excellent Widex the option to listen to soothing tones sound has taken a leap up. To achieve we aim to give the user a tool for re- this, we have made important im- laxation.” provements in the compression sys- tem. We have summed these improve- Fractals are geometrical structures ments up under the TruSound that have details no matter how much heading.” they are magnified. They can be split into self-similar parts that resemble This new compression system is cen- each other but do not repeat them- tral in providing mind440 with more selves. The term fractal stems from detailed, natural and clear sound and Listen – The world of Widex 8 PEOPLE Family-owned company through three generations Families of the founders follow the basic principles that made Widex what it is today n contrast to most other major com- And when Erik Westermann turned Advantages of a Ipanies in the international hearing 70 in 1993 and withdrew from daily family-owned company aid market, Widex remains in the management responsibilities, the During the past years, the hearing ownership of the two founding fami- gradual generation shift was already aid industry has been consolidated lies. The third generation is currently in progress. Today, the Westermann through takeovers and mergers. represented – with brothers Richard family has two active managers: Widex, though, has kept clear of these and Julian Tøpholm, at 35 and 32 Søren Westermann (audiological re- deals and speculation. years of age respectively. And the search, patents and IT) and Anders third Westermann generation is con- Westermann (economy and finance). Stability and continuity have always siderably younger. Tom Westermann, who was in charge been the trademarks of Widex man- of sales and marketing for almost four agement. And the tradition of infor- Widex was founded in 1956 by elec- decades, retired in December 2008. mal management meetings in the tronics engineer Christian Tøpholm morning or over lunch still continues. and business educated Erik Wester- The third Tøpholm generation also This ensures that everyone in the mann. This partnership combined chose to follow in their father’s and management team is kept up to date Tøpholm’s superior technical skills grandfather’s footsteps by becoming with company activities. with Westermann’s acute ability to engineers. With master’s degrees identify future market needs. from the Technical University of Widex also follows its own strategy Denmark – combined with jobs at for economic success by prioritising The partnership was also based on a Widex during their education – they economic independence.