Rexton published a white paper entailing the research results on its Rexton Reach technology platform. The test results elaborate on how the Rexton Reach multi-voice focus system improves speech understanding in the presence of background noise. This article is a summary of the white paper. Download the Rexton Reach white paper here.
Note: Rexton is owned by WSA Audiology SA, the same parent company of Widex and Signia.
Figure 1 - MVF technology in Rexton Reach hearing aids
As one of the most affordable hearing aids in the UK market, you may see Rexton as a poor choice for hearing speech in a noisy environment. That is not true.
Rexton Reach hearing aids use the same technology as Signia Pure Charge and Go IX (Integrated Xperience). They are made in Denmark (or Germany) and offer a superior speech understanding in noisy environments. Read through this article to learn about Rexton Reach hearing aids.
Background
Just before the multi-speaker tracking technology introduced by Signia and Rexton in 2024, both companies had their flagship hearing aids use the front focus beaming with a dual-processor. Front focus to reduce the background and unwanted noise from the sides and behind the listener, and dual processor to separate the human speech and noise, process them separately and then combine them again before this signal is passed to the speaker in the ear canal of the wearer.
The above technology was branded under Signia Pure Charge and Go AX and Rexton BiCore in the Signia and Rexton range of hearing aids respectively.
Figure 2 - SPT technology in Rexton BiCore hearing aids
Step forward
AWS Audiology SA (the parent company of Signia and Rexton) saw the need to elevate the confidence and reliability of hearing experience in dynamic listening situations. They categorise a dynamic challenging hearing environment as one where the listener has to listen to and understand multiple speakers in front of him/her in the presence of background noise.
When we think about multiple-speaker scenarios, we can picture a group of friends at a café having an active discussion. Or maybe we can picture someone in the food service industry talking with different customers from different directions while there is activity coming from the rear direction. Or maybe a parent talking with children at a busy playground. In all of these situations, it is unrealistic to think everyone is taking turns talking to the hearing aid user and allowing ample time for the hearing aid user to face the speaker. In this case, although a narrow directional beam will highlight the speaker, other comments or the initial change in speakers will be missed. Conversely, if we allow the directionality to be too lax (more omnidirectional) then competing noise from all angles will begin to interfere and impede the audibility of the speech signal. In these cases, a directional system that can adapt to multiple speakers is required.
Rexton Multi-Voice Focus technology (MVF)
Rexton multi-voice-focus or MVF is the new technology used in Rexton Reach hearing aids. Here is MVF in simple words:
Rexton Reach MVF scans the area in front of the hearing aid wearer 1,000 times a second in search of human speech.
It activates up to four focus beams towards the speaker in front; these beams follow the speaker
It separates the speech from background noise to help hear the speech signal better by the hearing aid wearer.
Is there any evidence-based result supporting Rexton Reach improves speech understanding in a noisy environment?
In-house laboratory tests were conducted to test the MVF technology of Rexton Reach hearing aids. The result shows that the multi-voice focus technology improves speech understanding by an improvement of 10 to 13 dB in SNR (signal-to-noise ratio). Please read the full Rexton Reach whitepaper here.
Figure 3 - Improvement in SNR with Rexton Reach
In another test, the Rexton MVF technology proved to improve speech understanding with a higher SNR factor when the VMF technology was switched on. 90 per cent of the contentants who tested Rexton Reach reported that when the MVF was on they noticed an improvement in speech understanding versus when the MVF was switched off. See Figure 4 for more details.
Figure 4 - Improved in SNR with Rexton Reach MVF technology
I was not surprised to see the report stating that the closed fitting of Rexton Reach resulted in a higher speech understanding score compared to patients who had an open-fitting Rexton fitted. A closed fitting allows the MVF and directionality to improve the SNR of the speech better
How do Rexton Reach hearing aids do in the real world?
As part of the research, 78 respondents including 31 females and 47 males between the ages of 20 and 89 years old were picked from the US, Germany, Taiwan, the UK, Australia and Italy to compare Rexton Reach with their hearing aids (from different marks and made.
On the satisfaction questions, positive satisfaction was determined to be responses of “somewhat satisfied,” “satisfied,” or “very satisfied.” As shown in Figure 12, the Reach platform outperformed the respondents’ existing hearing aids in all six satisfaction categories. See Figure 5.
Figure 5 - Satisfaction rating, Rexton hearing aids versus others
Is Rexton Reach ready for future advanced connectivity?
Yes, Rexton Reach hearing aids are ready for Low-Energy Bluetooth Audio (LE BT) which is expected to roll out in other consumer products such as televisions. When rolled out you will be able to hear the TV soundtrack straight to your Rexton Reach hearing aids with no other intermediary systems needed (such as a TV streamer). The LE Bluetooth technology offers better streaming sound quality while using less battery from your Rexton Reach. Please read more about future connectivity technologies in hearing aids here.
Please get in touch with us for a free Zoom online consultation if you have any questions about Rexton Reach or other models of Rexton hearing aids.
References
Picou E.M. 2022. Hearing aid benefit and satisfaction results from the MarkeTrak 2022 survey: Importance of features and hearing care professionals. Seminars in Hearing, 43(4), 301-316.
Rexton Whitepaper – BiCore. November, 2021. Holube I., Fredelake S., Vlaming M. & Kollmeier B. 2010. Development and analysis of an international speech test signal (ISTS). International Journal of Audiology, 49(12), 891-903.
Hagerman B. & Olofsson Å. 2004. A method to measure the effect of noise reduction algorithms using simultaneous speech and noise. Acta Acustica United with Acustica, 90(2), 356-361.
Aubreville M. & Petrausch S. 2015. Directionality assessment of adaptive binaural beamforming with noise suppression in hearing aids. 2015 IEEE International Conference on Hearing Aids.
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Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP): IEEE, pp. 211-215.
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