will appear in the upper
left hand corner of the scene.
A useful hearing instrument fitting tool is the Surround Town macros. The macros allow for validation of features and settings and can be used during several phases of the patient journey: pre-fitting, fitting or post-fitting phases. Surround Town macros are activated by one mouse click. The macros automatically run through a pre-programmed routine in the Inspire software. Surround Town macros are scene-specific and available in five Surround Town scenes: Restaurant, Home, Outdoors, Theater, and Automobile.
Once Surround Town is activated and displayed on the screen, the macro
icon will appear in the upper
left hand corner of the scene.
When the computer mouse hovers over this icon, additional icons will be displayed which provide access to the Surround Town macros available within the currently displayed scene.
The macros available for each of the scenes include:
Restaurant - Directionality and Other Sounds/Noise
Home - Mechanical Sounds/Machine Noise and Other Sounds
Outdoors - Directionality, Mechanical Sounds/Machine Noise, Speech, and Speech in Noise
Theater - Directionality and Noise/Other Sounds/Machine Noise
Automobile - Directionality and Mechanical Sounds/Machine Noise
Directionality |
Sitting at the table in the center of the screen listening to a conversation with two male voices, competing speakers are introduced by turning on the tables behind the listener and dish noise is generated by the waiter. |
Other Sounds |
Seated at the table on the far right and the piano plays music in the far left corner of the restaurant. |
Mechanical Sounds |
Standing by the sink in the kitchen and the fan from the stove is activated. |
Other Sounds |
Sitting on the couch in the middle and the television is turned on. |
Directionality |
Directional Speech Detector (DSD) is demonstrated as the listener is positioned so that conversational speech is coming from the front and music to the rear. As the demonstration continues, DSD will engage and the conversational speech will become easier to understand. To quickly demonstrate the effect of DSD, click Omni and allow the listener to hear all sounds. Then, click Directional to provide a contrast. |
Mechanical Sounds |
Mechanical noise is demonstrated while standing near a running motor. The hearing aid classifies the input and adapts making the listening environment more comfortable. |
Speech |
Speech is demonstrated as the listener stands directly in front of a two person conversation. Observe how the hearing aid recognizes the conversation as speech. |
Speech in Noise |
Speech in noise is demonstrated facing a speaker with noise coming from the left and right. The hearing aid classifies the situation as speech in noise and adapts to provide a more comfortable listening environment for the listener. |
Directionality |
Comedian is standing on the stage performing a monologue while listener is seated in section in front of him. Sections surrounding the listener has people behind him standing and clapping. |
Other Sounds |
Listener is standing in the section with other people standing around him clapping steadily. |
Directionality |
Listener is the driver and the passengers are activated: female passenger and two children in the back seat. The driver’s window is also opened and road noise is introduced. |
Mechanical Sounds |
Road noise and windshield wiper are turned on. |
The Feature Validation icon 
,
found on the lower adjustment panel while running a macro, provides a
description of the functionality of the Surround Town Macros and Feature
Validation.
