fm
G
enie
fm
G
enie
47
5
Fitting &
balancing a radio aid
46
fm
G
enie
fm
G
enie
5
Fitting &
balancing a radio aid
In education a radio aid system will be fitted with the help of your teacher
of the deaf or audiologist who will have the correct testing and
assessment facilities.
The following is a guide for setting an fmGenie listening level for those
who do not have access to a hearing aid test box.
Objective
1 Fit a new hearing aid battery and check that the hearing aid is working
– normally hearing people can use a stetoclip for listening to a hearing
aid – see page 41.
2 Check the current tone settings for the
. In the absence of other
information, set the ‘ACTIVE/CANCEL’ switch to cancel;
this setting should suit approx. 80% of hearing aids – appendix 3
shows how to do this.
3 Get a colleague to stand at arm’s length
from you. Listen to the hearing aid on
‘M’ and adjust the hearing aid volume
to give a comfortable listening level.
For the duration of the remainder of
this test do not readjust the hearing aid
volume control.
As a word of warning, do not use your own voice to set the hearing aid
volume. This is because you would be talking too close to the hearing aid
microphone and will hear yourself partly by bone conduction.
Now you have established a listening level for the hearing aid alone,
connect the fmGenie as it will be used and continue with step 4.
Fitting and balancing a radio aid with a hearing aid
USER INFORMATION
4 Ask your colleague to stand just outside
the room and talk to you with a natural
voice, with their mouth at the usual
distance of 150mm from the fmGenie
transmitter microphone.
Direct input or cochlear implant users
should go to step 5a, neck loop users
should jump to step 5b.
5a Direct input or cochlear implant users should adjust (balance)
the transmitter volume control (Tx vol) on the
, so that the
volume of your colleague’s voice sounds similar or slightly
louder than when they were standing at arm’s length from you.
Be careful not to overbalance hearing aids
that use Wide Dynamic Range
Compression. Although the aid will adjust
itself there will be an increased level of
background noise and loss of quality.
Always adjust by turning the volume
upwards, if necessary turn the volume
down and slowly back up again.
5b Wearing the neck loop and the hearing aid switched to the loop
programme, neck loop users should adjust (balance) the
transmitter volume control (Tx vol) on the
so that the volume
of your colleague’s voice sounds the same as when they were standing
at arm’s length from you.
If required, now connect a lapel microphone to the receiver ‘Ext mic’
socket, adjust the ‘Env vol’ so that you can hear your own voice, but at
a level that leaves your colleague’s voice dominant.
6
Try some form of listening test, readjusting both the volume and tone
settings to suit your preference. Evaluate the effectiveness of the
system by comparing results with and without the fmGenie.
The Connevans fmGenie will not resolve all the problems of hearing aid
users but it will allow better use of hearing aids and allow listening at a
distance with increased clarity and reduced background noise.
David’s tip: make a note of your chosen settings on page 80 so you can
easily reset them when an fmGenie is returned after servicing.
