Interview with Gordon Wilson Vice-President of Marketing, Oticon Inc. USA
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Topic: SUMO
(SUper power Maximum Output)
AO/Beck: Good morning Gordon, thanks for joining me today. Would you please tell me a little bit about your education and your professional experience?
Wilson: Sure Doug. I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and I also attended the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia where I earned my MBA degree. I moved to Denmark shortly after that and I joined Oticon in 1991. I was employed in the training group of Oticon where I learned quite a lot about the basics in audiology. Soon after that I started traveling and running audiology training programs for our internal people and then I moved into product training. After that, I moved into the marketing department and I was a product manager from 1993 .
AO/Beck: Gordon, which products were you involved with?
Wilson: I was involved in the creation of what's called the Personic series. That was really an interesting program, because we re-launched, re-vamped and upgraded a product line that had been previously known as the E40 series and we put them together in a family of products which we marketed as Personic. They are still selling to this day. These are conventional BTE hearing aids.
AO/Beck: What other products have you been involved with?
Wilson: I was responsible for the power instruments, the 380P and the 390PL. I was involved in product development and I developed the marketing materials for those products. I was also involved with Oticon's power hearing aid support.
AO/Beck: I think that must be a terrific advantage for you, having worked one-on-one with the products and their development. It seems like that would allow you to design marketing plans that are more focused and targeted. Wasn't it about 1995 or so, that Oticon purchased Bernafon?
Wilson: Yes, that's correct. I had an interesting move at that point. I worked in Switzerland as the Marketing Manager for Bernafon and that was a wonderful experience. I returned to Oticon Denmark in 1996, and until April, 2003, I was working as a Business Team Manager. Denmark is where we do our product development for all of our Oticon hearing aids and associated software. The marketing campaigns and business concepts behind the products are developed in Denmark in conjuction with our major sales companies such as Oticon USA. .
AO/Beck: So the marketing is coordinated around the world to appeal to niche markets and the higher volume markets?
Wilson: Yes, the coordinated effort works best. Prior to 1997, Oticon was very much becoming the company that specialized in products like DigiFocus and other high technology items. Although these high tech products are wonderful, for some dispensers worldwide, they are a relatively small part of their total product offering. We needed to have excellent products available for all requirements, from the highest technology to the most financially restricted budgets and everywhere in between. The key is to offer the most value at the particular price points, and that has been our focus. My business team developed product lines such as Ergo and Swift which are low priced and incorporated robot technology in product manufacturing to provide basic programmables at affordable prices.
AO/Beck: What does robot technology have to do with that? Do you mean the assembly process?
Wilson: Yes. We made Ergo and Swift BTE's using robot driven assembly lines, and that allowed us to make a high quality, low-priced BTE. Following that experience, we developed the Atlas product line and recently we developed the SUMO Super Power product line.
AO/Beck: And for readers who may not be familiar with it, SUMO is actually an acronym.
Wilson: Yes, it stands for SUper power Maximum Output.
AO/Beck: Okay. Let's define these terms a little please. What do you mean by super power maximum output ?
Wilson: I knew you were going to ask that! 142 dB is the peak MPO in a 2 cc coupler, and the gain is 82 dB peak, also in a 2 cc coupler. I think it's almost irrelevant to talk about peaks when you're talking about this type of product, because what is far more important than the peak is where the actual power is.
AO/Beck: And that's a very good point because the SUMO has a low frequency emphasis, is that correct?
Wilson: Correct, and clearly the comparative advantage of the product is that we were able to develop a unique Output Optimization Technology to enable the instrument to deliver significantly higher MPO's in the zone from 100Hz to 1000Hz. So compared to all other super power hearing aids, I believe we're providing the highest levels of usable non-distorted gain in the lower frequencies. Another feature is that when we made the hearing aid, we made it compact, so there is no super power instrument out there smaller than SUMO.
AO/Beck: Who is the ideal patient for this product?
Wilson: That's an interesting question. You referred to it as a low frequency emphasis hearing aid, and many people would say use it to fit people with corner audiograms. Those people are prime candidates. But interestingly, individuals with severe hearing losses and those with more residual hearing in the highs may also be candidates. Many people fitted with SUMO report the sound of their own voice is significantly better with the SUMO, because their own voice is not causing the instrument to go into saturation. The instrument gives them an excellent sound quality and less distorted speech.
AO/Beck: Does the SUMO use a 13 or a 675 battery?
Wilson: 675, but it is quite narrow, and rather small. It's a digitally programmable linear, single channel product. It does have a separate feedback management system which we've designed specifically for our power hearing aids.
AO/Beck: Please tell me a little about the feedback management system?
Wilson: At the lower VC settings, the highs and lows increase together as you turn up the volume. But as you move into higher VC settings, only the lows increase. That's an old but effective principle that we've incorporated for many years into products like the 380P. However with the Sumo, you can program the point at which the high frequencies are rolled off. When you first fit the hearing aid, the fitting software will pre-program the roll-off point, depending upon the severity of the hearing loss. You can then change this roll-off point as needed to best fit the patient's needs. When fitting Sumo you should always go in and run the feedback manager program. The feedback manager program actually adjusts your basic frequency response so that the instrument can be turned all the way to maximum VC levels without ever giving feedback - even if the earmold is not particularly tight. This can give a tremendous reassurance to people who are unable to hear their hearing aid whistling.
AO/Beck: That's very interesting. I think we're all accustomed to thinking in terms of 100 percent digital circuits. However, it seems that to achieve this magnitude of gain and power, digital circuits are excluded at this time?
Wilson: Correct. That's why you won't find any digital super power hearing aids out there as powerful as SUMO. Which is not to say that in the future digital technology will not get to these output levels. However we were unable to reach our power goals for Sumo with current digital technology and we had to design a new dedicated super power analog chip specifically for this instrument.
AO/Beck: Gordon, does the SUMO have a battery management system? Something that increases battery life?
Wilson: Yes. This is another really interesting feature. What you often find with super power hearing aids is that the battery is unable to deliver consistently high levels of MPO during the entire battery life. The instrument can get into a reset situation as the battery ages and the current level drops. Typically, with zinc-air batteries, when there's a very high drain, the MPO will be dropped to stop the instrument from going into reset. So what we've done with SUMO, is developed a battery management circuit, which we call the Dynamic Battery Management System. It constantly monitors the current the battery is able to deliver and the demand being made on it. When the available current falls below a certain level, about 1.1 volts, instead of the hearing aid slowly dying, resetting or basically pulling the MPO down, it oscillates. It turns the hearing aid off and on at a very fast rate, something like 50 thousand times per second. The oscillation is absolutely inaudible, but it gives the battery time to recover because even in that very short space of time, turning it off and on allows the battery to breathe more, it gets more air. As a result, we are able to extend the use of the battery a lot longer than you would with other super power hearing aids while maintaining a high MPO. What this also means is that you can use normal 675 batteries with Sumo instead of having to use just special power batteries. It will work better with power batteries but if the user is in a situation where they have to use a normal 675, they will be able to operate a SUMO with one of these. This is something you wouldn't be able to do with many other very high powered hearing aids.
AO/Beck: That's really amazing. I haven't heard that before.
Wilson: No you wouldn't have heard it before because this is the only product we've developed the system for.
AO/Beck: When was the SUMO introduced?
Wilson: We launched it at the UHA Congress in Germany, October, 2002. It's been available in the USA since DEC. 2002.
AO/Beck: Can the SUMO be used with an FM system?
Wilson: Yes. The new Lexis system is available and SUMO will be the first product that has an integrated receiver for the Lexis. What I mean by that is it's an interlocking accessory, it locks into the battery drawer, which means that it cannot fall off and it actually follows the shape of the hearing aid, so it's a cosmetically appealing solution that can't fall off and be lost. Sumo is, of course, compatible with other ear level FM systems.
AO/Beck: Thanks Gordon. I really learned a lot about the SUMO. I appreciate your time.
Wilson: Thank you too Doug.
For more information about the SUMO, Click Here
For more information on Oticon click here.
Click here to visit the Oticon website.
(SUper power Maximum Output)
AO/Beck: Good morning Gordon, thanks for joining me today. Would you please tell me a little bit about your education and your professional experience?
Wilson: Sure Doug. I have a bachelor's degree in psychology and I also attended the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia where I earned my MBA degree. I moved to Denmark shortly after that and I joined Oticon in 1991. I was employed in the training group of Oticon where I learned quite a lot about the basics in audiology. Soon after that I started traveling and running audiology training programs for our internal people and then I moved into product training. After that, I moved into the marketing department and I was a product manager from 1993 .
AO/Beck: Gordon, which products were you involved with?
Wilson: I was involved in the creation of what's called the Personic series. That was really an interesting program, because we re-launched, re-vamped and upgraded a product line that had been previously known as the E40 series and we put them together in a family of products which we marketed as Personic. They are still selling to this day. These are conventional BTE hearing aids.
AO/Beck: What other products have you been involved with?
Wilson: I was responsible for the power instruments, the 380P and the 390PL. I was involved in product development and I developed the marketing materials for those products. I was also involved with Oticon's power hearing aid support.
AO/Beck: I think that must be a terrific advantage for you, having worked one-on-one with the products and their development. It seems like that would allow you to design marketing plans that are more focused and targeted. Wasn't it about 1995 or so, that Oticon purchased Bernafon?
Wilson: Yes, that's correct. I had an interesting move at that point. I worked in Switzerland as the Marketing Manager for Bernafon and that was a wonderful experience. I returned to Oticon Denmark in 1996, and until April, 2003, I was working as a Business Team Manager. Denmark is where we do our product development for all of our Oticon hearing aids and associated software. The marketing campaigns and business concepts behind the products are developed in Denmark in conjuction with our major sales companies such as Oticon USA. .
AO/Beck: So the marketing is coordinated around the world to appeal to niche markets and the higher volume markets?
Wilson: Yes, the coordinated effort works best. Prior to 1997, Oticon was very much becoming the company that specialized in products like DigiFocus and other high technology items. Although these high tech products are wonderful, for some dispensers worldwide, they are a relatively small part of their total product offering. We needed to have excellent products available for all requirements, from the highest technology to the most financially restricted budgets and everywhere in between. The key is to offer the most value at the particular price points, and that has been our focus. My business team developed product lines such as Ergo and Swift which are low priced and incorporated robot technology in product manufacturing to provide basic programmables at affordable prices.
AO/Beck: What does robot technology have to do with that? Do you mean the assembly process?
Wilson: Yes. We made Ergo and Swift BTE's using robot driven assembly lines, and that allowed us to make a high quality, low-priced BTE. Following that experience, we developed the Atlas product line and recently we developed the SUMO Super Power product line.
AO/Beck: And for readers who may not be familiar with it, SUMO is actually an acronym.
Wilson: Yes, it stands for SUper power Maximum Output.
AO/Beck: Okay. Let's define these terms a little please. What do you mean by super power maximum output ?
Wilson: I knew you were going to ask that! 142 dB is the peak MPO in a 2 cc coupler, and the gain is 82 dB peak, also in a 2 cc coupler. I think it's almost irrelevant to talk about peaks when you're talking about this type of product, because what is far more important than the peak is where the actual power is.
AO/Beck: And that's a very good point because the SUMO has a low frequency emphasis, is that correct?
Wilson: Correct, and clearly the comparative advantage of the product is that we were able to develop a unique Output Optimization Technology to enable the instrument to deliver significantly higher MPO's in the zone from 100Hz to 1000Hz. So compared to all other super power hearing aids, I believe we're providing the highest levels of usable non-distorted gain in the lower frequencies. Another feature is that when we made the hearing aid, we made it compact, so there is no super power instrument out there smaller than SUMO.
AO/Beck: Who is the ideal patient for this product?
Wilson: That's an interesting question. You referred to it as a low frequency emphasis hearing aid, and many people would say use it to fit people with corner audiograms. Those people are prime candidates. But interestingly, individuals with severe hearing losses and those with more residual hearing in the highs may also be candidates. Many people fitted with SUMO report the sound of their own voice is significantly better with the SUMO, because their own voice is not causing the instrument to go into saturation. The instrument gives them an excellent sound quality and less distorted speech.
AO/Beck: Does the SUMO use a 13 or a 675 battery?
Wilson: 675, but it is quite narrow, and rather small. It's a digitally programmable linear, single channel product. It does have a separate feedback management system which we've designed specifically for our power hearing aids.
AO/Beck: Please tell me a little about the feedback management system?
Wilson: At the lower VC settings, the highs and lows increase together as you turn up the volume. But as you move into higher VC settings, only the lows increase. That's an old but effective principle that we've incorporated for many years into products like the 380P. However with the Sumo, you can program the point at which the high frequencies are rolled off. When you first fit the hearing aid, the fitting software will pre-program the roll-off point, depending upon the severity of the hearing loss. You can then change this roll-off point as needed to best fit the patient's needs. When fitting Sumo you should always go in and run the feedback manager program. The feedback manager program actually adjusts your basic frequency response so that the instrument can be turned all the way to maximum VC levels without ever giving feedback - even if the earmold is not particularly tight. This can give a tremendous reassurance to people who are unable to hear their hearing aid whistling.
AO/Beck: That's very interesting. I think we're all accustomed to thinking in terms of 100 percent digital circuits. However, it seems that to achieve this magnitude of gain and power, digital circuits are excluded at this time?
Wilson: Correct. That's why you won't find any digital super power hearing aids out there as powerful as SUMO. Which is not to say that in the future digital technology will not get to these output levels. However we were unable to reach our power goals for Sumo with current digital technology and we had to design a new dedicated super power analog chip specifically for this instrument.
AO/Beck: Gordon, does the SUMO have a battery management system? Something that increases battery life?
Wilson: Yes. This is another really interesting feature. What you often find with super power hearing aids is that the battery is unable to deliver consistently high levels of MPO during the entire battery life. The instrument can get into a reset situation as the battery ages and the current level drops. Typically, with zinc-air batteries, when there's a very high drain, the MPO will be dropped to stop the instrument from going into reset. So what we've done with SUMO, is developed a battery management circuit, which we call the Dynamic Battery Management System. It constantly monitors the current the battery is able to deliver and the demand being made on it. When the available current falls below a certain level, about 1.1 volts, instead of the hearing aid slowly dying, resetting or basically pulling the MPO down, it oscillates. It turns the hearing aid off and on at a very fast rate, something like 50 thousand times per second. The oscillation is absolutely inaudible, but it gives the battery time to recover because even in that very short space of time, turning it off and on allows the battery to breathe more, it gets more air. As a result, we are able to extend the use of the battery a lot longer than you would with other super power hearing aids while maintaining a high MPO. What this also means is that you can use normal 675 batteries with Sumo instead of having to use just special power batteries. It will work better with power batteries but if the user is in a situation where they have to use a normal 675, they will be able to operate a SUMO with one of these. This is something you wouldn't be able to do with many other very high powered hearing aids.
AO/Beck: That's really amazing. I haven't heard that before.
Wilson: No you wouldn't have heard it before because this is the only product we've developed the system for.
AO/Beck: When was the SUMO introduced?
Wilson: We launched it at the UHA Congress in Germany, October, 2002. It's been available in the USA since DEC. 2002.
AO/Beck: Can the SUMO be used with an FM system?
Wilson: Yes. The new Lexis system is available and SUMO will be the first product that has an integrated receiver for the Lexis. What I mean by that is it's an interlocking accessory, it locks into the battery drawer, which means that it cannot fall off and it actually follows the shape of the hearing aid, so it's a cosmetically appealing solution that can't fall off and be lost. Sumo is, of course, compatible with other ear level FM systems.
AO/Beck: Thanks Gordon. I really learned a lot about the SUMO. I appreciate your time.
Wilson: Thank you too Doug.
For more information about the SUMO, Click Here
For more information on Oticon click here.
Click here to visit the Oticon website.
