Company to Showcase Prototype Tinnitus Add-on Feature for HyperSound Clear 500P at AudiologyNOW! 2016 Convention and Expo.
SAN DIEGO, April 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Tinnitus is a serious and widespread hearing health problem, and preliminary data from the latest clinical study by Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR), a leading audio technology company for over 40 years, suggests that the Company's revolutionary HyperSound Clear™ 500P directed audio system may have the potential to help people living with this condition. Commonly known as "ringing in the ears," Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no actual external noise is present, and there is currently no cure for most types of Tinnitus. Additionally, the American Tinnitus Association1 states, "Millions of Americans experience Tinnitus, often to a debilitating degree, making it one of the most common health conditions in the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that 15% of the general public – over 50 million Americans – experience some form of Tinnitus, with approximately 20 million struggling with chronic Tinnitus, and two million living with extreme and debilitating cases."
"When we initially discovered HyperSound's ability to help people struggling to hear the television we knew we had something huge, something important, and we jumped at it full force to develop our first consumer facing product to help this audience of millions of people around the world," said Rodney Schutt, SVP and General Manager for the HyperSound business at Turtle Beach. "Now, having just launched the HyperSound Clear 500P a few months ago, we find ourselves in a similar position regarding Tinnitus. Through our commitment to research and developing progressive clinical capabilities for how HyperSound® technology can help people living with hearing issues, our latest research suggests we may be able to improve the quality of life for people living with Tinnitus. This is another significant milestone and achievement for the technology, and for helping to alleviate this condition that affects so many people."
Late last year, Turtle Beach launched the HyperSound Clear 500P, the Company's revolutionary directed audio system for the home that's been shown to significantly improve sound clarity and speech intelligibility in individuals with hearing loss2. HyperSound technology is a fundamentally new approach to sound delivery that generates a directional, narrow beam of audio in the air that can be pointed to a very specific location. Similar to how a flashlight directs a beam of light, the HyperSound Clear500P directs a beam of audio to targeted listeners, delivering an immersive, 3D audio experience. Turtle Beach's HyperSound Clear500P helps people hear and understand the television more clearly, once again allowing them to enjoy home entertainment with family and friends while watching their favorite shows, listening to music or playing video games while hearing crisp, clear audio.
With the HyperSound Clear 500P now in the market, Turtle Beach continues to iterate and move HyperSound directed audio technology forward. The Company's recent clinical study was conducted to assess whether HyperSound's higher-frequency directed audio using ultrasound technology, has the potential to reduce Tinnitus, with promising initial results.
"Our latest study included 11 adult patients with chronic Tinnitus who we had listen to a selection of customized acoustic stimuli through HyperSound's work-in-progress Tinnitus application," said Dr. Ritvik Mehta, Founder and Medical Director of the California Hearing & Balance Center. "While sitting in the HyperSound Clear 500P's directed audio beam, subjects in the study experienced impressive reductions in Tinnitus loudness and annoyance. As a hearing healthcare doctor, this early data is very exciting because HyperSound technology now also may have the potential to help people manage chronic Tinnitus without wearing any type of headset, offering a future sleeping solution for many Tinnitus patients suffering from insomnia. Again, these are early findings and there's certainly more research and product development to be done, but even preliminarily, this is great news for the hearing healthcare market."
To further research and test their latest Tinnitus findings, Turtle Beach will show a prototype version of its new Tinnitus add-on feature for the HyperSound Clear 500P at this year's AudiologyNOW! Convention and Expo in order to garner additional feedback. The convention takes place Wednesday, April 13-16 at The Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona and the HyperSound team will be at booth #1159, located at the opposite end of the Main Entrance, by the Concessions area between Hall 4 and Hall 5.
To learn more about HyperSound technology and the HyperSound Clear 500P, please visit the official website at https://hypersoundhearing.com. Also, a HyperSound presentation has been made available on the investor relations section of Turtle Beach's website at https://corp.turtlebeach.com/investor-relations.
About Turtle Beach Corporation
Turtle Beach Corporation (https://corp.turtlebeach.com) designs innovative, market-leading audio products for the consumer, healthcare and commercial sectors. Under its award-winning Turtle Beach brand (www.turtlebeach.com), the Company has been the clear market share leader for the past five-plus years with its wide selection of acclaimed gaming headsets for use with Xbox One and PlayStation®4, as well as personal computers and mobile/tablet devices. Under the HyperSound brand (www.hypersound.com), the Company markets pioneering directed audio solutions that have applications in hearing healthcare, digital signage and kiosks and consumer electronics. The Company's shares are traded on the NASDAQ Exchange under the symbol: HEAR. Visit also the HyperSound Expo Page on AudiologyOnline.
1 Source: American Tinnitus Association website. Retrieved from https://www.ata.org/understanding-facts.
2 Mehta, R., Mattson, S., & Seitzman, R., Kappus, B. (2015, August). Speech recognition in the sound field: directed audio vs. conventional speakers. Audiology Online, Article 14901. Retrieved from https://www.audiologyonline.com. Dr. Mehta and Dr. Mattson are paid consultants of Turtle Beach.
