Devices Designed for the “Average” Do Not Cut It for People with Hearing Loss
The sound profiles of televisions, smartphones, earphones and loudspeakers sound good to most people.
That is because most electronic devices are designed for the “average” of the population.
The issue is that nobody is “average.” How we perceive sounds across the frequency spectrum varies dramatically.
Some of us require a boost at frequencies where our hearing is less sensitive.
However, usually, our only option is to turn up the master volume, which boosts all of the frequencies.
To someone with hearing loss, this makes the television sound distorted or unnatural, and the loudening of frequencies where the hearing is relatively good could cause further hearing damage.
To make the TV experience safer and more enjoyable, Incus has teamed up with TCL to integrate hearing health features into the award-winning TCL C12 Quantum Dot Mini LED Smart TV.
Hearing Test and Sound Personalisation in TCL C12
Hearing test and sound personalisation features engineered by Incus come pre-installed in TCL C12 televisions.
Now available to consumers in Mainland China, the television offers the ability to tune sounds to the watcher’s unique hearing profile.
The first step towards a personalised listening experience is to complete a hearing test covering six frequency bands in the 500 - 6,000 Hz range. Once the test is finished, the result can be used to personalise all sounds played through the loudspeakers of the television.
Personalised Sounds Directly from the Television
Streaming personalised audio from Bluetooth-enabled televisions was already possible with devices like the Kite smart personal sound amplifier.
The sound personalisation feature found in the TCL C12 television works out of the box without requiring any accessories, transmitters, or Bluetooth device.
A Growing Opportunity: Time Spent Watching TV On the Rise Among Seniors in the United States
Senior citizens are spending more and more time in front of the television, and populations are ageing. Because of this, seniors are becoming an increasingly important audience for not only television manufacturers but consumer electronics manufacturers in general.
A graph showing the average daily time spent watching TV per capita in the United States by age group (2015-2019). Source
Since there is a link between older age and worse hearing ability, we anticipate that consumers will opt for devices that can serve their audio needs well.
