DIY - Self Programming the Oticon Opn – How To

Just a quick note - the 3rd part of Don Schum’s course on “Complex VS Standard Fittings” has been posted on the Audiologyonline web site. This one is also an hour long and deals with fitting more complex hearing loss situations.

Thanks for announcing this third part. I just got done watching it. I didn’t get as much out of this one simply because the other 2 parts are more basic where there are a lot of basic things I could learn from. This one is quite advanced and while it’s still interesting, it’s probably more interesting for the hearing professionals than it is for me because I don’t have complex hearing losses. But for those who do, it’d definitely be something worth watching.

I agree - I didn’t get as much out of it either but I did pick up a few things here and there. Now I just wish that Oticon would come out with a nice detailed tutorial on programming aids with Genie 2. I think I have pretty much figured it out but it would be nice to have a good long session where they tie it all together in the context of how to setup programs for different fittings.

wow i found that it has subtitles if anyone is not able to hear well they can turn on subtitle english version only.
at bootom on right side end corner = has three desh like that select english

@Volusiano said:

Gabriella Fillips from Oticon did a session on Genie 2 programming tutorial on this same website. Have you seen it yet? I think the combination of this tutorial she gave plus the help menu online is pretty helpful.

Yes, I have watched her presentation on Genie 2. It was helpful but I would like to see something a bit more in depth. I agree that the help menu is also helpful and I have used it quite a bit.

By the way, I found that there is a course on the OpenSound Navigator entitled “A Deeper Look at OpenSound Navigator”, also by Don Schum and also about an hour long. Here is the link to it:

Audiology | Continuing Education at AudiologyOnline

1000+ online continuing education courses by expert presenters and companies in audiology and hearing healthcare. ASHA, AAA, IHS, CAA, CASLPA, BAA and other offerings available.

I haven’t watch it yet but plan to soon.

edit - I just finished watching it and found it quite informative. In the last 5 minutes of the presentation he does the best explanation I have seen of the differences between OPN 1, OPN 2 and OPN 3. Definitely worth the time spent…

@GeekMan said:

By the way, I found that there is a course on the OpenSound Navigator entitled “A Deeper Look at OpenSound Navigator”, also by Don Schum and also about an hour long. Here is the link to it:

audiologyonline.com

A Deeper Look at OpenSound Navigator | 28406 | Hearing Aids - Adults

As professionals have experienced very positive feedback on the effects of OpenSound Navigator�, the time is right to dig deeper into the workings of this important new approach to signal processing. New recordings of OpenSound Navigator&

I haven’t watch it yet but plan to soon.

edit - I just finished watching it and found it quite informative. In the last 5 minutes of the presentation he does the best explanation I have seen of the differences between OPN 1, OPN 2 and OPN 3. Definitely worth the time spent…

Yes, I’ve just finished watching this, too. This, combined with the white paper on the OpenSound Navigator, should help give you a very good picture of what the core signal processing technology of the OPN is about and why it’s different from the traditional noise reduction approach via beam forming.

The example charts of how they’re able to reduce noise even at the phoneme level is great, but I’ve always wished they had an actual example of how it actually SOUNDS like with the noise reduction on, not just how it looks like. For example, play an actual short conversation without any noise reduction, with the OSN noise reduction, and perhaps even with a fully directional beam forming set up of the same conversation.

They can also give actual acoustical examples of that to demonstrate the differences between the OPN 1, 2 and 3. Play a conversation piece in noise with the OPN 1 level of noise reduction, then the 2 level, then the 3 level. Or at least, provide example charts like they did at the phenome level between the 1, 2, and 3.

They made special mention of how important Spatial Sound LX and Speech Guard LX are to OSN, and specifically how they’ve been updated/improved specifically for OSN. But they totally failed to explain what the differences are between Level 1, 2, and 3 for Speech Guard LX, or what it means by 4 estimators vs 2 estimators for Spatial Sound LX.

At least on the other parameters that are different between the 1, 2, and 3, it’s quantifiable (9dB vs 5dB vs 3dB, or 100% vs 50% vs 50%, 10KHz vs 8KHz vs 8KHz, 64 channels vs 48 vs 48, for the 1, 2, and 3 respectively). But Speech Guard LX Level 1, 2, and 3 has no meaning at all. Nor is there any explanation on what a Spatial Sound LX estimator is.

I also assume that you already watched the session titled “OpenSound Navigator: A Paradigm Shift in Attacking the Noise Problem” as well.

This one I see that the subtitle is available.

@Volusiano said:

Well, I found a text-based course on audiologyonline.com titled “Issues Impacting People with Hearing and Listening Problems and Oticon’s Opn Solution” that touches a little bit on Spatial Sound LX to give not too much, but just a tiny bit of details on how they implement it. I wonder if the 4 bands they’re talking about corresponds to the 4 estimators available on the OPN 1 (vs the 2 estimators available on the OPN 2 and 3).

That text quote does sound like exactly what you thought about the 4 estimators so I guess that answers that question. I would have to assume that OPN 2 and 3 have less processing power than 1 and thus lower cost.

@GeekMan said:

I would have to assume that OPN 2 and 3 have less processing power than 1 and thus lower cost.

I think you’d be surprised to find out that the OPN 2 and 3 are exactly the same physical design and manufacturing device as the OPN 1. It does not make sense for Oticon to spend more design money and manufacturing setup to fabricate different designs for the OPN 2 and 3. And it wouldn’t have cost less to do this, it would have cost them more to have 3 NRE costs (non-recurring engineering cost) and maintain 3 different mfg lines running.

So all they really do is disable functionality on the premium design via firmware to create the OPN 2 and OPN 3. It really seems like a crime for a company to cripple functionality on a perfectly good device to come up with less premium versions of it to sell at lower price, but that’s a reality of it and many companies do this to expand their market share, Oticon included.

If one can reverse engineer the firmware of the OPN somehow, one can restore an OPN 3 to have full functionality like an OPN 1. The hard part (probably almost impossible part) is to reverse engineer this firmware, of course.

Yeah, you are probably right about them just disabling some of the features via firmware. This is commonly done with computer hardware too. As you say, it is a reality of the marketplace. I wonder if they will ever offer an “upgrade” to turn on the missing features for a fee?

The car I drive (Jeep Cherokee) can be purchased without the navigation option which can be “turned on” by paying the dealer about $600. They just provide a code to key into the system that enables navigation (which, of course, was there all along but just not turned on).

Thanks for showing it to me. I don’t know why but I don’t see that option on my window.

But the “OpenSound Navigator: A Paradigm Shift in Attacking the Noise Problem” just simply started playing the subtitle automatically without my having that option to select.

@Volusiano said:

But the “OpenSound Navigator: A Paradigm Shift in Attacking the Noise Problem” just simply started playing the subtitle automatically without my having that option to select.

Same thing happened to me. I looked but couldn’t find any way to control the subtitles - either on or off. I was using the Chrome browser with Windows 10.

@Volusiano said:

One thing I dislike about the Directionality Settings of “Full Directional” value is that it ALWAYS produce a very noticeable background static noise on the OPN. Yes, it does seem to block out all sound except in front, but I then am confronted with this unpleasant and noticeable static noise from within the OPN that is very distracting to me. The minute I enable this directionality in my program, this noise (from within the hearing aid) comes on instantly.

I’m currently trying out the Sonic Enchant 100 and sure enough, when I set it to the Fixed Directional mode, this same noticeable background static noise can be heard by me on the Enchant as well. Surely it can’t all be a coincidence, first on my OPN 1, then on the OPN 3, now on the Enchant.

I started reading up on white papers for the Enchant and in the section that talks about directionality, it mentions that there’s an inevitable drop in low frequency response that occurs in directional mode. This causes internal microphone noise levels to increase when directionality is engaged because the system tries to increase the low frequency gains to compensate for this low frequency roll-off. This is my “aha!” moment. I think the mystery is solved. This is the explanation!