When the TV entertains the whole house
MAKING TELEVISION A LISTENING EXPERIENCE AGAIN
MODERN TECHNOLOGY MAKES EVENING TELEVISION A PLEASURE AGAIN
The movie is just getting dramatic: the hero of the story is finally confessing to his beloved that he… but why isn’t he speaking more clearly? It’s hard to make him out from my armchair. Then the garbage truck drives by on the street—and all the suspense is gone.
Why can’t the sound be as clear as if the actors were right there in the room? Why does everything sound so flat and hard to make out? The days when you’d instinctively move closer to the TV when something important was happening should be long gone. And let’s be honest: just turning up the volume isn’t a solution either. The noise isn’t pleasant, and it doesn’t actually make the actors any easier to understand.
The TV sound is often poor
More complex doesn't automatically mean better
Sound design for films is a complex tapestry of music, ambient sounds, sound effects, special effects, action sounds, and, of course, dialogue. And today’s television sound is hardly comparable to that of earlier times. The era of 5.1 home cinema aims to provide viewers with the most immersive cinematic experience possible on their home television sets. Loud music and spectacular sound effects are part of this, which quickly pushes televisions with “standard” audio output to their limits and makes listening tiring.
New techniques in film production, as well as the ultra-slim designs of modern devices, are leading to a decline in speech intelligibility. Good sound requires space. With slim devices and their corresponding speakers, that space is virtually nonexistent. As a result, dialogue is harder to understand today than ever before.
This is especially true when hearing begins to decline as well.
Reason #1 for visiting a hearing care professional
Good hearing is essential for social interaction. While our loved ones adapt to our developing hearing loss—for example, by simply speaking a little louder—the television does not. The TV thus acts as a “truth machine”: in front of it, we must admit to ourselves for the first time that something is wrong with our ears.
The fact is: Not being able to hear the TV anymore is the main reason why people with hearing loss visit an ENT specialist or go straight to a hearing care professional.
As far as speech intelligibility on TV is concerned, this step can be postponed for now. That’s because a technical innovation solves the problem in its own unique and elegant way.
Hearing is deteriorating
It’s only natural that our hearing declines over time. We lose the ability to filter spoken words out of distracting noises. We may still hear well, but the typical TV mix of dialogue, music, and background noise pushes us to our limits.
A healthy ear can perceive both very low (starting at 16 hertz) and very high (up to 20 kilohertz) sounds. It can detect sounds at a wide range of sound levels, from the drop of a pin to the takeoff of a jet aircraft. The lower limit of the hearing range is called the hearing threshold, and the upper limit is called the pain threshold. The hearing range important for speech and music lies between approximately 50 hertz and 4 kilohertz.
Hearing loss / Shift in hearing threshold
OSKAR makes TV dialogs good entertainment again
VOICE-OPTIMIZED SOUND DIRECTLY AT YOUR SEAT
How wonderful it would be right now to be right in the thick of things, rather than just being there. And that’s exactly what’s possible—with the help of OSKAR, a true innovation. This compact and user-friendly device uses technology that transmits even the quietest sounds to your couch, as well as to the next room or bathroom, as if they were being spoken “live” right there. Crystal clear. Background noise is filtered out, and voices are optimized. Suddenly, you can understand every word again. Even if you wear a hearing aid!
With OSKAR , your TV finally OSKAR clearly again—at a normal volume. Your partner and neighbors will be happy about that.
