Roger Background Noise

[Rathish]

Hi All

My 12 year old son is hesitant to use roger for his Med-El CI (Sonnet) citing that it increases background noises and though he can hear the teacher clearly, he has trouble listening to his peers at the same time while in classroom.
I happen to hear from a Cochlear user that the mix between speaker loudness to ambient loudness can be adjusted by the audiologist.

Does anyone has experience with this ? Med-El Fine tuner remote has a sensitivity adjustment (with picture of ears)  with high/low adjustment which is inactive in our remote at the moment. Is that something which can be used to adjust the relative ratio ?

Thanks

Rathish

[Mary Beth]

@Rathish

The sensitivity setting of the Sonnet is not the way to adjust the mix ratio.

Some Roger transmitters can have the gain of the Roger audio adjusted.  Which Roger transmitter is being used?

Also many Sonnet users report a slight dampening of the Sonnet volume when the Roger 21 is attached.  A work around is to have the audiologist slightly increase the volume in a new “Sonnet 21 use” MAP or if the volume can be increased via the remote, to adjust it that way.

Your son’s report of having difficulty hearing his classmates well while using Roger is very important as there is a lot of important audio in class that does not come through a teacher worn Roger mic.  I hope you can find a solution soon.

[Mary Beth]

If he is using the Roger Touchscreen Mic, you can easily adjust the gain (volume of the Roger) through the settings option.  If he is using two Roger 21 receivers, each needs to be adjusted separately.

 

[Rathish]

Thanks @Mary Beth for your quick and detailed response. Really appreciate it.

He uses Roger 21 (the one that comes as a Med-EL cover and touch screen mic).

You suggestion to use an alternate map makes a lot of sense. He haven't been using his remote so far, but being in high school I think he can take it and adjust it as necessary.

The Easy gain adjustment is already at the lowest setting (ie., minimum dB from the mic). But that doesn't seems to do it.We are having a meeting with an audiologist from Hearing Australia in the coming week (We just ordered the microphone testing kit and adapter helping them to test the microphone as well) and once we get a better understanding we will schedule a visit with his audiologist who does the mapping to have an alternate mapping.

In the meanwhile, I am planning to ask him to take the Fine Tuner to have a go adjusting the volume himself. Your mention about "Your son’s report of having difficulty hearing his classmates well while using Roger is very important as there is a lot of important audio in class that does not come through a teacher worn Roger mic"  - is something I overlooked before. Thanks for bringing that to my notice and hope the above steps will help to reach a solution. 

Thanks again for your suggestions.

 

 

[Mary Beth]

@Rathish

you are welcome.

 

For me the slight dampening of my Sonnet volume when the Roger21 is attached is noticeable and bothersome.  If I was going to use Roger21, I would need a different MAP that brought my Sonnet mic volume back up to normal.

[Rathish]

@Mary Beth

I have been having a chat with my son and he feels there is no actual dampening of sound when the roger is connected - it is just the roger mic seems too loud.

In that case I was wondering what to try next as Easygain is at the lowest position.. Any ideas ?

May be a foolish question - But, is it possible to have a "higher  volume" mapping and then use the remote button to bring down the overall volume as I presume the roger input will stay the same ?

Thanks

[Mary Beth]

@Rathish

I am glad to hear that your son isn’t experiencing an overall dampening of sound.

The Roger System amplifies its audio but easy gain set at its lowest possible volume (this is a setting that is saved in each Roger21 receiver) should offset that.  Possibly try again with each Roger21 receiver to be sure easy gain is actually set at its lowest setting.  
 

I have not heard of this issue after adjusting easy gain and we use Roger Touchscreen Mic in our schools with our deaf and hard-if-hearing students.

Does your school have another Touchscreen Mic you can try?  Maybe something is wrong with the Touchscreen Mic or the Roger21?

[Rathish]

@Mary Beth

I now have a doubt as my son told that the school uses their own Phonak mic and probably it is not set to the lowest in that mic ? But I expect them to know that -as it is not a feature of Med-El per se and there are other students using cochlear device (His school has a separate  deaf school inside campus providing support). Moreover, we never adjusted the Easygain on his device and it was already set to the lowest (not default '0' position). So I presume they changed it already ?

The other confusion is whether the setting is related to the mic or the receiver to which it is connected ? If it is the receiver (FM attachment), then there is nothing to test. if it is the mic, then there is still hope to try that out as I visit the school and has an appointment with the visiting audiologist coming Monday.

Agreed that 8 dB difference is good enough to make a change. I will let you know what I found after the visit.

Thanks for all your insights ! 

[Mary Beth]

@Rathish

We use any Touchscreen mic to separately change the easy gain of each Roger 21 receiver.  Then that is stored in the Roger 21 receivers.  So if you have only one Roger 21 receiver powered on and connected to your mic and go into settings to easy gain and again select -8 dB… then do the same exact thing with the other Roger 21 receiver …. They will be at that setting when they connect at school.

At school we use one Touchscreen Mic with several students in the same classroom often.  Each student’s receivers can be set individually for the correct gain.

As an aside, we have never needed to adjust easy gain all the way down to -8.  
 

Keep us posted.  I hope you find a way to balance loudness for your son.

[Mary Beth]

@Rathish

one more thought to add to above…

have the Sonnet mic covers been changed recently?  If not, it is another thing to try.  I notice a change in audio quality through my Sonnet mics between 2-3 months so I set a reminder on my phone to repeat every 2 months to keep things sounding great.  Med-El recommends every 3 months or sooner if sound quality is diminished.

[Rathish]

@Mary Beth

Sorry for the late response. Was a hectic week!

Yes, we do change the mic covers every 3 months. Also He haven't reported reported in quality of the sound from the processor per se.

We had a meeting with the visiting audiologist finally and went through all the possibilities. The easy gain showed the -8dB setting when connected with the school's mic which we expected anyways as the setting is saved in the processor. She also says that it is best to talk with our hospital to have an alternate mapping. So  that is the next step and may take a bit as we need to obtain an appointment. Will let you know on the outcome when it finally happens.

Thanks for your support.

 

[Dianna]

Hi, just a thought. One of the few controls i have on audiokey 2 is "monitor" off and on. I thought this controled the eas portion. I hear a big difference when this is off....anyone use this in crowded setting?

[Mary Beth]

@Dianna

check this topic out about monitor mode

 

[Dianna]

Thanks mary beth. Kind of figured out sound goes off while messing with it today. Thanks for the splantion.

I am trying to work every thing and setting before my annual visit next month

[Dianna]

Just now, Dianna said:

Thanks mary beth. Kind of figured out sound goes off while messing with it today. Thanks for the splantion.

I am trying to work every thing and setting before my annual visit next month

I found the test device on the fb group page for selling stuff.

[Mary Beth]

@Dianna

now the test device is built into the FineTuner Echo

[Dianna]

Omg, thanks!! I wondered

[Dianna]

1 hour ago, Mary Beth said:

@Dianna

now the test device is built into the FineTuner Echo

Works great, thanks

[M Dodge]

I experienced this in group settings, like restaurants, bars or where a bunch of noise is. To solve this, my audiologist established a separate program that allows me to focus on the person or sound right in front of me. I still hear the sound in the background, but not enough to drown out what is going on in front of me. I hear what is being said within about 4 feet without straining or asking a person to repeat. This is all within reason to the environment. It's nice to be able to switch programs on my finetuner or phone. The phone app tells me says I use this second program about half the time compared to my first program. It's handy for me.