Evaluation of Speech Recognition with Personal FM and Classroom Audio Distribution Systems

Speech recognition in quiet and in noise was evaluated for children with normal hearing, children with hearing loss, and adults with normal hearing. Performance was evaluated in a classroom environment without use of wireless radio frequency (RF) hearing assistance technology (HAT) and with two different types of classroom audio distribution (CAD) systems (a fi xed-gain multiple loudspeaker system and an adaptive single-tower CAD system). Children’s speech recognition was also assessed with an adaptive personal frequency modulation (FM) system coupled to their personal hearing aids as well as with simultaneous use of the personal FM system with the aforementioned CAD systems. The results of this study indicated that performance in quiet was similar between the condition without RF use and each of the conditions with use of RF HAT. However, speech recognition in noise was signifi cantly better with use of each of the RF HAT. Use of the adaptive single tower CAD system provided better speech recognition in noise than use of the fi xed-gain multiple loudspeaker CAD system. The best performance was achieved with the adaptive personal FM system and simultaneous use of the personal FM and adaptive single tower CAD system with no differences between those conditions. Performance with simultaneous use of the personal and adaptive CAD system was considerably better than performance obtained with simultaneous use of the personal and fi xed-gain, multiple loudspeaker system. Adults with normal hearing achieved better performance across all conditions when compared to children with normal hearing, while children with normal hearing outperformed children with hearing loss.