Clarity Alto Proves Compliance with New Sound Amplification Standards of Telephone Industry

By Calvin Azuri

TMCnet Contributor

 

Clarity recently announced that Alto, its new amplified home telephone, has successfully completed certification under the new TIA (News - Alert)-4953 industry standard for sound amplification on telephones for the hearing impaired.

Clarity specializes in smart communication solutions designed for people with hearing loss, low vision, limited mobility, dexterity issues, and other health-related challenges.

'These new requirements are critically important for improving telephone conversations for the millions in need in the hearing loss community," said Carsten Trads, president of Clarity (News - Alert). "People with hearing loss can be confident that telephones that have passed the requirements in the new TIA standard will really help them to hear and understand speech better. Clarity is proud to be the first and lead our industry forward to meet these new standards.'

While amplified telephones have been widely used across the industry, with the publishing of the new TIA-4953 standard in May 2012, a new benchmark for telephones developed specifically for the hearing impaired has been established.

The newly published TIA-4953 standard effectively ensures that consumers with hearing challenges are provided with information which establishes the communication advantages of specific telephone models.

'It's only been four months since TIA published the new detailed set of requirements in the TIA-4953 standard, and Clarity's Alto model is the first telephone AST has tested that meets all TIA-4953 requirements," said AST president James Bress.  "The requirements established in TIA-4953 were engineered based on the needs of people with hearing loss, so a telephone meeting this standard should provide the best possible sound output to optimize the intelligibility of speech. We look forward to testing many more telephones that address the needs and concerns of people with hearing loss.'

The TIA-4953 standard helps in verifying specific performance metrics in various telephone models that have been designed for use by consumers with mild, moderate to severe hearing loss. The standard is established via a series of stringent laboratory-based testing methods and test equipment.

The telephones are measured for sound amplification (volume control gain), tone control, sound level of ringer and simulated use for hearing aid devices. The telephone sound output is required to address critical noise and distortion requirements.