Bernafon Brite Hearing Aids Win Prestigious Red-Dot Design Award

Shortly after my 80-year-old mother-in-law got a CIC (completely-in-the-canal) hearing aid, we got a panicked phone call one evening. “I just ate my hearing aid,” she screamed into the phone.

It seems she had mistakenly dropped her small hearing-aid into a bowl of nuts, and when she grabbed a handful, she chewed it right up. I chalked up the mishap to her age and her failing eyesight, but with the release of Bernafon’s family of Brite hearing aids, I’m more sympathetic to anyone who might make the same mistake. The new hearing aids look like little pieces of fruit, small vegetables or candy. And they’ve won the prestigious Red Dot award for design. Bernafon is a susbidiary of the William Demant holding group, which owns other prestigious brands including leading hearing-aid maker Oticon as well as Sennheiser, the manufacturer of high-end headsets and other hearing-enhancement products. The new Brite hearing aids feature leading-edge features as well as leading-edge design.

Their open-fit speaker-in-the-ear technology reduces feedback and attaches through a barely visible wire to a very small processor unit with directional microphones that sits behind the ear. A number of other hearing-aid manufacturers have similar designs and technology in a product class that has given a boost to hearing-aid sales to baby boomers who need hearing assistance but who also are demanding high-end design in their audio elecronics products. With more than 6,000 entries, the Red-Dot Awards are one of the world’s largest design competitions, highlighting factors such as innovation, functionality, quality, ergonimics, durability, symbolic and emotional content, and ecological compatibiity.