In its biggest launch, GN has released a new portfolio featuring innovative hearing aid families, including an Auracast Assistant to enable direct connection from hearing aids to Auracast broadcast.
Hearing aid manufacturer GN is continuing its history of innovation by launching its “most intelligent hearing portfolio yet”. It features best hearing in noise technology for Beltone Envision – the industry’s smallest AI-powered hearing aid – plus a new Auracast-enabled essentials range, Beltone Commence.
GN launched the Beltone Envision and Beltone Commence ranges in Australia and New Zealand in April 2025 including at the Audiology Australia 2025 Conference in Adelaide. ReSound Vivia and ReSound Savi with the same features launched in the countries in May 2025.
The new product features are spread across GN’s entire portfolio of brands, including ReSound (Vivia and Savi), and key accounts such as Hearing Australia.
It’s welcome news for independent audiology practice owners around Australia and New Zealand who have access to a raft of new technologies in GN hearing aids.
For example, a new True Focus feature in Beltone Envision responds to the direction a person is looking, allowing AI to prioritise sound based on where the user looks.
The company has also introduced a groundbreaking, world-first Auracast Assistant to connect from its hearing aid apps to Auracast broadcast audio. The new ranges feature connectivity to Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast across all Beltone Envision and Beltone Commence technology levels (2/3 to 17).
Plus, GN says the new Deep Neural Network (DNN) chip in Beltone Envision is up to 17 times more efficient than other leading hearing solutions with directionality and DNN noise reduction, resulting in significant improvement to speech understanding.
Industry’s smallest AI hearing aid
In Beltone Envision, GN says it has pioneered a unique approach to AI that mimics the brain’s natural sound processing via the True Focus feature to create a superior hearing experience in noise.
“This breakthrough technology is packed in the industry’s smallest AI-powered RIE (receiver in ear) offering all-day battery power and comfort without compromise,” it says.
The Beltone Envision microRIE style offers 30 hours wear on one battery charge and 20 hours of use for a typical day using a combination of True Focus and streaming.
“Powered by a dedicated DNN chip trained on 13.5 million spoken sentences in various languages that spotlights speech and eliminates distracting noise, it offers the best solution for hearing in noise without cutting people off from the world around them,” GN says.
The chip trains the AI to recognise and suppress thousands of unwanted noises while highlighting sounds and voices that users want to hear, ensuring a clearer and more focused listening experience.
“Beltone Envision delivers unparalleled sound quality in noisy environments and all-day comfort without compromising size or battery life. Central to this innovation is GN’s unique human approach to AI, which models the brain’s natural sound processing capability to create voice clarity in complex listening environments.”
Direction response
True Focus responds to the direction the wearer is looking, ensuring the AI enhances sounds based on the user’s natural response to their environment. The proprietary technology provides a more natural and effortless listening experience, even in challenging situations like noisy restaurants or crowded venues, GN says.
“Studies show Beltone Envision offers the industry’s best hearing in noise experience, with 64% of users experiencing improved hearing in noisy environments compared to other AI hearing solutions, so they can enjoy conversations with greater ease and understanding,” GN says.
And Beltone Envision was preferred 89% of the time using the True Focus feature for hearing in noise compared to GN legacy devices.
Mr Scott Davis, hearing division president at GN, says the new Beltone families represent a significant leap forward and mean GN can continue offering the most advanced hearing aids that cater to all lifestyles, budgets, and types of hearing loss.
Mr Brian Dam Pedersen, GN’s chief technology officer, head of research and technology, adds: “With Beltone Envision, we’ve fundamentally reimagined how AI can enhance the hearing experience.
“Our unique True Focus feature mimics natural human behavior, allowing the AI to prioritise sounds based on where the user is looking, not just how loud they are. This creates a far more intuitive and natural listening experience, seamlessly integrating with the user’s own perception of their environment and ensuring the user is in control and is the decision maker.
“It’s not just about amplifying sound; it’s about intelligently enhancing sounds that matter most.”
Beltone Envision is available in a microRIE rechargeable and two non-rechargeable RIE models, including a CROS model in the microRIE style, in a variety of colors including new navy blue. Beltone Commence is available in a new miniRIE rechargeable and two non-rechargeable RIE models in five colors.
Key features of Beltone Envision include:
• Advanced noise management and voice clarity: Cutting-edge AI excels at managing and reducing background noise, allowing wearers to clearly hear and engage.
• New, comfortable designs: The microRIE smallest option offers a discreet fit with a gently curved shape, while updated RIE styles are also ergonomically designed for all-day comfort. A variety of colours include new navy blue.
• Effortless streaming: Users easily stream TV audio, music, and more directly to hearing aids for crystal-clear sound and take phone or video calls hands-free by tapping their ear or device.
• Compatibility with Auracast: This enables people to stay connected to news, entertainment and public broadcasts through hearing aids.
All-over IP68 coatings make Beltone Envision and Beltone Commence weatherproof and sweatproof. They’re available in rechargeable and replaceable battery styles, with the rechargeable option providing all-day power on a single charge.
Beltone Commence essentials range is suitable for people with mild to profound hearing loss and combines innovative technology and updated designs.
The first-of-its-kind Auracast Assistant feature enables users to connect to Auracast. Beltone Envision and Beltone Commence wearers access Auracast via a single tap in the Beltone HearMax app.
The process simplifies selecting Auracast streams, even with smartphones and devices that don’t yet have an Auracast assistant built in.
At a pre-launch event in Sydney in March, Mr Christopher Brew, training manager with GN ANZ, explained that hearing aid manufacturers had gone to Bluetooth requesting an upgrade which became Auracast.
Classic Bluetooth allows for a one-to-one connection between one person and one device, while Auracast enables many people to connect to one stream, he said. Auracast allows electronic devices to broadcast simultaneously to an unlimited number of nearby audio devices with Bluetooth LE Audio.
“You don’t need to pair to an Auracast streamer because it’s broadcast audio across the Bluetooth spectrum,” he said. For example, Auracast can connect thousands of people at an airport to its public broadcast system to hear flight announcements, and connect users in other public places such as theatres, restaurants and arenas.
Ms Rebecca McAneaney, GN country manager New Zealand, told the same event that GN’s organic hearing philosophy kept the user at the centre to create a hearing experience which sounded and felt natural. In keeping with this, the new devices were based around ‘intelligence augmented’.
McAneaney said GN was making changes to better support independent practitioners. It is introducing improvements to fitting software, alignment of domes and receivers for optimal comfort and acoustic performance across the new portfolio, and exchangeable mic filters for easy care to improve hygiene and device longevity. These enhancements aim to streamline clinic workflow, improve fitting accuracy, and enhance user experience.
Intelligence augmented
Ms Megan Quilter, lead audiologist, global audiology, global medical affairs, GN Hearing, said sound was the undercurrent of life all around us, so we sometimes forgot it was there. GN’s hearing aids made the sounds that matter rise above, she said, and its new hearing aids were based on intelligence augmented.
“Intelligence augmented puts the human front and centre, with help from the machines to empower the human,” she said. “We are not replacing human intelligence.”
Intelligence augmented included machine learning, deep learning and deep neural networks (DNNs). DNNs were a gamechanger in AI and the “muscle” behind deep learning, she said. A DNN is a type of artificial neural network to mimic the human brain and includes an input layer, two hidden layers where learning happens, and an output layer.
Trained on 13.5 million speech sentences
Quilter said the DNN was trained on enormous datasets of real-world sound. GN trained the dual chip on 13.5 million speech sentences or 3.5 years of continuous sentences, across 3.9 million tuned sound parameters. The dual chip can do 4.9 trillion operations a day to spotlight speech and reduce background noise.
“That’s a powerhouse we are putting into the smallest AI hearing aid in the world,” she said.
Ms Lisa McBride, product and audiology manager, GN Hearing Australia, said: “This is the biggest launch we’ve ever done. It’s not just one new product but a whole new portfolio and our most intelligent portfolio yet.
“Beltone Envision with DualChip is the highest form of intelligence augmented, including a 360-chip co-processor with warp, environmental classification and beamforming, and the noise reduction DNN chip co-processor which filters out noise and replicates clean speech signal.
“The third part is the human brain which makes the decision. Together, this is the highest form of intelligence augmented.”
For more information see GN.com
