Effects of Integrated Hearing Protection Headsets on the Quality of Radio Communications (Effets des Casques D'ecoute Munis d'un Dispositif Integre de Protection de L'Ouie sur la Qualite des Communications Radio)

摘要

The speech intelligibility of a personal role radio (PRR) with integrated hearing protection headsets (IHPH) was investigated. The standard PRR communication headset is comprised of a one-sided earcup and a boom microphone, and does not provide hearing protection. IHPH devices provide simultaneous hearing protection, communication and enhanced hearing capability. Two different tests of speech intelligibility were used (modified rhyme test MRT) and speech perception in noise SPIN to evaluate the quality of radioed speech over the standard PRR headset (SH), the Nacre QuietPro (QP) and the Silynx QuietOpsTM (QO). The highest scores on the MRT and SPIN tests in background noise were obtained using the SH, followed by the QP and the QO. However, the QP was given a higher total user acceptance rating score than the SH. Both the QP and SH were rated relatively higher than the QO. Given that hearing protection will be required in most operational environments, the QP provided the best combination of speech quality, hearing protection and usability.