Interview: High society

Sir Rocco Forte doesn’t look 62; he looks like a jet-setting luxury hotel owner who enjoys competing in triathlons. He also happens to be hard of hearing, which he blames on his years of shooting game, ­ probably that and nightclubs! (and possibly a car smash), he says, although he gave up discos long ago in favour of endurance sports.

Sir Rocco owns a growing chain of five star hotels in the UK, and major cities in Europe. It's an impressive comeback for a man who lost the Trusthouse Forte empire to a hostile takeover bid in 1996. The dramatic takeover by Granada was a huge blow, not least because his father had founded the company, but it left him very rich. He succeeded in upping the price for shareholders, with his family gaining £300million from the sale, but he never intended to lose the business in that way.

Product review: Listen up

A new array of personal listeners has been launched in the last few years, as Kevin Taylor reports If you sometimes strain to hear your television or find that you miss the odd word in conversation, a personal listener may help to fill in the gaps by making the sound you want to hear louder and clearer. You may have seen ads in newspapers and magazines for listening devices that claim to capture the faintest whisper ­ and wondered whether they could help. But it is the specialist suppliers (such as RNID Products) that offer listening devices with features that make them particularly useful for people with mild to  moderate hearing loss. Many have a tone control, allowing you to boost the high frequencies, for example. Some can be connected directly to a TV, radio or hi-fi for optimal sound quality, which you may find useful, even if you have a hearing aid.  

Hearing aids: They're listening

In issue 58, we reported what you thought about your hearing aids and the ways in which you felt they could be improved. We then asked some leading hearing aid manufacturers to respond to your comments. Here is an excerpt of the first reply from Siemens Hearing Instruments:
 
"When developing new models of hearing aid, we also look at our analysis of the reliability of parts and components. This has led to some of the changes mentioned in the recent article in One in Seven. Many readers commented on the difficulty of switching their aid on and off using the battery door and would prefer to return to a switch. The switch had previously proved to be one of the most unreliable components and so we investigated a new solution, resulting in the on/off function being added to the battery door. However, following the report in the magazine and feedback from other customers and professionals, we realised that hearing aid users do not like this type of on/off arrangement. To improve customer satisfaction and maintain reliability, we have made it possible for the audiology professional who programmes the aid to set it up for you so that, instead of using the battery door for on/off, the programme-change push button will also work as an on/off switch."