Selex Communication has just released a radio headset that promises hearing protection, situational awareness (SA), and communication system compatibility.

Hearing protection on the battlefield has always been a compromise between situational awareness and effective sound attenuation. Bone conduction speakers and mics, frequency filtration, active noise reduction and occlusive enclosures have all been used with varying degrees of success.

The new system, called ITE (In The Ear), is made of three components; an in-the-ear stereo headset, a replacement Personal Role Radio (PRR) switch pack and the CTX triple input push-to-talk input. The earpieces are used with either the switch pack or the CTX module depending on which radio system you have at hand.

The headset looks like a pair of foam tipped, in-the-ear iPod headphones. The foam alone provides 29db of passive noise attenuation. But, inside each side is a set of microphones, facing fore and aft, that enables frequency-specific active noise reduction while passing safe sound levels of ambient noise to the wearer.

The combination of foam and electronics provide a cumulative noise reduction rating of up to 40db, depending on the frequency of the sound. The fore and aft facing earpiece mounted mics serve two purposes. First, they provide SA by passing through spatially accurate representations of surrounding noise so the wearer can tell where a sound came from. For this SA mode, the mics combine with digital signal processors (DSPs) encapsulated in either the replacement PRR switch pack or the CTX controller. Second, the mics use a form of bone conduction to relay the wearers voice into the attached radio without a boom mic.

Photo: Courtesy Selex

The PRR switch pack is modular and can be swapped out in the field with the twist of a few screws and is compatible with single or dual radio PRRs. The low power system has a negligible effect on the PRRs 24 hour battery life. A selector switch lets the wearer disable the SA system so no ambient sound is retransmitted through the earphones

The second interface is the CTX. It allows the headset to be simultaneously connected to two separate radios and an intercom system. It also sports an auxiliary headset connector for use with a secondary head/handset and an internal backup battery to keep the SA system running when disconnected from the host radios.

Actual pricing depends on many factors but the ballpark is about 400 GBP for the ITE PRR switch pack upgrade kit and 650 GBPs for the ITE CTX triple interface kit. The system is available now from Selex Communication.