Starkey's Zon™ Wins the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's 2008 People's Design Award

Business Wire, Oct 27, 2008

MINNEAPOLIS -- Starkey Laboratories, Inc., one of the world's leading hearing technology companies, is proud to announce that its Zon(TM) hearing aid is the winner of the 2008 People's Design Award presented by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Zon, the best-in-class receiver-in-canal line of products that was launched this year, was one of hundreds of nominations for which thousands of votes were cast during the course of one month on Cooper-Hewitt's website. Zon was in good company, beating out illustrious brands like Adidas, Blackberry and Converse, as well as architectural wonders like the Beijing National Stadium.

"It is a true honor to win such a prestigious award for the design of Zon," said Tim Trine, Chief Technical Officer at Starkey. "We are proud to be recognized for the amazing work our designers and engineers did to create this hearing aid, and we are gratified to know that our extensive research with hearing care professionals and patients helped to create the award-winning Zon."

Developed with Starkey's evidence-based design approach, Zon blends world-class technology with beautiful design, ultimately providing high levels of acceptance and satisfaction for patients. Built out of moisture-resistant material, Zon was designed to minimize the number of touchpoints on wearers' skin with a curved, elegant shape. Even the color options were carefully considered; Starkey worked with respected cosmetics researchers to develop the sophisticated hair and skin-tone color palette, designed to complement and match natural skin tones and hair.

Zon looks great on the outside, but it also provides best-in-class performance through the cutting-edge technology inside. Harnessing the power of BluWave(TM) Signal Processing, Zon virtually eliminates feedback, or the whistling that can be caused by activities such as hugging a loved one or simply being outside on a windy day, with a feature called Active Feedback Intercept (AFI). In addition, when noise environments change as a wearer moves through different situations, the hearing aids change with them thanks to Directional Speech Detector (DSD). DSD provides better speech audibility and, thus, understanding in noisy surroundings like restaurants.

The People's Design Award was created and is presented by Cooper-Hewitt as part of the organization's National Design Awards that take place during National Design Week, a public education initiative. Nominees for the award included everything from everyday items and classic design to architecture and socially responsible creations.

About Starkey Laboratories

Starkey Laboratories, Inc. is a privately held, global hearing technology company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minn. The company is recognized for its innovative design, development and distribution of comprehensive digital hearing systems. Founded in 1967, Starkey currently employs over 3,500 people, operates 25 facilities and conducts business in over 100 markets worldwide. The Starkey Laboratories family of companies operates a number of divisions including Audibel, Micro-Tech, NU-EAR and Starkey. For more information, visit www.starkeypro.com.