New Products from Ortovox: The Focus Voice and Focus Pro Beacons

Ortovox's history is closely tied to the development of the beacon. In 1980, the company launched the F2, a device capable of transmitting and receiving on both frequencies in use at the time. The next major step came in 1994 with the F1 Focus and its optical search aid. Since then, a lot has changed—and not just at Ortovox. Simple single-antenna devices have evolved into digital three-antenna devices; range and signal processing have improved, and ease of use has become an increasingly central focus. After all, even the best technology is of little help if it doesn’t work intuitively under time pressure, stress, and with cold fingers.

Voice Navigation

Ortovox took a rather unusual path in 2021 with the Diract Voice. For the first time, a beacon guided rescuers through the search and rescue process with spoken instructions. What may initially sound like a rather annoying extra feature to some actually has a solid scientific basis: A recent study concluded that automated voice instructions during a beacon search can reduce mental stress and contribute to shorter search times. Ortovox also references these findings in its new devices.

Those who prefer to rely on the display and beeps can turn off the voice navigation. This keeps the Focus Voice appealing even to users who prefer a traditional search method or find an additional voice distracting.

Ortovox Focus Voice

With the Focus Voice, the focus remains on keeping operation as simple as possible. The voice navigation provides clear instructions during a search and is designed to help especially when stress and time pressure cause the procedures from your last beacon training to suddenly be less clear than you’d hoped.

Another new feature is the large Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) display. Ortovox describes it as the largest MIP display currently available in the beacon market. The display is designed to remain clearly legible even in direct sunlight and when wearing polarized sunglasses. The information displayed changes depending on the current search phase, so that not everything is shown on the screen at once.

Another key feature is the handling of electronic interference. Smartphones or GPS watches can affect the performance of a beacon—a problem that’s likely to grow rather than diminish given the increasing amount of electronics we carry on our bodies. According to Ortovox, the Focus detects such interference, issues a warning, and can adjust the transmission power in transmit mode or the search strip width in search mode accordingly. This is also intended to prevent so-called “ghost signals.”

Ortovox Focus Pro

The distinction becomes more interesting with the Focus Pro. At first glance, one might assume that it’s simply the better or more feature-rich version of the Focus Voice. Ortovox explicitly markets the Pro to mountain guides and mountain rescuers. The additional features are primarily intended for complex search situations and require that you know how to use them effectively. Perhaps the designation “Pro” is even somewhat misleading here—after all, the line between an ambitious recreational athlete and a self-proclaimed “pro” is sometimes crossed surprisingly quickly.

In cases of multiple burials, for example, the Focus Pro continuously displays the distance to the four nearest transmitters. A scrolling function allows you to select them individually. Additionally, the search strip width can be manually reduced to 20 or even three meters. This can help isolate signals that are close together or narrow down sources of interference.

It also features analog audio output. The device combines the digital display with the analog search tone. This allows experienced users to additionally assess signal overlaps and sources of interference acoustically.

Conclusion

With Focus Voice and Focus Pro, Ortovox isn’t completely reinventing the beacon. Instead, it’s building on the most notable features of the Direct Voice and improving upon one crucial aspect: range.

An 80-meter search strip width, a significantly larger display, and automatic interference management bring the Focus Voice technically closer to today’s top-of-the-line devices. Voice navigation remains the feature that most clearly sets Ortovox apart from the competition.

Also interesting is the clear distinction between the Voice and Pro models. Rather than simply packing more features into a top-of-the-line model, the additional tools are reserved for users who can actually make use of them. For most backcountry skiers, the Focus Voice is therefore likely to be the more appealing device.

Technical Specifications

• Three-antenna technology

• Weight: 185 grams.

• Integrated lithium-ion battery, USB-C

• Bluetooth for connecting to the Ortovox app

• Group check and automatic post-avalanche switch

• Dimensions: 12 × 7 × 2.3 cm.

• Available starting in September 2026

• Focus Voice €380 / Focus Pro €480