Environmental Noise

Noise in the environment affects us all, whether it is your next door neighbour’s dog barking, or that annoying whine from a distant power station.

 

Measuring environmental noise in a meaningful way can be difficult, and many descriptors have emerged to try to quantify annoyance by using  temporal or frequency analysis.

 

To address this market, we have the 95x range of instruments from Svantek, which can be supplied in a range of configurations, and for permanent wide-area monitoring, we introduce the new systems from Azimut Monitoring

For details of permanent or semi-permanent noise monitoring systems, go directly to the Long-term Monitoring page!

Home Page

Long-term Monitoring

Frequency Analysis

Multichannel Analysis

Acoustic Imaging

Telecoms Testing

Electroacoustic Testing

Building Acoustics

Sound Quality

Transducers

Noise & Vibration Meters

Human Vibration

The 959 from Svantek is the top of the range single channel instrument for environmental noise surveys. Featuring all the expected measurement parameters—LAeq, statistics, etc with three profiles in parallel—the 959 has a wide 118dB linearity range to Class 1, thanks to its 24bit technology.

 

This is essential for environmental work, where very low levels may be experienced overnight, while events such as aircraft flyovers can cause overloads in lesser instruments

 

The instrument comes as standard with real-time analysis in octaves and 1/3 octaves, and it can be upgraded to perform FFT analysis, and measurements of reverberation time, for building acoustics applications.

 

The built-in USB host controller supports USB devices such as flash disks, and even WiFi adapters, adding to the flexibility of the instrument.

 

Optionally, you can store raw audio data to a flash disk, in uncompressed WAV format, so the sources of noise can be played back and identified by listening. This is invaluable in applications requiring unattended monitoring.

 

The 959 also measures vibration, with a suitable accelerometer

 

As always with Svantek, there is a family of instruments, ranging from the low-cost 955 Class 1 sound level meter, up to the 958, which is a four-channel instrument, for both noise and vibration monitoring.

 

The 958 is commonly used in measuring human vibration, but it can just as easily be configured for four channels of noise—a breakthrough in a hand-held instrument.

 

A choice of accessories can be supplied, incuding the SV30A Class 1 calibrator, with its automatic adjustment for sound level, and two reference levels of 94 and 114dB.

 

Another advantage is that the 95x series uses IEPE-powered preamplifier, which means simple co-axial cables can be used for extension—no more expensive 7 pin Lemo cables!

 

The SvanPC+ software is supplied free of charge, for downloading and processing data on your PC

 

Last but not least, Svantek owners can update the firmware of their instrument for free over the lifetime of the instrument, adding new functionality and protecting your investment for years

 

You can download data sheets and more information at the Svantek website, but call us for latest pricing and a package quotation!

Sinus is a new addition to our suppliers, and their SoundBook is a powerful analyser, supporting up to 8 channels of acquisition.

The hardware is built in to the rugged Panasonic ToughBook, much loved by British gas technicians, making a very portable and tough measurement system.

 

The Samurai software turns the system into a sound level meter, vibration meter, 1/3 octave analyser, FFT analyser, signal recorder, etc etc—the possibilities are amost limitless.

 

Additional software options allow measurements of sound power, sound intensity and even vehicle pass-by.

 

The latest revision of ISO1996-2 covers the assessment of tonal components in environmental noise.

The new NoiseLab software from Delta in Denmark includes the option for this type of analysis, a combination of FFT analysis and post-processing.

 

NoiseLab will work with any WAV file (such as those stored using the Svantek analysers above) and with the help of a walk-through wizard interface, you can go from recording to fully documented report in minutes

 

A batch processor option allow easy automatic analysis of many files.

 

Data can also be acquired directly using the Svan instruments as front-ends, or by adding a NI USB acquisition box

In its environmental analyser guise, it allows logging of all noise (and vibration) parameters, and can also store audio records as a function of level trigger, or external trigger from ‘granny button’.

Video can also be grabbed, making it easy to identify sources, and many post-processing options are available to make reporting easier