Bluetooth Capability Can Be Added to Any SoundCheck System (100 Things #25)
Bluetooth capabilities are becoming more and more common in modern devices. Luckily, you can add Bluetooth testing capability to your existing SoundCheck system quickly, and be ready to test without huge hardware investments or learning brand new software. Les demonstrates the hardware and software options available from Listen with some typical Bluetooth test setups.
Bluetooth Capability Can Be Added to Any SoundCheck System
Learn more about Bluetooth testing capabilities in SoundCheck
Check out our full seminar, all about Bluetooth testing in SoundCheck. Les Quindipan of Listen, Inc. and Kristopher Hett of Portland Tool & Die demonstrate Bluetooth testing with a variety devices, test parameters, and testing considerations.
Video Script:
A recurring theme you will hear in this 100 Things Video Series is SoundCheck’s flexibility with a wide range of audio test applications and broad compatibility with acquisition hardware. This architecture dates back SoundCheck’s release in 1995, and makes SoundCheck very adaptable to expanding your existing system for other test applications.
Let’s look at adding Bluetooth testing to an existing SoundCheck system.
Suppose you are currently using SoundCheck for traditional speaker, headphone or headset mic testing. Then, you develop a Bluetooth product. It’s very easy to add Bluetooth testing to your SoundCheck system.
Let’s look at these traditional and BT setups side-by-side.
Here’s a traditional wired speaker test diagram next to a wireless Bluetooth speaker test. Note, the tests are nearly identical, but we simply add a USB connected Bluetooth interface which wireless transmits the test stimulus to the speaker under test.
A Bluetooth headphone/headset test is similar to a speaker test, except the stimulus is transmitted wirelessly to two channels- the L/R sides of the headphone, and the response is acquired through the ear simulators.
We can also test the BT headset mic. In this case, the test stimulus is transmitted to a calibrated mouth simulator, and the response is acquired wireless from the headset microphone for analysis.
We offer two different Bluetooth interfaces. The BTC 4149 here is a fully featured interface designed for R&D use. It can test both sink, e.g. headphones and source devices, e.g. smartphones, with full control over Bluetooth protocol settings, such as explicit control over codec choice and transmitter power, as well as various pairing options. We also have a lower cost option, the BQC 4149, for production applications. This one tests Bluetooth Sink devices only, and offers only the standard aptX, CVSD and mSBC, along with more limited control of Bluetooth parameters. Both these devices use the same chip set, so tests can be seamlessly transferred from one device to the other as they move from engineering to production
The advantage of SoundCheck’s modular architecture is that:
1) Adding wireless Bluetooth testing is an incremental upgrade to your existing SoundCheck system. In other words, you don’t have to invest in an entirely new hardware and software to add Bluetooth testing.
2) Testing wireless Bluetooth remains in a SoundCheck environment, which you are already familiar with.
3) If you are scaling for production, you can spec a lower cost BQC-4149 interface for your production systems.
