News & Events
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Listen Celebrates 25 Years
2020 is Listen’s 25th anniversary! When Listen sold its first product in 1995, it was the first soundcard-based audio measurement system, and its competition was often human listeners. Now, with an installed base of well over 10,000 systems and the industry-wide adoption of both soundcard-based architecture and highly automated sequence-based measurement, Listen is still leading the way with new algorithms and product development to meet the changing needs of the marketplace. In this article, reprinted from Loudspeaker Industry Sourcebook, Listen founder and president, Steve Temme, shares his story.
New Software Engineers
Listen has expanded its software team with the hiring of 2 new engineers Josh Thibeault (left) and Dan Donato (right).
Josh graduated from Tufts University in 2019 with a Bachelors Degree In Mechanical Engineering. While at Tufts, he played varsity football and was part of the Tufts Electric Race Team. Outside of work, Josh enjoys reading, spending time with friends and family, and listening to music.
Dan holds degrees in Computer Science and Economics from University at Buffalo. Prior to joining Listen, he has worked as a firefighter and testing video games. In his spare time he develops virtual reality games, plays roller derby, and plays the trumpet.
Remote Training
Due to the current COVID-19 situation, we are not offering in-person group training classes. These will be resumed when regulations allow and there is the demand for it.
In the meantime, we offer customized online training for groups of people from the same company, and can offer flexibility in timing, session length and schedule. Please contact your sales engineer for more information.
Additionally, we will shortly be announcing some scheduled online training classes and these will be posted here as soon as information is available.
Don’t forget to check out our collection of Working from Home with SoundCheck videos on our Youtube channel. Our support team has created this series of videos that demonstrate features of SoundCheck that can easily be explored offline without full access to your lab.
If you are a new user, our series of on-demand training videos is a good place to start. These cover much of the content from day 1 of our basic 2 day training.
New West Coast Sales Applications Engineer: Anastassia Tolpygo
Anastassia Tolpygo has joined Listen, Inc. as West Coast Sales Applications Engineer, based in the San Francisco Bay area and will be the main point of contact for our customers in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. She has a strong background in vibration and FFT analysis, having supported sales and applications for Crystal Instruments the past 5 years. Prior to that she held positions encompassing sales, technical support and QA in a variety of high-tech companies, including Plantronics and Sena. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in Applied Physics from UCSC. This expertise in mechanics and acoustics, combined with sales and applications experience enables her to truly understand and appreciate customer needs. Anastassia happens to be fluent in Russian and is keenly passionate about audio. Outside of work, she practices various types of dance, critiques music online and enjoys time with family.
SoundCheck 18 New Features Video
In this short video, sales engineer Les Quindipan gives a brief overview and demonstration of the new usability enhancements and features to simplify automation, multi-channel and voice controlled testing in SoundCheck 18. New features previewed include:
- Automation Enhancements: Test configuration data can now be passed into SoundCheck from external programs using TCP/IP commands. By externally storing parameters such as limits, test levels, and test signals, a single sequence can be used for multiple products, simplifying the number of sequences that a large organization needs to maintain, and reducing test configuration time.
- Plug’n’play hardware setup: Listen and Portland Tool & Die Hardware now auto-configure parameters such as sampling rate and calibration values, and create input and output signal paths, making setup faster.
- Simplified Gain Control Selection: auto read and auto range gain settings are now easily accessible as drop-down options in the gain menu in the acquisition step editor, and auto-read is available in virtual instruments. This makes it much faster to make quick gain adjustments while developing sequences.
- Improved sampling rate management: Improved communication with audio interfaces that have a sampling-rate dependent latency enables you to now specify the latencies for various sampling rates, either by entering them manually or importing from a file, and SoundCheck will automatically default to these. Sampling rate can also now be set in the stimulus editor.
- MEMS interface control: Portland Tool & Die MEMS microphone interfaces can now be fully controlled from within SoundCheck for faster measurement setup and greater measurement reliability as the device settings can be built into the test sequence.
- TEDS Support: When used with compatible Listen hardware, SoundCheck will automatically identify, configure and calibrate TEDS microphones and accelerometers, saving time on initial hardware setup and whenever hardware is changed.
- WASAPI driver support: WASAPI driver support in Windows 10 offers improved multichannel capabilities.
Huge Discounts on SoundCheck 18 Upgrades
For a limited time we are offering deep discounts on a system upgrade to enable you to get up to date with the latest version of SoundCheck. The upgrade offer is a simple flat rate: $3,950 for owners of SoundCheck 12 or 13, $3,250 for owners of version 14, $2,500 for owners of versions 15 through 16, and $1,395 for owners of version 17. All the modules on your present system will be included.
SoundCheckTM 18’s feature-packed release offers many features to simplify multi-channel and voice controlled testing, as well as many usability upgrades including:
- Automation Enhancements: Test configuration data can now be passed into SoundCheck from external programs using TCP/IP commands. By externally storing parameters such as limits, test levels, and test signals, a single sequence can be used for multiple products, simplifying the number of sequences that a large organization needs to maintain, and reducing test configuration time.
- Plug’n’play hardware setup: Listen and Portland Tool & Die Hardware now auto-configure parameters such as sampling rate and calibration values, and create input and output signal paths, making setup faster.
- Simplified Gain Control Selection: auto read and auto range gain settings are now easily accessible as drop-down options in the gain menu in the acquisition step editor, and auto-read is available in virtual instruments. This makes it much faster to make quick gain adjustments while developing sequences.
- Improved sampling rate management: Improved communication with audio interfaces that have a sampling-rate dependent latency enables you to now specify the latencies for various sampling rates, either by entering them manually or importing from a file, and SoundCheck will automatically default to these. Sampling rate can also now be set in the stimulus editor.
- MEMS interface control: Portland Tool & Die MEMS microphone interfaces can now be fully controlled from within SoundCheck for faster measurement setup and greater measurement reliability as the device settings can be built into the test sequence.
- TEDS Support: When used with compatible Listen hardware, SoundCheck will automatically identify, configure and calibrate TEDS microphones and accelerometers, saving time on initial hardware setup and whenever hardware is changed.
- WASAPI driver support in Windows 10 for improved multichannel capabilities.
Call your sales engineer today to receive a quote for upgrading all your SoundCheck systems. These discounted rates are only available until May 31, 2020, so please get your order in soon!
| Upgrade from Version | Upgrade List Price | Promotional Upgrade Price | Discount |
| 12.0 | $9,000 | $3,950 | 56% |
| 13.0 | $7,500 | $3,950 | 47% |
| 14.0 | $6,000 | $3,250 | 46% |
| 15.0 | $4,500 | $2,500 | 44% |
| 16.0 | $3,000 | $2,500 | 16% |
| 17.0 | $1,500 | $1,395 | 7% |
If you are using a version prior to version 12, please contact your sales engineer for discounted price information.
PLEASE NOTE:
- Versions of SoundCheck prior to version 13 are no longer be supported. We highly recommend that you take advantage of this limited time offer to upgrade your systems to version 18. Please contact your sales engineer to discuss additional multi-system upgrade discounts.
- If you have multiple systems with different purchase dates, we are happy to work with you to get them all upgraded to the latest version and onto the same annual support contract cycle.
- You can also reduce your future upgrade costs by purchasing an annual support contract for an additional $950. With this, you will receive SoundCheck 19 when it is released at no extra charge, as well as priority support service.
Please note that these prices are applicable to the US only. Users outside the US should contact Listen or their local representative for pricing information.
Please email your purchase order to sales@listeninc.com, or contact us on this email address if you would like to pay by credit card, have any questions, or need additional paperwork to support your order.
Please also see the detailed information on new features.
SoundCheck 18 Released: New Features for Large-scale Integration and Multi-channel / Voice-activated Device Testing
SoundCheck 18, the latest release of Listen, Inc.’s flagship audio test and measurement system, contains many new features focused on automation and simplicity. Some of these are specifically designed for large-scale integration in factory environments, while others are designed to accelerate R&D testing, particularly where multiple channels are required and/or voice-activated devices are being tested.
Test configuration data, such as limits, test levels, and test signals, can now be passed into SoundCheck from external programs using TCP/IP commands. By externally storing parameters, a single sequence can be used for multiple products, simplifying the number of sequences that a large organization needs to maintain, and reducing test configuration time. This functionality is also useful for applications where a sequence needs to be run many times with different parameters, for example, testing voice recognition with a range of voices or test levels, or where SoundCheck tests are run as part of a larger automated test framework controlled using Python, C#, Visual Basic, LabVIEW, etc.
Setup time is reduced with true plug’n’play hardware configuration. Listen and Portland Tool & Die interfaces are simply connected via the USB cable, and the software automatically creates input and output signal paths and populates parameters such as sampling rate and calibration values. Furthermore, when substituting devices of the same type, SoundCheck will re-use the configuration previously set up, either manually or during a sequence, so that signal paths and sequence configurations do not need to be updated. This offers significant time-savings when deploying a sequence over multiple stations accelerating set-up time for large-scale operations. New TEDS Support (with compatible Listen hardware) enables automatic identification, configuration and calibration of TEDS microphones and accelerometers, also saving time on initial hardware setup or whenever hardware is changed.
The development and optimization of test sequences has been simplified with improvements to gain control selection. Similarly, sampling rate management has been streamlined with automatic latency rate adjustment for devices where latency varies with sampling rate, and the ability to set sampling rate in the stimulus editor. Sampling rate when using WAV files is also now automatically adjusted, making it simpler to make measurement with wave file signals such as speech or music.
For MEMS microphone tests, the Portland Tool & Die MEMS interfaces can now be controlled from within SoundCheck for faster setup as well as greater measurement reliability as the device settings can be built into the test sequence. Sequences using the R&D grade DCC-1448 interface will also work seamlessly with the production-grade PQC-1448, making it much simpler to transition sequences from the R&D lab to the production line.
Additional new features include WASAPI driver support for improved multichannel capabilities, and enhanced digital I/O control for easy conversion of sequences between hardware options.
Seminar at Sound Hub
Today, Steve Temme presented on how to measure voice activated devices such as smart speakers, hearables and automotive audio, as well as how to use SoundCheck for basic audio measurements at Sound Hub Denmark, the world’s leading audio innovation hub and co-working space.In the morning, he presented the basics of SoundCheck, and taught attendees (many of whom had access to the SoundCheck system at Sound Hub) how to build a test sequence in SoundCheck. recommendations for the equipment used. After lunch, he explained in depth how to test voice activated devices such as automotive infotainment systems, hearables, and smart speakers. These devices are complex to test as they have numerous wired and wireless connections and often contain signal processing, both on the record and the playback side. In this session, he outlined the test configurations, tools and techniques that enable accurate measurement of the audio performance of such devices under the many various real-world conditions in which they are used.
