Posts

10: Explore SoundCheck 18 New Features (working from home with SoundCheck)

Les Quindipan reviews the new features in SoundCheck 18 – something that you can easily ‘play along with’ at home if you already have this version. (Hint: if you don’t have SoundCheck 18, you can request a demo version via our website. You won’t be able to actually make measurements, but you can explore the new functionality!)

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.

Play Video

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!

SoundCheck 18 Discounted Upgrade Pricing
Upgrade from VersionUpgrade List PricePromotional Upgrade PriceDiscount
12.0$9,000$3,95056%
13.0$7,500$3,95047%
14.0$6,000$3,25046%
15.0$4,500$2,50044%
16.0$3,000$2,50016%
17.0$1,500$1,3957%

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.

request_quote

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.

Watch the New Features Video