NTi Audio, headquartered in Schaan, Liechtenstein, attended this year’s meeting of the Swiss Acoustical Society (SGA), held under the theme “Practical Sound Measurements” NTi presented its XL2 Audio and Acoustic Analyzer and provided practical demos of environmental noise, speech intelligibility, RT60, and sound insulation measurements.
This year’s spring meeting of Swiss acousticians provided NTi Audio with an extraordinary forum for presentation of its wide range of professional expert measurement solutions. The day consisted of a series of practical demonstrations, led by engineers from all major manufacturers. Visitors learned how to determine speech intelligibility as well as measure reverberation time, sound insulation, and environmental noise.
This year’s meeting of the Swiss Acoustical Society (SGA) was held under the theme “Practical Sound Measurements”. Separate venues dealt with the theory and practice of environmental noise, speech intelligibility, reverberation time and airborne sound insulation measurements. The visitors were given an excellent opportunity to simultaneously compare the solutions on offer by various manufacturers. NTi presented the XL2 Audio and Acoustic Analyzer as the acousticians’ preferred choice and one-stop solution for all these measurement tasks, demonstrating the comprehensive range of functions, repeatable measurement results and intuitive device operation.
On the subject of environmental noise measurements, NTi demonstrated the XL2 professional package, complete with Sound Level Meter, outdoor measurement microphone, a choice of several all-weather cases and the comprehensive Data Explorer Analysis Software. The easy measurement process supported by the rapid PC data analysis and full reporting capabilities demonstrated NTi Audio as experts in this field.For speech intelligibility measurements, open-plan offices with different partitions were simulated. The XL2 consistently produced repeatable results. In direct comparison with other instruments, the XL2 stood out particularly with regard to ease-of-use and on-instrument ambient noise corrections.
The sessions also included reverberation time measurements. The XL2 accepts both an impulse and a gated noise source as input signal for RT60 measurements. In this demonstration the Dodec Speaker DS2 from NTi Audio and a clapper board were used. Again the XL2 delivered consistent results, which speaks for the quality of the instrument.
For the airborne sound insulation measurement demonstrations, a seminar room was divided with a sliding partition. An airborne sound insulation measurement value indicates, for example, the feasibility of holding simultaneous conferences in both rooms without disturbing one another. The Dodec Speaker DS2 provided test signals for the sound level and reverberation time measurements, which were again performed using the XL2 Sound Level Meter. The resulting sound insulation value was found to be insufficient due to damaged and missing edge seals on the sliding partition. NTi Audio once again provided the complete measurement solution for this application.
The visitors were also invited to “have a go” with the sound level meters of various manufacturers without instruction from the experts on hand. There was a consensus of opinion on how the practical, simple user interface of the XL2 Sound Level Meter stood out. The fact that the meeting was fully booked within a few days underlines the real need acousticians have to directly compare measurement solutions from different manufacturers.
More information about the Swiss Acoustical Society (SGA) here.
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