Rational Acoustics, the developers of the world renowned Smaart Acoustic Test and Measurement Software have announced that Smaart v8, which the company says will be the most powerful, flexible and adaptable version to date, will be released March 15, 2016. The new v8 brings lots of new features and greatly expanded control of the software environment.According to the Putnam, Connecticut, company, Smaart v8 was “designed with the needs of modern audio engineering and system alignment professionals in mind,” while “simultaneously providing easier and more streamlined measurement configuration, control and data handling.”
Key new UI features where based on user requests and include an easier, more intuitive measurement configuration, new tab-based interface with multi-window capability, the option to hide/show interface control bars, while the application also becomes touchscreen-friendly - for use on tablets and touch screen computers - with user-configurable command buttons. In general, the new software gets better performance on the latest operating systems on Mac and PC, improved stability and security and native support for high-definition displays.
Smaart v8 gains broadband metering for all input devices and integrated control of gain and phantom power for the Smaart I-O measurement-grade 2×2 USB audio interface. And there’s also Smaart-to-Smaart (computer-to-computer) API remote control. Smaart’s integrated API now allows any copy of Smaart v8 to act as a host to any other copy of Smaart v8, allowing to create a rig with one computer acquiring the input signals and performing the measurement computations, while another acts as a client and remotely accesses the measurement data. This capability then allows your v8 measurement environment to be spread, not just across multiple monitors, but across multiple computers.
One of the main user interface improvements is that Smaart v8 finally breaks out of the single window, fixed GUI world to allow increased control over the users’ working environment, allowing to adapt and expand its configuration to better match specific applications, including new white or dark windows (see example below) depending on lighting conditions. This new measurement environment also provides new ways to manage data with the new tab-based interface.
The measurement configuration process with Smaart v8 has also been updated to provide an easier, more intuitive workflow – adding automatic measurement creation and management functionality to streamline configuration and support a “build-on-the-fly” process that is often an operational necessity. Specifically, Rational Acoustics now guides the user through device selection/configuration and automatically creates Spectrum measurements. Device and measurement configuration is managed through a single window and input metering is right in the I-O Config, allowing users to check their inputs before starting the measurements. Creating a Transfer Function measurement now also automatically creates the accompanying Spectrum contributors to it.
According to Rational Acoustics, many users expressed a desire for a tab-based interface where one could configure and switch between multiple workspaces. The company decided to expand the basic “measurement group” paradigm from Smaart v7 and now allows users to organize their configurations into tabs which include not only the configured measurements, but also the layout and plot view as well. And it’s also possible to have multiple windows, each containing its own set of tabbed workspaces.
The increased use of Smaart on tablet/touch screen computers complicated using Hot-Key commands. To address this, Rational Acoustics added a command menu and a user-configurable command bar of large, touch-friendly buttons that can be used to call any of Smaart’s keyboard-based, Hot-key commands.
For static data, the new version overhauls the trace storage process to allow for better direct access to larger file structure of captured traces, without cluttering up active memory space trying to keep everything loaded in RAM.
The new Active Plot Legend (APL) window details the contents of the active/selected plot, showing the names, colors and trace offsets of Live and static data traces – as well as providing the controls for hiding/showing the traces.
A long-time user requested feature is the ability to continuously view input signal levels, as well as monitor parameters such as SPL and LEQ for multiple inputs simultaneously. For this Rational Acoustics created the Broadband Meters window. This mode-less window can be configured to monitor any of Smaart’s input signals via a simple grid configuration process.
Smaart v8 will be available for purchase starting March 15 on the company’s online store and authorized dealers or distributors. For the first 90 days after release, new licenses of Smaart v8 will be available for the existing Smaart v.7 price of $895 and special early-adopter discounts are available for upgrades from Smaart v.5, v.6, v.7 and v.7 Di. Anyone who purchased Smaart v.7 after December 31, 2015 will receive a free upgrade to Smaart v8 upon its release.
www.rationalacoustics.com/smaart-v8
