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User Guide Version 4 for Windows®

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User Guide Version 4 for Windows® SIA-Smaart® Acoustic Measurement and Analysis Software User Guide Version 4 for Windows® Developed by SIA Software Company, Inc. An EAW Company © Copyright 2000 - 2001 SIA Software Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in USA. This manual, as well as the software described herein, are furnished under license. The content of this manual is furnished for informational use only and is subject to change without notice. SIA Software Company, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this manual or arising from the use of the information contained in this manual or the SmaartLive software. No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmit- ted in any form or by any means, electronic, photographic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of SIA Software Company, Inc. SIA and SmaartLive are trademarks of SIA Software Company, Inc. SIA-Smaart is a registered trademark of SIA Software Company, Inc. Microsoft® and Windows® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel® and Pentium® are regis- tered trademarks of Intel Corporation. JBL is a registered trademark of JBL Incorporated. All other products or name brands appearing in this manual or the software described herein are registered trademarks of their respective holders. Introduction SIA-Smaart® Acoustic ToolsTM provides a powerful, cost-effective set of tools for measuring and analyzing room acoustics and evaluating sound system intelligibility. The package consists of two program modules; the Intelligibility module and the Analysis module. The Intelligibility module allows you to measure the impulse response of a device or room/system and calculate both quanitative acoustical values for room analysis and objective intelligibility ratings for electro-acoustic systems. The Analysis module is the a file-based signal analysis program that provides both time and frequency based displays of wave file data. Both programs work with standard Windows audio waveform files (also called wave or *.wav files) and are designed primarily for use with impulse response data. The SIA-Smaart Intelligibility Module The Intelligibility module can calculate several objective speech intelligibility indices and quantitative acoustical values from impulse response data store in Windows wave files. The Percentage of Articulation Loss of Consonants (%ALCons), Clarity (early-to-late energy ratio) for some number of milliseconds (e.g., C50, C35, or C7), and both Speech Transmission Index and Rapid Speech Transmission Index (STI and RSTI), can all be calculated from the impulse response. The Intelligibility module can also be used to find delay times and reflections and calculate Early Decay Time (EDT), Direct to Reverberant level, and RT60 from the same impulse response data. The program includes its own impulse response recorder that can calculate and record the impulse response of the system under test using either a Maximum Length Sequence (MLS) or stimulus-independent dual Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) transfer function technique. The MLS method requires the use of an internally generated MLS stimulus signal. The Dual-FFT method can use pink noise or virtually any other continuous signal (e.g., music) as a stimulus — this is the same technique used in SIA SmaartLive™ to find delay times. The Intelligibility module provides an internal pink noise generator for use in dual-FFT measurements however externally generated signals may be used as well. The Intelligibility module can also be used to analyze impulse data from any other source as long as the data is stored in, or can be con- verted to standard Windows wave files. continued... i The SIA-Smaart Analysis Module The Analysis module reads audio data stored in any standard Windows wave (*.wav) file including impulse response files recorded in the Intelligibility module. The program can open one or two wave files at a time and can transform time-domain data in the wave file(s) into its frequency domain representation, using a series of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) calculations. Both time and frequency characteristics of recorded signals can then be displayed, compared and analyzed a number of ways. Like the Intelligibility module, the Analysis module is primarily designed for use in analyzing impulse response data and includes tools to help you find reflections, reverberation and decay information. Other possible uses for this program include speech analysis or any application where you need to analyze the time and frequency characteristics of recorded signals. What’s New In this Release SIA-Smaart Acoustic Tools 4 features a completely redesigned user interface for both the Intelligibility and Analysis modules. The new interface design is intended to dramatically increase ease of use by reducing the complexity of on-screen control surfaces, providing easier access to the most frequently used program features, and making data readouts larger and easier to read. Several redundancies and inconsis- tencies in the two program modules have also been addressed. In the Analysis module, the “Analyze” function has been removed since the All Bands Table in the Intelligibility module provides very similar functionality. The Intelligibility module also uses more conventional methods of finding and calculating quantitative acoustical values and produces more consistent and reliable results. In the Intelligibility module, a stock set of Clarity Factor calculations for 10, 20, 50 and 80 milliseconds have been added to the All Bands Table to compensate for the removal of the Analyze function from the Analysis module. The ExSTI calculation has been removed since the program also calculates true STI and RSTI values and ExSTI is not a widely used or accepted measure of intelligibility. Additionally, %ALCons calculations are now limited to the octave band centered on 2 kHz because this is the only band in which this measurement is conventionally performed and for which the result is considered valid. ii Contents Chapter 1: Getting Started ................................................................................. 1 System Hardware .......................................................................................................................1 About Sound Hardware ...............................................................................................................1 External Hardware ......................................................................................................................3 Installing SIA-Smaart Acoustic Tools ....................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Intelligibility Module Functions and Commands .................................................................................. 6 Navigating in the Intelligibility Module ........................................................................................6 The Menu Bar ..........................................................................................................................7 File Information ........................................................................................................................7 Level Marker Coordinates ........................................................................................................8 Cursor Readout ........................................................................................................................8 Slope Readout .........................................................................................................................8 Plot Area ..................................................................................................................................9 Jump To Other Programs .........................................................................................................9 Display Controls.......................................................................................................................9 Intelligibility Module Functions............................................................................................... 10 Calculating Intelligibility from an Impulse Response ..................................................................10 The All Bands Table ...............................................................................................................12 The Intelligibility Graph ..........................................................................................................13 Recording an Impulse Response ...............................................................................................15 MLS or Dual-FFT? ..................................................................................................................15 Recording an Impulse Response Using MLS ..........................................................................17 Recording an Impulse Response Using Dual FFT....................................................................20 Finding Time and Amplitude Differences ...................................................................................24 A Shortcut for Positioning the Ld, Lr, and Ln Markers................................................................24 Zooming With the Mouse ......................................................................................................... 25 About Intelligibility Module Filters .............................................................................................25
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