Applications: Automotive Audio

Comprehensive automotive audio testing
Prism Sound's audio test solutions are ideally suited to automotive test applications, from product design right through to production line QC testing. The systems offer a complete suite of audio measurement tools, enabling all components of your In Car Entertainment (ICE) system to be tested using a single instrument. For example, dScope allows you to test all of the following, and more:

• Analogue and digital audio inputs / outputs, including board-level serial digital audio interfaces (I2S etc.)
• Power amplifiers (with options for multi-channel switching and filters for Class-D amplifiers)
• RDS functionality (see below)
• CD / DVD / Blu-ray drives, including Dolby Digital & DTS decoder testing
• DSPs; EQ, dynamics, crossovers, noise cancellation etc.
• Bluetooth audio interfaces
• Electroacoustic testing for drive units

dScope Series III and RDS
The dScope III platform is the only audio test system that allows you to test RDS FM decoder functionality at the same time as evaluating the FM receiver performance; simply download the RDS testing application, connect your EUT to dScope via an FM exciter, and you can type-in an arbitrary text string to the dScope signal generator wavetable - the text string can be checked on your head unit's display to determine whether the RDS decoder is functioning correctly.


FM spectrum showing how dScope Series III can generate RDS

Automate it!
For automotive manufacturing applications, the dScope Series III system offers a range of automation options, allowing you to seamlessly integrate the system into your production facility, no matter how large or small:

• The software can be used manually, with one-button switching between different test files and on-screen flagging of limit breaches
• Self-contained automation applications can be written in VBScript, a powerful scripting language that allows the user to create automated test sequences, limit checking, pass / fail reporting, integration with databases or spreadsheets for storing results, and custom user interfaces to be created to control the flow of testing or to customise the level of information shown to the test operator.
• For integration within larger-scale automation environments, dScope includes an ActiveX / COM interface that enables the system to be controlled by external applications (and vice-versa), allowing automation executives such as LabVIEW, TestStand, Delphi, Python, C#, etc to run test sequences and check results.
• dScope's automation tools also enable integration of other applications and control / measurement systems, including barcode scanners, external instruments for non-audio measurements, PLCs, production-line hardware etc.

Automation solutions can be delivered by Prism Sound as part of a turn-key package, custom made for your specific needs and ready to operate out-of-the-box. Our experienced team of expert Applications Engineers has a long history of delivering automated solutions to many of the world's leading automotive audio brands. No matter how big or small your manufacturing operation, dScope allows you to measure faster, and saves you money.


Screenshot of a dScope Series III multi-tone test for an MP3 player