Test and Measurement News

Prism Sound show new dScope Series III software at IBC

Cambridge, UK: Prism Sound's new dScope Series III audio analyzer software, which will be on show at this year's IBC exhibition (Stand 8.597) in Amsterdam, is proving popular with broadcast customers who are already downloading it from the company's website.

The Version 1.21 software represents a major upgrade in the functionality of the dScope Series III unit. Many new features have been added at the request of the audio test community, including new tools for acoustic measurements, PC audio and 192kHz sampling on digital audio interfaces.

Prism Sound's Sales Director, Graham Boswell, says: "dScope Series III is ideal for testing signal paths in the broadcast and production environment as it includes scripts for the AES recommended practice AES17 for digital audio equipment. It can also perform a rapid multi-tone-based "quick check" giving frequency response, distortion and noise and amplitude accuracy in a few seconds. In addition, dScope is perfect for situations where testing for proving reliability or finding intermittent faults is required."

Using dScope, measurements such as THD+N can be monitored with high precision in real time for evidence of any glitches and the results logged to file. A similar approach can also be taken with the dScope's "confidence test", where a known bit-sequence is transmitted and then checked by the analyzer for errors. This is so accurate that even a single bit error in a 24 hour test period will be detected.

Among the key features included in Version 1.2 of the software are:

• Generation and analysis using Windows sound devices, including multi-channel device support
• 192kHz sample rate support on AES3 and S/PDIF digital audio interfaces
• Support for acoustic measurements of transducers and rooms
• Very fast measurements (including frequency response) using swept-sine (Farina) method or bin-centred noise with impulse response and FFT
• Quasi-anechoic measurement using an adjustable time-window to eliminate acoustic reflections
• Support for measurement microphone sensitivity and frequency response calibration
• Time domain averaging to reduce the effects of random noise on measurements
• Analogue I/O can now sample at 48kHz as well as 96 and 192kHz to increase LF resolution of FFT analysis
• Script debugger allows breakpoints, single stepping, examination/setting of variables etc.

Prism Sound has also incorporated a number of smaller enhancements and improvements to ensure that this new software version offers users the maximum flexibility. Among these are the ability to import and export sample buffers and WAV files; enhancements to the user interface; the ability to run a script on every Sweep step; new Trace Transformations; Clip flags on Monitor Outputs; a new dBSPL unit; the ability to run multiple scripts simultaneously and a new non-intrusive warning system gives users warning of potential set-up problems.

Registered dScope users can download the new software free of charge.