L-Acoustics and d&b audiotechnik have teamed up with SoundPlan on development of the System Design Exchange (SDE) standard for noise prediction across multiple sound systems, claiming it to represent ‘a considerable step towards reliable noise prediction’.
Until now, predicting noise emissions from festivals and events with systems from different manufacturers has been challenging, as each system relied on its proprietary tools. The lack of interoperability often resulted in inconsistent noise predictions, making it difficult to meet environmental requirements.
The standard addresses this challenge by providing a unified method and file format to ensure reliable, consistent and comparable predictions in environmental noise software.
It defines how to export data from software such as d&b’s ArrayCalc or L-Acoustics’ Soundvision, and details the methodology for calculating complex acoustic interactions. This includes calibration and decoherence factors, ensuring a high level of accuracy at any distance.
With SDE, system technicians can export designs as standardised SDE files, which can then be imported into environmental noise software like SoundPlan. This streamlined and secure workflow, as well as the consideration of complex acoustic summation for the correct calculation of coherent sources (considering phase), allow consultants and event organisers to perform equivalent calculations in order to accurately predict noise emissions for festivals with multiple stages and systems from different manufacturers. In the future, the SDE format will be made available to other manufacturers and other noise pollution software.
‘The SDE standard is a huge step forward in addressing the noise management challenges of large-scale events,’ says d&b audiotechnik. Product Manager Application Software, Florian Hahn. ‘With SDE, we’re making effective and comparable noise management accessible, ensuring that audiences can enjoy their favourite artists while respecting nearby communities, public facilities and natural habitats.’
‘Organising a festival today means navigating real tension between the energy that makes live music special and the legitimate expectations of the communities hosting it,’ says L-Acoustics Director of Product Management for Spatial Systems, Yann Gaël Gicquel. ‘Using SDE gives everyone at that table – promoters, consultants, local authorities – one shared, reliable source of truth for those conversations. That’s what makes it meaningful.’
‘SDE will set a new benchmark for noise prediction in the audio industry,’ adds SoundPlan MD, Jochen Schaal. ‘Its innovative, collaborative approach promises to establish SDE as an industry standard, simplifying workflows and delivering the most reliable and accurate prediction of noise emissions from different sound system manufacturers to date.’
The SDE standard is available now. For d&b users, SDE is accessible directly within ArrayCalc; for L-Acoustics users, it is currently available to consultants trained and certified by L-Acoustics, and through the company’s Environmental System Design service.
More: www.sde-info.com