Standards Development

Scope

This standard provides performance requirements and verification tests for modular instrumentation systems for acoustical measurements. This standard is applicable to acoustical measurement systems for applications where a sound level meter may be inappropriate

Purpose

Standardized methods for the measurement of acoustical quantities generally require precision measurement instruments with well-defined specifications. Although many acoustical measurement standards often reference IEC 61672, those same standardized acoustical measurements and applications are generally performed using measurement instruments other than sound lev el meters. In addition, since modular instrumentation systems are not sound level meters, many of the requirements of IEC 61672 are not applicable. 

ISO TC 43/SC 1 “Noise” has prepared a Guide for drafting instrumentation requirements for new or revised acoustical measurement standards. The purpose of the Guide was to harmonize specifications for measuring instruments in acoustical standards drafted and maintained by ISO TC 43/SC 1. Although this Guide refers to IEC 61672, IEC 61183, and IEC 61260, it is not itself a standard with requirements for measurement instrumentation.

Since by definition modular instrumentation for acoustical measurements may be configured for a specific application, in this standard the acoustical measurement system is considered uni que for the purposes of performance specifications. Therefore, pattern evaluation on several samples is instead replaced by verification testing of the one configured system.

Since the acoustical measurement system is not a sound level meter, rather than equivalent performance to IEC 61672 (which indeed would make the system a sound level meter...), instead the goal of this standard is comparable data from the acoustical measurement system to that which would have been obtained had it been feasible to use an IEC 61672 conforming sound level meter for the given measurement application. Furthermore, unlike the sound level meter, there are no performance classes for modular instrumentation.

Hence, the performance requirements and verification tests in IEC 61672 Parts 1, 2, and 3 relevant to acoustical measurement systems are referenced in this standard.

The following capabilities of a modular acoustical test system are deemed essential:

• Appropriate performance and requirements enabling this standard to be normatively referenced in applicable acoustical measurement standards.

• Modularity, where a measurement system may be configured using different hardware or software components for specific acoustical measurement applications.

• Access to sampled time data for applications requiring additional complex post -processing.

• Specifications, and verification tests for the performance of the overall system.

Performance requirements, verification tests, and documentation requirements of modular instrumentation for acoustical measurements with these capabilities are provided in this standard