The Insight-Sensor supports sound pressure level measurements through a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) acoustic sensor.
The MEMS acoustic sensor is designed to measure the sound pressure levels in an area or room in an office. The measurements can be used to get an indication of the ambient sound comfort or environmental noise in an area or room.
The sound pressure level measurements are based on the frequency response of the human ear. The measurements are made using A-weighting (dBA).
The dynamic pressure range, measurement accuracy, and bandwidth of the MEMS acoustic sensor are specified below.
Dynamic pressure
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Accuracy
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Bandwidth
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35 to 79 dBA
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+/- 3 dBA
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10 Hz to 8 kHz
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The hardware design is an innovative analog solution. Unlike digital solutions based on a digital microphone with an audio codec, this analog solution does not support audio recording in any way.
Each measurement value is an average value from a sound pressure level measurement performed for one second. The average value for one second is obtained only with analog electronics. Depending on the configuration, a number of measured values are used to calculate the average value and the maximum value for the ambient sound pressure level. For more information, see Configuring the Insight-Sensor Ambient Sound Level Sensor .
The fact that the device can not capture or record sound but only monitor (measure and report at an interval) sound pressure levels promotes privacy.
The sound pressure level measurements do not need to be calibrated on site during commissioning.