Audio Precision released the latest update to their APx500 audio measurement software, version 6.0. The release supports multiple simultaneous input types, enabling the concurrent measurement of up to 16 digital and 8 analog channels of audio data. This multi-input capability, paired with a high channel count and wide range of digital I/O available, provides APx users critical cross-domain insight and the opportunity to reduce testing time.
Multiple simultaneous input types, or multi-input, is the ability to activate a second input type on any APx modular audio analyzer and make measurements simultaneously on analog and digital signals. With two input types enabled—for example, analog for one or more reference microphones and PDM 16 for an array of MEMS microphones—there will be measurement results for every enabled input channel.
In addition, the sensitivity or gain function of digital microphones and other converters can be directly found via a new derived result, Sensitivity, which displays the RMS Level relationship between the analog and digital inputs. The multi-input feature is available for use in both Sequence Mode and Bench Mode and supports all the essential measurements used for the analysis of microphones and microphone arrays. This includes Transfer Function, a dual-channel FFT analysis function added in the previous release of software. The multi-input and transfer function address complex magnitude and phase relationships between multiple analog or digital microphones, or other cross-domain devices.
Going forward, APx audio analyzers will ship with version 6.0 software and one year of software maintenance, effectively licensing that instrument for APx version 7.0 when it is released (in addition to any minor releases that occur between v6.0 and v7.0). New APx analyzers purchased with version 5.0 (between December 18, 2018 and June 10, 2020) are licensed for version 6.0 in accordance with one year of software maintenance and users need only download v6.0 from AP.com.
Software upgrades are available for owners of Legacy APx analyzers, with options for upgrading from v4.x (or earlier) to v5.0, from v4.x to 6.0, and v5.0 to v6.0. Software maintenance contracts are likewise available, providing for purchase, entitling the user to an additional major software release. Release 6.0 is compatible with all analyzers in the APx500 Series. An APx KeyBox is required to run v6.0 on Legacy APx analyzers. APx KeyBoxes already installed on Legacy analyzers (for v4.6 and 5.0), are also compatible with v6.0 and only require an updated license file once an upgrade is purchased.
For more information, visit www.ap.com.