Digital audio

Digital audio test capabilities enhanced
NI AudioMASTER 6.1 Adds Support for SPDIF Digital Audio Generation

National Instruments has announced new high-performance software and hardware additions to the NI AudioMASTER suite. The comprehensive set of analogue and digital audio validation and production test software and hardware deliver an exhaustive automated test solution with a performance level previously found only in high-end audio analysers. The latest software addition, AudioMASTER 6.1, combined with an NI 7813R reconfigurable I/O device and the new NI CB-2181 digital audio I/O accessory, gives users an easy-to-use, software-defined test solution to generate and analyse SPDIF digital audio for testing consumer and professional audio devices.

“NI AudioMASTER 6.1 showcases the continued investment by National Instruments to create high-performance, flexible test solutions for audio devices including media players, headphones, microphones and loudspeakers,” said Kurt Veggeberg, Business Development Manager for Audio Test Products at National Instruments. “AudioMASTER integrates with the NI test platform, including NI LabVIEW, NI TestStand and PXI and PCI modular instruments, so engineers can build a complete software-defined test system.”

The software features an expansive set of audio measurements using single and multiple tones, amplitude and frequency sweeps and step response analysis. The software directly integrates into NI TestStand test management software, which simplifies the development of automated audio tests and measurements by providing an interactive, configuration-based setup for audio measurements, limits evaluation and system calibration.

For analogue audio tests, AudioMASTER 6.1 can use either PCI- or PXI-based dynamic signal acquisition (DSA) devices including an NI 4461 with two inputs and two outputs or an NI 4462 with four inputs. The DSA devices provide 24 bits of resolution at up to 204.8 kS/s sample rates. For digital audio tests, AudioMASTER 6.1 combines the NI 7813R reconfigurable I/O device with the NI CB-2181, which features one input and one output, to support XLR, BNC or optical connections. The user can connect up to four CB-2181 digital audio accessories to a single NI 7813R device to provide a total of four inputs and four outputs for digital audio measurements, which greatly simplifies the test fixture required for multidevice testing.