Loudspeaker manufacturers d&b audiotechnik and L-Acoustics have teamed up with SoundPLAN to develop the System Design Exchange (SDE) standard. A step towards reliable noise prediction, SDE provides a neutral standard for noise prediction across multiple sound systems.
As outdoor events continue to grow in urban areas, effective noise management has become critical. 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 SDE standard directly 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 system design 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 the highest level of accuracy at any distance – something that hasn’t been possible until now.
With SDE, system technicians can export their designs as standardised SDE files, which can then be imported into environmental noise software like SoundPLAN. This streamlined, secure and fast 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,” said Florian Hahn, Product Manager Application Software at d&b audiotechnik. “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.”
Yann Gaël Gicquel, Director of Product Management, Spatial Systems at L-Acoustics added: “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. 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,” concluded Jochen Schaal, Managing Director at SoundPLAN. “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.“
More information is available here.
