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Posts Tagged ‘sanako-slh-07’

Testing and semi-automatically changing the Sanako student audio configuration

2013/12/09 Leave a comment
  1. Problem
    1. We have had teacher complaints about too much background noise from neighboring students being recorded in our Sanako Study 1200, with SLH-07 headsets.
    2. In addition, upon looking through some recordings as samples for a workshop, I found cases of clipping audio, especially in pair recordings.
    3. We are using the default settings for the Sanako SLH-07 headset. However, the default recording level (67) seems high.
  2. Solution approach
    1. We need to test
      1. many other settings quickly for these recording levels. We use my sanakoaudioconfigonthefly utility for this
      2. in an acoustically realistic environment: 5 Lab assistants  site in tight lab area and read out sample English text during a Sanako reading activity
        1. Reading practice
        2. Todo: Pairing
    2. Here is a “window” into the recorded results set, a student’s audio recording shown in Audacity at various (but all lowered) recording levels from (visible) 30 to 5, you can see the diminishing waveform amplitude. image
    1. The waveform per se is not conclusive. You will have to listen in and compare, especially to evaluate background noise (the original complaint – we have no and will not be able to go back to language lab carrels). The Sanako SLH-07 headset microphones are supposed to be highly directional. However, our students to not always wear the headsets properly. And our acoustics is marred by large (almost 50%) window spaces and a tight positioning of the student seats.
    2. Any test recording is only as good as it can mimic the acoustics during an actual class session which we did as much as we could with only 6 concurrent LRC staff. This means  unfortunately some more testing will have to spill into actual classes, but this test is a start.
Categories: digital-audio-lab, e-languages, headphones, multimedia-recording, service-is-configuring-learning-tools Tags: , , , , ,

Static noise on sanako headsets

2013/11/08 Leave a comment


We seem to have one of these outages in ever class recently. Not sure, whether it is the hardware – the headphone seems not always have static, but frequently. What would be a good way to test this before class, or – to not have to log in individually on all lab computers – at beginning of class?

Categories: digital-audio-lab, Glitches&Errors, hardware, headphones Tags: ,

How to quickly check if onboard audio is disabled on student PCs with Sanako headsets

2013/07/05 Leave a comment
  1. Sanako Study 1200 works best with its own Sanako SLH-07 headsets (they include a USB soundcard). When using these, it is best to completely disable the analog or other sound chip/card that came with your system (onboard). Usually, you can do this in the BIOS.
  2. Before you venture in there, an easy check on which computers is necessary is possible thanks to Audacity displaying the sound card options: Start Audacity form the desktop and look in the dropdowns under the top menu which sound devices Audacity has detected on the system:
    1. This example is form a PC where I had to fix it: 20130702_160932 . Audacity should not see the SoundMax if it has been disabled in the BIOS.
    2. And this is what audacity should see (the USB sound card that comes with the Sanako SLH-07): 20130702_160943
Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, e-infrastructure, headphones Tags: , , , ,