New sound-level meter from Castle Group

Latest Sonus E instrument designed to make noise measurements more accessible and simpler

SCARBOROUGH-based Castle Group Ltd have launched a new sound-level meter, the Sonus E. The instrument has been developed in response to a recent survey, which found that 90% of all environmental noise measurement tasks can be completed using only three parameters – LAeq (equivalent sound level), L90 (sound level exceeded for 90% of the time) and LAmax (maximum sound pressure level).

‘This makes the whole process of environmental measurements a lot more accessible and straightforward,’ said Simon Bull, a co-author of the study. ‘It appears that most people are using equipment that is expensive, over-complicated, power-hungry and data-intensive, when it is absolutely not needed.

‘The traditional approach has always been to take a powerful sound meter and put it in a weatherproof box. This leads to increased battery requirements which often mean a very heavy box that pulls your arms out of their sockets just getting it on to site’

Castle Group have released the new Sonus E to make the most of this new research, with a single lead-acid battery lasting over a week and a total system weight of less than 5.5kg. The sound-level meter will measure down to 22dB and will give two parallel measurements, which is required in some environmental standards.

The parameters measured include Leq, LE, Lmax, L10, L90 and one-user defined Ln value, while the data logging is capable of taking a measurement every second as well as overall levels.