Song Meter SM2 Platform

A powerful and expandible foundation supporting a wide range of acoustic monitoring applications

The SM2 platform is extensible to meet a wide range of current and future needs. For example, the external sensor port can be used to measure and record soil or water temperature to correlate with the calling activity of amphibians. The digital expansion connectors on the back of the SM2 motherboard can host our SM2BAT stereo 192kHz or mono 384kHz ultrasonic interface to record the echo-location calls of bats. The configurable amplifier can support a wide range of audio input sources such as hydrophones for recording underwater acoustic signals from fish or cetaceans. And the SDIO-capable card slots can support future capabilities like GPS time synchronization and wireless connectivity.

Weatherproof enclosure NEMA 6 rated for harsh environments around the globe. Weatherproof vent equalizes pressure to prevent condensation and protect seals. External analog sensor input for application-specific data-logging of water level, temperature, etc. Built-in temperature sensor for integrated data-logging of temperature. Stereo audio inputs for microphones, ultrasonic transducers, and/or hydrophones. Status LED indicates when recording or waiting for next scheduled recording. External power input to connect to larger batteries or solar panels for extremely long deployments. Four SD/SDHC/SDIO card slots for high capacity storage or future capabilities like GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Configurable amplifiers/filters to support a wide range of audio inputs for a wide range of applications. Main power from 4 D-size batteries record up to 250 hours spread out through months at a time. Clock power from 2 AA-size batteries last up to three years Expandible design makes it easy for us to add new capabilities and features, like our SM2BAT daughter card for ultrasonic recording of bats. Stereo headphone jack lets you check recording levels and can also be used in the future for call-response applications.

For more information, please read the Song Meter User Manual for operational details and specifications. You can also listen to some sample recordings made by Song Meter recorders.

The Song Meter platform is packed with features:

The SM2 can be easily programmed to record on simple time-of-day schedules or to implement the most complex monitoring protocols, even scheduling recordings relative to local sunrise, sunset and twilight.

Several sample rates are available from mono or stereo 4kHz through 48kHz, and with one of our ultrasonic expansion cards can also sample at either stereo 192kHz or mono 384kHz.

Filenames are timestamped and include a programmable prefix to uniquely identify recordings made from each Song Meter. Files can be recorded in standard uncompressed .WAV format, or using lossy or lossless compression in our .WAC format. The WAC format also supports triggers that can be set up independently on each channel to only record when acoustic events occur. Our WAC format can be converted back to standard WAV format with our free WAC2WAV utility available at no charge from the downloads section of our website. When using triggers, WAC2WAV can also split up each triggered event on each channel into its own unique timestamped WAV file.

While making recordings, Song Meter also logs the internal temperature sensor and external sensor port every five minutes to a text file. The external sensor readings can be converted automatically to fit a linear scale or a Steinhart-Hart equation used by precision thermistors.

Song Meter Configuration Utility

Easily configure complex protocols and estimate battery life and flash card capacity

The Song Meter can be configured directly from its front panel using an easy-to-use interface. For your convenience, you can also create, view and edit Song Meter configuration files with the Song Meter Configuration Utility application software shown here. The software lets you visualize the recording schedule. Day and night are shown based on sunrise and sunset times specific to your geographic location and time of year. The software also estimates how long your recording schedule will run before you run out of flash card capacity or battery power. The software is free and can be downloaded from our website.

Analyze Recordings with Song Scope

State-of-the-art bioacoustics software

Recordings can also be analyzed with our powerful Song Scope bioacoustics software. In addition to viewing spectrograms, Song Scope has a powerful statistical classifier for automatically scanning field recordings to look for vocalizations of interest.