Community expands measurement capabilities with new indoor test facility

WORLD: Community has opened a new, state-of-the-art indoor test facility at its US factory in Chester, Pennsylvania. Designed by Charlie Hughes of Excelsior Audio and operated by senior measurement technician, Hadi Sumoro, the new test facility will enable loudspeaker measurements to be taken with ‘unprecedented accuracy and precision’.

‘Community’s outdoor measurement systems were an important resource for our technical applications group as we worked with systems designers and end users,’ said Dave Howden, Community’s director of technical services. ‘Now, this new indoor facility provides phase data and other new information for systems designers and will help Community’s engineering team design the next generation of great loudspeakers.’

With its indoor location, the environment in the new facility can be controlled, making it possible to manage both the temperature and humidity. The building also eliminates wind problems and minimises interference from outside noise sources allowing Community engineers to measure complex loudspeaker data much more accurately, and gather polar data with precise 1-degree resolution. Measurements taken by the engineers are now also automated with an ELF robotic rotator system controlled by Easera software. 

The new test facility follows in the footsteps of a long tradition of loudspeaker measurements at Community, which opened its first test facility on a southeast Pennsylvania hilltop in 1975.

www.communitypro.com