Overview
Passive acoustic monitoring is one of the most powerful non-invasive methods for surveying biodiversity. By recording wildlife soundscapes continuously, researchers can identify species by their vocalisations, track phenological shifts, and detect ecosystem disturbance — all without disturbing the habitat.
sdc provides a standard interface for installing, configuring, and controlling the diverse range of sound capture hardware used across Raspberry Pi acoustic sensor networks. It ensures consistent audio quality whether a deployment uses USB microphones, I2S MEMS arrays, or dedicated sound cards.
Why It Matters
Large-scale acoustic monitoring networks often span dozens of sites with different microphone hardware. Without a unified control layer, managing recording settings, sample rates, and device drivers across a heterogeneous fleet becomes a significant barrier to scaling. sdc removes that barrier.
Key Features
- Unified interface for diverse sound capture hardware
- Standardised installation and driver management
- Consistent audio configuration across heterogeneous sensor networks
- Supports both playback (e.g. acoustic lures) and capture devices
Source Code
sdc is open source and available on GitHub.