page_title: Smaart
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Smaart / History
caption_attribution_description: English: IBM laptop in a 4U portable rack, running Smaart software for analysis of sound systems.
context_page_description: Smaart is a suite of audio and acoustical measurements and instrumentation software tools introduced in 1996 by JBL's pro audio division. It is designed to help the live sound engineer optimize sound reinforcement systems during the public performance. Most earlier analysis systems required specific test signals sent to the sound system, ones which would be unpleasant for the audience to hear. It is also intended to assist audio engineers in analyzing the output of loudspeakers, audio amplifiers and other audio gear, as well as helping the acoustician analyze room acoustics.
  The product has been known as JBL-Smaart, SIA-Smaart Pro, EAW Smaart, SmaartLive, and simply Smaart. An acoustician version has been offered as Smaart Acoustic Tools, and a standalone version containing just the sound pressure level measurement tools is offered as Smaart SPL. Smaart is an acronym which stands for sound measurement acoustical analysis real time.
  Smaart has two modes: Realtime Mode and impulse response mode. Realtime mode uses dual- and single-fast Fourier transform to display RTA, spectrograph, and transfer function measurements.
context_section_description: As early as 1978, field analysis of rock concert audio was undertaken by Don Pearson, known by his nickname "Dr. Don", while working on sound systems used by the Grateful Dead. Pearson published articles about impulse response measurements taken during setup and testing of concert sound systems, and recommended the Dead buy an expensive Brüel & Kjær 2032 Dual Channel FFT analyzer, made for industrial engineering. Along with Dead audio engineer Dan Healy, Pearson developed methods of working with this system to set up sound systems on tour, and he assisted Meyer engineers working on a more suitable source-independent measurement system which was to become their SIM product. As well, Pearson had an "intimate involvement" with the engineers who were creating Smaart, including a meeting with Jamie Anderson.
  Smaart was developed by Sam Berkow in association with Alexander "Thorny" Yuill-Thornton II, touring sound engineer with Luciano Pavarotti and The Three Tenors. In 1995, Berkow and Thorny founded SIA Software Company, produced Smaart and licensed the product to JBL. First exhibited in New York City at the Audio Engineering Society's 99th convention in October 1995 and described the next month in Billboard magazine, in May 1996 the software product was introduced at the price of $695, the equivalent of $1,133 in today's currency. Studio Sound magazine described Smaart in 1996 as "the most talked about new product" at the 100th AES convention in Copenhagen, exemplifying a new trend in software audio measurement. Calvert Dayton joined SIA Software in 1996 as graphic designer, technical writer and website programmer.
  Smaart was unusual because it helped audio professionals such as theatrical sound designers do what was previously possible only with highly sophisticated and expensive measurement devices. Audio system engineers from Clair Brothers used Smaart to tune the sound system at each stop during U2's PopMart Tour 1997–1998. As it increased in popularity, engineers who used Smaart found mixed results: touring veteran Doug Fowler wrote that "misuse was rampant" when the software first started appearing in the field. He warned users against faulty interpretation, saying "I still see bad decisions based on bad data, or bad decisions based on a fundamental lack of understanding of the issues at hand." Nevertheless, Clive Young, editor of Pro Sound News, wrote in 2005 that the introduction of Smaart in 1995 was the start of "the modern era of sound reinforcement system analysis software".
  In 1998, JBL Smaart Pro won the TEC Awards category for computer software and peripherals. Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) bought SIA Software, and brought in Jamie Anderson to manage the division. Version 3 was introduced under EAW's ownership, with the additional capability of accepting optional plug-ins which could be used to apply sound system adjustments, as measured by Smaart, to digital signal processing (DSP) equipment. The external third party DSP would perform the corrections indicated by Smaart.
  Versions 4 and 5 were built upon the foundation of version 3, but with each major release, the application was getting more and more difficult to write, and further improvements appeared practically impossible to implement. For version 6, the designers decided to tear Smaart back down to its basics and rebuild it on a flexible multi-tasking, multi-platform framework which would allow it to be used on Mac OS X and Windows machines. Writing it took two years, and it was released in a package which included the earlier version 5 because there was not enough time to incorporate all elements of the existing feature set. Anderson said in 2007, "we released Version 6 without all of the features of 5, but we are adding those features back in." Smaart 6 was nominated for a TEC Award in 2007 but did not win.
  EAW developed a digital mixing console prototype in 2005, the UMX.96; a console which incorporated SmaartLive 5 internally. Any selected channel on the mixer could be used as a source for Smaart analysis, displaying, for instance, the real-time res
caption: SmaartLive 4 software running on an IBM laptop in 2002, mounted in a portable 19-inch rack case
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