Contributors
With one simple interface in the FIDO app, water technicians can slip from asset sounding to top sounding at the flick of a switch. Simply connect any FIDO sensor, tap Sounding and use the Distance toggle to choose the function you need.
What is FIDO Sounding?
FIDO Sounding turns any FIDO acoustic sensor into a leak listening device or a ground microphone.
The new version 3.5.0 of the FIDOSmart app makes it much easier to use your sensor as a sounding device by merging our previous sounding functions into one simple feature.
Find Sounding on the app’s Sensor page
Once you’ve placed your chosen FIDO sensor at the location you want to sound, tap the Sensor ID in the app and choose Sounding from the task options. Tap short or long sample depending on how noisy it is to get started straight away. The chart shows the loudness of each sounding in the order you take them.
Easily switch to FIDO top sounding mode
To take ground soundings at regular intervals simply slide the Distance mode toggle and tell the app the distance between each sampling point you’ve marked on the ground. This time the chart shows the distance of each sounding from your starting point.
Visualize and interact with your Sounding data
With any FIDO sounding you can view the graphs and listen to the audio of all your samples as often as you like. To identify the loudest sample easily, simply slide the toggle for Show peak noise. You can also filter the frequency range if you know what frequency your leak is at, or if you just want to eliminate background noise.
How leak teams use FIDO Sounding
Checking an acoustic leak profile is still present
For teams investigating an overnight leak alarm at a network asset, FIDO sensors are the perfect way to make sure the same noise is still there. If it isn’t, it probably wasn’t a leak. Place a single FIDO sensor in direct contact with the asset to take a single acoustic sample. The FIDO app turns each noise into a frequency graph which you can check against the overnight profile.
Carrying out a noise survey
Sometimes referred to as meter bashing in the industry, technicians can narrow down the location of a leak using a single FIDO sensor. First, use the sensor to take acoustic samples at every meter point along a street. Next, compare the noise levels at each point, to easily see where the sound is loudest. This location is a good place to start your investigations.
Pinpointing a leak after correlation
After carrying out a FIDO correlation to locate a leak between two points, confirm it exactly by performing one or more ground surveys. This is sometimes called top sounding. For this, attach a FIDO sensor to our special top sounding base to get the best connection with a hard surface. Use a spike too for soft surfaces like grass. The loudest point is where you mark up your leak for repair.
Get Sounding with Leak Locate
Sounding comes as standard with Leak Locate, our all-in-one investigation product powered by FIDO AI.
With Leak Locate, you get a subscription to the FIDO smartphone app and as many sensors as you need for your team.
Our pre-packed sensor bundles are perfect for carrying out asset or ground sounding. Each kit comes with a machined top sounding base, spike and tethers for lowering into deep chambers.
