Intelligent Volume Control – Sound volume made to measure

Premium quality in an Intercom station depends not just on the quality of the transmitted speech signal. If and how well it can transmit that signal under extreme conditions is just as essential.

Commend Intercom stations stand the premium-quality test in everyday use under the harshest of conditions. One of the biggest challenges in the quest for perfect speech intelligibility is loud ambient noise.

With Intelligent Volume Control (IVC), our passionate audio engineers have come up with something very special to raise the bar in terms of speech intelligibility in extremely noise environments from traffic tunnels to production halls.

How does IVC work?

A new, specially developed method of processing sound lends Intercom stations the ability to ‘listen’ to background noise and modify the volume setting accordingly. Along with the rising and falling noise level, the volume is adjusted automatically to the level that sounds best to the human ear. This way, the voice at the other end of the Intercom station remains clear and easily intelligible, whether at the emergency call point in a noisy traffic tunnel or in the noise-polluted environment of a production hall.

At the same time, IVC works its magic at the other end of the Intercom line as well by turning the volume down. This is necessary to prevent sound distortions in the transmission, as speakers tend to raise the volume and pitch of their voice in noisy environments. Acoustics specialists call this the “Lombard effect”.

With these improvements, IVC by far outperforms the common volume adjustment methods, putting Commend speech transmission technology in a class of its own.

About Commend

Commend develops and manufactures Security and Communication systems for protection of people, buildings and values. The Commend International GmbH was founded in 1971 and is one of the world’s largest providers of Intercom Systems. Currently 130 employees are stationed in the headquarters in Salzburg; in the international partner network 350 people are working together. Rescue forces, fire brigade, police and other security facilities rely on the dependability of this Salzburg Company as well as hospitals and nursing homes. Terminals, modules and stations from Commend for integration of speech, image and data can also be found in control rooms of the German automobile industry, in emergency call systems of subways, such as the London Underground, in many buildings for control of barriers and lifts and increase security on parking lots, parking garages. Commend products and solutions are long term investments, because they can be expanded and upgraded. www.commend.com