Connecting a live scan device

Put a live spectrum analyzer trace on the plot — RF Venue, tinySA, Owon, Wisycom MRK16, Spectera, or any analyzer via the bridge.

With a live scan device connected, the plot draws a continuously updating trace for the zone, and you can save any sweep as a scan file for exclusion-threshold calculations.

Requirements

• SoundBase Desktop — the live scan controls are part of the desktop app.
• Edit permission on the site. Each zone has its own device assignment.

Connect a device

1. In the plot’s control bar, click the gear in the live-scan button group (Open Live Scan Data Settings). The Live Scan Data Settings dialog opens for the current zone: Select the device you’ll use to live scan in this zone.
2. Open the Select a device dropdown. Devices already known to the project are listed with their availability — a tinySA or tinySA Ultra connected over USB appears here. Below them are the options to add a new device — depending on what’s enabled for your account:
   • RF Venue Spectrum Recorder
   • Owon HSA1016 — IP address and SCPI port
   • Wisycom MRK16 — IP address
   • Spectrum Analyzer Bridge — IP address and port of a bridge serving any other analyzer
   • Sennheiser Spectera base stations discovered on the network, with per-antenna-port selection
3. Fill in the connection details and click Save. The dialog confirms the device’s serial number once it’s talking; Disconnect releases it.

Run and use the live scan

• Live starts and stops sweeping (Start Live Scan / Stop Live Scan). The button runs blue when idle and red while sweeping or when the device is offline; a progress bar under the plot tracks each sweep.
• The save (floppy) button stores the current sweep as a scan file on the site — it then behaves like any imported scan (Choosing which scan files a zone displays).
• Sweep parameters live in the settings dialog: Start / Center / Stop / Span, RBW, Mode, Offset (dBm), and Points per sweep.
• Link parameter settings to frequency plot re-tunes the analyzer to follow whatever range the plot displays — zoom the plot, and the analyzer follows.
• Stream live data to SoundBase Cloud shares the live trace with collaborators viewing the project in the browser. Turning streaming on requires a SoundBase Pro subscription; anyone can turn it off.
• The RF Venue Spectrum Recorder additionally offers Show 24h Max and Show 24h Avg history lines on the plot.

Tip

With a live trace running, the Waterfall and RTSA panel views become available — the waterfall is the tool for catching intermittent interference.

Scanning with your receivers

Some monitored receivers can double as scanners, no separate analyzer required: Sennheiser EW-DX and EM 6000 channels can run scans from the device setup, and Sennheiser Spectera Base Stations scan through their antenna ports. See the full capability matrix in Supported devices.

If the device won’t connect, see Troubleshooting live scan devices.