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SoundExpert 3.0

The third version of SE testing system is here. What's new:

  • Open source portal engine Liferay is used as a basis for SE project now. It means that such collaboration tools as forums, wiki, polls, blogs and others could be easily integrated into SoundExpert.
  • Thanks to Konstantin Pupkov code of testing engine was revised and rearranged according to portlet architecture of Liferay. The logic of SE testing remained untouched. Some parts of testing engine were optimized for performance and two bugs were fixed:
    • if there were three or more devices on the page with the same rating, only two of them were displayed.
    • because of mistakes in MySQL records a few test files have never been downloaded and graded. But because of existence of two versions of each test file (with different position of original) the deviation of affected ratings is inessential and will be corrected naturally with the lapse of time.
  • After sending back of a grade participants will see results of their listening test including device they tested.
  • IP addresses of all submitted grades are recorded now
  • Distribution of test files was switched from FTP to HTTP. For the sake of simplicity and robustness we dropped resume option while downloading. The feature is completely senseless in this particular case as all test files are small and faceless. Just download another one, it doesn't matter.
  • We are .ORG now. This domain better reflects the nature of SE project – ratings by people and for people. So the canonical name is http://soundexpert.org/ The old domain - .INFO will be alive as well.
  • You'll be surprised but we became beta. While SoundExpert testing methodology is still not confirmed by independent parties (all interested in are welcome) the beta state of SE research project will indicate that you can use the ratings at your own risk. We do believe the method will be recognized and approved by audio engineers but until then SE will be marked as beta.
  • And finally, we moved to new server. Usual story, you know …

While working on the new version we didn't add new codecs to the system. All suggestions received during that period will be considered once again and some poll might be organized on the topic. The very next contender for testing is Ogg Vorbis. As usually fill free to contact us with your suggestions, bug reports, critics, ideas, etc.

By the way, testing engine is fully operational already, you can try it right now in Testing Room.

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Audio-Transparency Initiative