Ready for a powerful new addition to your environmental monitoring toolkit? Due to popular demand, Soft dB is introducing a powerful hydrophone sensor for measuring underwater noise levels.
This innovative integration allows you to simultaneously capture comprehensive environmental data above land and below water. By bringing multiple sensing technologies together, it creates a clearer, more accurate picture of how projects interact with their surroundings, both seen and unseen, across complex sound spaces. Instead of relying on fragmented datasets or isolated measurements, project teams gain a holistic understanding of environmental impact in real time, enabling better decision-making and stronger regulatory confidence within these environments.
Why Monitor Underwater Noise?
For construction projects, industrial operations, and other activities occurring near rivers, lakes, oceans, and other bodies of water, monitoring underwater noise is critical. Many environmental regulations place strict limits on acceptable underwater noise levels to protect sensitive marine life and preserve fragile ecosystems that exist within shared sound spaces above and below the waterline. Failing to meet these requirements can result in costly delays, fines, or reputational damage, making accurate monitoring a core operational requirement.
Excessive underwater noise can have devastating impacts on species such as fish, marine mammals, and other aquatic fauna. It can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss, damage delicate auditory structures, interfere with essential communication used for navigation, feeding, and mating, and in extreme cases, lead to serious injury or death. Understanding how sound behaves below the surface is essential for managing these risks effectively within complex aquatic sound spaces, where pressure waves travel differently than in air and often propagate over long distances.
The new hydrophone sensor precisely measures underwater pressure waves in real time, delivering reliable, high-resolution data even in challenging environmental conditions. It provides underwater noise measurements across defined frequency bands such as octaves and one-third octaves, allowing engineers and environmental specialists to assess specific noise characteristics rather than relying on broad averages. This level of detail enables accurate comparison against regulatory thresholds and project-specific limits, supporting faster responses and proactive mitigation when exceedances are detected.
Unified Environmental Monitoring
The true power of the hydrophone lies in its seamless integration with the Watch station’s other world-class sensors. You can connect up to three different sensor types simultaneously, creating a unified, real-time view of your project’s environmental impact from a single, compact system designed to operate reliably across diverse sound spaces.
This means one cloud-based dashboard displaying synchronised data streams for:
- Airborne noise levels
- Ground vibrations
- Air overpressure from blasting
- Weather conditions
- Underwater noise levels
By bringing all relevant environmental data together in one place, teams can quickly identify patterns, correlations, and potential risks across interconnected sound spaces. It dramatically simplifies monitoring, analysis, and reporting, reducing manual effort while improving accuracy and transparency. This unified approach is ideal for projects such as port construction, offshore oil and gas operations, wind farms, underwater demolition or blasting, and other industrial activities operating in sensitive aquatic environments where compliance and accountability are critical.
Automated Reporting
The hydrophone also works seamlessly with Soft dB’s patented Master Trigger system to deliver automated reporting after blasting events. When used alongside vibration monitoring, the system automatically generates comprehensive reports summarising vibration levels, air overpressure, airborne noise, and underwater noise within minutes of each blast.
There’s no need for manual data compilation, spreadsheet work, or time-consuming cross-referencing between systems. No missed correlations. Just clear, reliable environmental intelligence delivered when you need it most. This automation not only saves time but also ensures consistency and traceability when managing regulated sound spaces.
The introduction of this hydrophone further strengthens the Watch station’s position as one of the most powerful, portable, and cost-effective solutions available for environmental monitoring and regulatory compliance across modern sound spaces. By combining precision measurement, seamless integration, and intelligent reporting, it supports responsible project delivery without compromising efficiency.
Contact the Sound Directions team today to discover how this advanced sensor can simplify monitoring, protect the environment, and support confident, informed decision-making across complex sound spaces on your next project.oject.