Monitoring and managing occupational noise exposure is a fundamental part of protecting your staffs hearing, while maintaining compliance with workplace regulations. But the concern is, how do you accurately measure the noise levels a person is exposed to throughout an entire shift?
With a personal noise dosimeter.
The SV 104A gives health & safety professionals or occupation hygienists a reliable way to measure, report and manage the noise their team are exposed to.
In this guide, we’ll explain what the SV 104A is, how it’s used, and why it’s become one of the most popular personal noise dosimeters available today.
Unlike a traditional sound level meter, a dosimeter is smaller, more lightweight product designed to be worn by the occupant throughout their shift. This allows it to capture the actual noise exposure experienced by that individual. This provides a much more accurate assessment of hearing risk.
The SV 104A is designed to comply with major occupational noise standards, including:
In simple terms, the SV 104A measures the amount of noise a worker is exposed to over time and automatically calculates values such as dose, TWA, Leq, and daily exposure levels.
Even with these many capabilities, the 104A only weighs in at 121 grams and no larger than 9cm tall, making it comfortable enough to wear throughout an entire working shift.
The SV 104A has been designed to make occupational noise measurements as straightforward as possible.
Some of its key features include:
These features are what has made the SV 104A such a popular product in the industry since its release.
Where Can You Use It?
The 104A can be used anywhere your team may be exposed to potentially harmful noise levels. Such as manufacturing, construction, warehousing and more.
In facilities where production is rife, there is often many different noise sources operating simultaneously, providing potentially unsafe environments on a daily basis.
The SV 104A allows safety professionals to measure full-shift worker exposure, assess compliance with workplace regulations, identify high-risk tasks, verify hearing protection requirements.
Construction sites are constantly changing environments where worker exposure can vary significantly throughout the day.
The dosimeter helps monitor exposure from breaking and demolition work, power tools, cutting equipment, plant and machinery.
Because the dosimeter is worn by the worker, it captures real exposure rather than relying on spot measurements.
Forklifts, loading bays, packaging equipment and vehicle movements can all contribute to workplace noise exposure.
The SV 104A provides a practical way to assess exposure across different tasks and working areas.
One of the most important design features of the SV 104A is the patented MEMS microphone. Traditional condenser microphones are vulnerable to accidental damage, particularly in the harsh environments of construction sites and warehouses.
The MEMS microphone used in the SV 104A is significantly more resistant to:
The long-term stability of the microphone is so reliable that it is backed by a lifetime warranty.
For organisations running large dosimetry programmes, this can significantly reduce maintenance and repair costs over the lifetime of the instrument.
Measuring noise exposure is only useful if they accurately reflect real measurements. The SV 104A includes an integrated triaxial vibration sensor. This sensor continuously monitors movement and vibration.
It does this to identify shocks and vibration events that may influence measurement results, allowing them to be flagged during analysis. Secondly, it can identify periods when the dosimeter is not being worn by the worker.
Anyone who regularly carries out occupational noise measurements knows the importance of calibration.
The SV 104A simplifies this process through automatic calibration detection.
When a compatible acoustic calibrator is attached, the instrument automatically recognises the calibration signal and performs the calibration process.
The calibration results are then stored directly within the measurement file.
One thing that makes the 104A so great is its integration with the Svantek ecosystem, with software on both mobile phones and PC’s. These are the backbones of the meters Svantek make, and the 104A is one of these that benefits massively from it.
The SV 104A can communicate wirelessly with smartphones and tablets via Bluetooth.
Using the Assistant mobile application, users can:
This is particularly useful when the dosimeter is worn underneath PPE or in difficult-to-access locations.
The ability to monitor measurements remotely adds convenience while reducing disruption to workers.
It can also connect to Supervisor software. This is a post processing software that allows you to generate quick or detailed reports of the data collected by the meter, presenting results in a digestible format.
This is made more powerful by the meter’s capabilities. Optional octave and one-third octave analysis provides frequency information about the noise environment and audio recording allows users to listen back to events and identify specific noise sources.
Supervisor supports:
For organisations managing multiple workers and instruments, Supervisor becomes a central hub for occupational noise compliance.
Many organisations still rely solely on spot measurements when assessing workplace noise. These measurements have their place, but they often fail to capture the full picture.
Employees in these environments move between locations, operate different equipment, and experience changing noise levels throughout the day. This is where personal dosimetry comes in, removing the uncertainty by measuring actual exposure directly at the recipient. This leads to:
The SV 104A is a personal noise dosimeter that combines automatic calibration, Bluetooth connectivity, vibration detection, and a robust MEMS microphone to deliver accurate occupational noise exposure data for compliance, monitoring, and hearing conservation in real-world workplace environments.
Find out more about the SV 104A on our website.
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