bcAdmin

Biggest work time saver

Save valuable time analyzing large datasets

In acoustic long-term monitoring as well as when deploying multiple units simultaneously the amounts of data collected can be rather huge. Analyzing this data with common applications often is very time consuming or not doable at all. Good news is, that by using bcAdmin 4 you can save up to 70% of your work time. bcAdmin 4 is highly optimized and even faster to use than its predecessors. It will boost your efficiency. We are proud to say that with bcAdmin 4 you are using the best available application for working with large datasets.

Die Benutzeroberfläche von bcAdmin 4

bcAdmin 4 features a simple yet powerful interface giving access to your recordings metadata stored in database files. Links to the actual recordings on disk are stored contained in a so-called session. This resembles one night of data collected with one detector. A new features is the storage of single file references without a session. Session as well as recordings can be connected to various meta-data like locations or climate data. Using a database access to these information is lightning fast.

Typical features

Automated call search and analysis is the main work for bcAdmin. After importing recording references one can initiate the call search and found calls can be easily identified using batIdent. Manual control of results is the typical step after the automated processes. Hereby bcAdmin supports you presenting call and sound previews in the recording table as well as in the specialized File Browser. There you can also manually measure found calls.

Datei-Browser in bcAdmin 4
The new file browser in bcAdmin 4 speeds up control of identifications

Opening multiple databases allows copy and paste of information between database files. These are stored internally as SQLite3 files, one of the most powerful file based database systems.

Analysis of data

bcAdmin gives you access to many different tools for analyzing your data. Let it be species overviews or reports on activity. The later can be used analogue to cross-tables and allows display of various parameters filtered by different properties. Nightly and yearly activity plots can be easily created. For those interested in more details of call properties, scatter plots of call parameters over night or against each other can be easily drawn. Actually you have the agony of choice between most typical plots and analysis, all generated by a single click. No other tools are necessary. Most plots can be saved as image files for direct use in reports or other work. Learn why bat species id was never that easy.

Beispiel-Plots aus bcAdmin

Wen creating and exporting plots various Parameters can be used to influence to file format as well as the look of the graph. For example species can be colored in a scatterplot showing two call parameters:

Plot von Rufparametern
Plot von Rufparametern

Environmental data

bcAdmin allows to connect bat activity with various environmental data, front and foremost temperature and wind speed. This allows differentiated view on activity and correlation with influencing variables. Using such data in bcAdmin gives access to plots showing for example activity in correlation with minimum and maximum temperatures per night. If wind speeds and temperatures are given for a set of recordings, these can also be plotted in a xy-scatterplot helping to understand activity at wind turbines.

Beispiel eines Plots von Umweltdaten
scatterplot showing activity in correlation to windspeed and temperature.

Using bcAdmin with non-batcorder recordings

bcAdmin works with all wave recordings of realtime recorders. If timestamp of the recording is saved in the filename, it offers extraction of it and storage as date entry of the recording. The Batlogger creates a log file similar to the batcorder. This can be used for importing recordings in sessions. Note that depending on the recording quality the call finder as well as batIdent may be not as successful as with batcorder recordings.

We are setting standards

By extending bcAdmin we quite often set standards for bat researchers. Many of the plots featured in bcAdmin nowadays are seen as standard by government agencies when judging consulting reports. This leads to other tools copying our features. We are happy to act as pioneers and help to improve working with and for bats in the frontline. That is our place.

Download the full version and test its for 30 days without limitations, for further use a license needs to be bought. Users of bcAdmin 3 can import their existing databases easily into bcAdmin 4.Otherwise create a new document, save it and start adding data. Note that bcAdmin 4 is optimized for Mac OS X 10.12 or newer (10.11 is currently supported unofficially).

Prerequisites for good measurements

While bcAdmin in general can deal with many different recording devices, there are some prerequisites that improve the automatic measurements. We recommend to use real time recordings of at least 350 kHz sample rate (500 kHz preferred). Amplitude resolution must be 16 bit. System noise should stay below -45 dB (relatively to maximum resolution). The batcorder records with a system noise of -53 dB or less. The SNR (signal to noise ratio) has a strong influence on the process of automatic measuring of calls. The worse the SNR, the less reliable the identification process will work.

License

The current version of bcAdmin can be used without license until January 1st, 2019. From the on a yearly license fee of 175€ is charged. This enables you to download and run updates. If your license expires you still can use bcAdmin 4, yet you will not be able to use newer updates. Note without license any support requests are charged.

Downloads

bcAdmin 4

available since 1. March 2024

Release 1.4.1 of bcAdmin 4 - needs a license going until 2024 or longer. New users can test bcAdmin 4 for 30 days free of a license. bcAdmin 4 is the new workhorse for your analysis and reports. Learn more about bcAdmin 4.

MD5 hash of the file bcAdmin4-4138.zip:
238d38aae8071727981911c6d0f795ee

Manual for bcAdmin 4

available since 1. March 2024

Please download our preliminary manual for bcAdmin 4 in english. Updated in March 2024

MD5 hash of the file bcAdmin4.0en.pdf:
b44798baf9a27066844bac7cba6842cd

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