British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Acoustic Pipeline system is a cloud-based platform for identifying wildlife sounds, designed to work with a variety of hardware for recording and uploading data.
It does not require specific, proprietary BTO hardware, but rather acts as a processing engine for recordings made on various third-party devices.
Here is the breakdown of the hardware used:
1. Recording Devices (Passive Acoustic Monitors)
Users employ various digital audio recorders to capture .wav files, which are then uploaded to the pipeline:
Static Bat/Bird Detectors: Widely used, specialized recorders such as the AudioMoth (low-cost, for birds or bats), Song Meter Mini Bat (Wildlife Acoustics), and Song Meter SM4.
Specialized Bat Detectors: The Apodemus PippyG (a compact, 384 kHz sample rate, Raspberry Pi-based recorder) and the BATLOGGER A2 are specifically mentioned as compatible.
Other Recorders: Various recorders from Zoom, Tascam, and Olympus are suitable, provided they can produce compatible .wav files.
Microphones: The system works with MEMS microphones (e.g., in the PippyG) or other specialized ultrasonic microphones.
2. Computing Hardware (User End)
To upload and process the data, the user needs:
Desktop Computer/Laptop: A computer running Windows (7 or above) or Apple macOS (10.10 or later) is required to run the Desktop Upload Client.
Storage: Sufficient hard drive space for temporary storage of .wav files during the upload process (up to 25-32 GB may be needed for large batches).
Internet Connection: A reliable connection is necessary for transmitting audio to the cloud.
3. Backend Processing Hardware
Cloud Computing Platform: The actual identification is not done on the user's computer but via a secure, powerful cloud-based system managed by the BTO.
4. Optional/Supplementary Hardware
Smartphone/Tablet: Useful for configuring certain detectors (like the PippyG) and for recording GPS coordinates to label recordings.
Micro SD Cards: Used in all recorders for storing data