Return to Revisions

Using command line tools you can do the following:

• Install brew

• Update and doctor brew

• Install portaudio, ffmpeg and all dependencies with brew

    brew install portaudio
    brew install ffmpeg
  

• Install pip by downloading get-pip.py (direct link) and executing

    sudo python ~/Downloads/get-pip.py
  

• Install soundmeter

    sudo pip install soundmeter
  

• Run soundmeter. To get help use the -h switch:

    soundmeter -h
    optional arguments:
      -h, --help            show this help message and exit
      -c, --collect         collect RMS values to determine thresholds
      -s SECONDS, --seconds SECONDS
                            time in seconds to run the meter (default forever)
      -a {stop,exec-stop,exec}, --action {stop,exec-stop,exec}
                            triggered action
      -t [+|-]THRESHOLD [NUM ...], --trigger [+|-]THRESHOLD [NUM ...]
                            trigger condition (threshold RMS and number of times)
      -e SCRIPT, --exec SCRIPT
                            shell script to execute upon trigger
      -d, --daemonize       run the meter in the background
      --log [LOGFILE]       log the meter (default to ~/.soundmeter/log)
      -v, --verbose         verbose mode
      --segment SECONDS     audio segment length recorded in seconds (defaults to
                            0.5)
  

Simply running soundmeter will output an RMS value. After defining a threshold you can trigger a shell script action (which may itself trigger an AppleScript script) with the -e switch.

Entering soundmeter --segment 0.1 --log watching online TV (climate change and coffee farming in Colombia - the end of Arabica beans) will show something like:

2017-01-25 18:16:02,289 24
2017-01-25 18:16:02,665 24
2017-01-25 18:16:03,037 31
2017-01-25 18:16:03,399 3
2017-01-25 18:16:03,769 15
2017-01-25 18:16:04,142 11
2017-01-25 18:16:04,524 9
2017-01-25 18:16:04,891 7
2017-01-25 18:16:05,257 7
2017-01-25 18:16:05,632 0
2017-01-25 18:16:06,001 7
2017-01-25 18:16:06,384 0
2017-01-25 18:16:06,745 2
2017-01-25 18:16:07,113 10
2017-01-25 18:16:07,491 14
2017-01-25 18:16:07,860 6
2017-01-25 18:16:08,223 0
2017-01-25 18:16:08,609 13
2017-01-25 18:16:08,973 16
2017-01-25 18:16:09,347 7
2017-01-25 18:16:09,720 26
2017-01-25 18:16:10,091 1
2017-01-25 18:16:10,464 38 ← an Arabica bean died here
2017-01-25 18:16:10,835 13
2017-01-25 18:16:11,204 Stopped

Just to confirm: that's the microphone input level and not the sound level of the TV stream because the above installation runs in a VM guest and the TV stream on the hosting Mac - tested but not logged with some clapping which will increase the RMS to values above 200!

To send a message after a triggering event do the following - change <user_name> to your OS X short username and <telephone_number> to an appropriate telephone number below:

• Create a dir and change to it:

    mkdir ~/.soundmeter
    cd ~/.soundmeter
  

• Create an AppleScript:

    nano sendMessage.applescript
  

with the content:

    on run {targetBuddyPhone, targetMessage}
        tell application "Messages"
            set targetService to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
            set targetBuddy to buddy targetBuddyPhone of targetService
            send targetMessage to targetBuddy
        end tell
    end run

• Create a shell script:

    nano sendMessage.sh
  

with the content:

    #!/bin/bash

    osascript /Users/<user_name>/.soundmeter/sendMessage.applescript <telephone_number> "Another Arabica bean died"

and change the permissions:

    chmod 755 sendMessage.sh

• Now start soundmeter with a command like this:

    soundmeter -t +38 -a exec -e /Users/<user_name>/.soundmeter/sendMessage.sh
  

This should send a message to your (iPhone) telephone number. Please note that you can't send an iMessage to yourself. Sending it to an alias may work. Other similar (Apple)scripts are available here: How to send an imessage text with applescript, only in provided service?