Remote monitoring fit for a king or queen – INFRA C50 and C22 lead the way in precision measurement.
The history that runs through the walls of Château de Versailles, the gigantic 17th-century castle just west of Paris in France, is not to be taken lightly. Official royal residence up until the French Revolution, the palace, transformed by Louis XIV, has 
been the scene for Marie Antoinette’s extravagant parties as well as the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 at the end of World War I. Today, Versailles is one of the world’s most visited locations for tourists, and the extravagant palace with its beautiful gardens is a historic centre for architecture and art.
Measuring noise and vibrations
Novatlas Monitoring, a consulting company specialised in the measurement of environmental impact, has installed Sigicom monitoring devices for an ongoing construction project. Work is being made to bring the networks into compliance for the safety and climatic treatment of the Grands Appartements North. The Grand Apartments consist of two sections: the King’s Grand Apartment to the north and the Queen’s Grand Apartment to the south, which communicate with each other through the Hall of Mirrors. The work has included digging of an interior and exterior courtyard, where underground concrete walls have been put in place.
To measure vibrations, INFRA C22 vibration monitors from Sigicom have been installed on the walls of the castle to ensure that the sensitive structure is protected. The INFRA C22 is a wireless triaxial vibration monitor and is in this case measuring thresholds of 2 mm/s with five-minute intervals. The INFRA C22 is small enough to fit in your hand and has an impressive battery life of up to four months, making installation and maintenance easy.
To ensure that the noise from the construction work does not cause disturbance for visitors to the castle, INFRA C50 wireless sound level meters are being used. The INFRA C50s track the LAeq 5 min and LASmax and record 10-second audio files in case the LASmax is exceeded. Monitoring takes place on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. An acoustician has determined the thresholds.
We chose Sigicom because the devices are quick to install, wireless, and easily configurable as needed. We go to the site mainly for the change of batteries, once a month for the C50 sound level meters, and once every 3 months for the C22 vibration sensors, says Corentin Castanie.
Easy installation for long-term monitoring
The project at Versailles is planned over two years. Sigicom’s monitoring devices are designed for long-term monitoring, and thanks to the long battery lives, site visits are rare and typically only for battery replacement. Settings and data analysis are performed via Sigicom’s cloud-based web application INFRA Net.
The installation of the sound level meters did not present any particular difficulty and is very easily mounted thanks to Sigicom’s innovative pole mount solution. The only challenge was that they had to be hidden from the public, which was not always easy, depending on the room. For the sensors that are positioned outside, the wind had to be taken into account, and sometimes the threshold for vibration was exceeded due to pigeons on the site.
– We’re satisfied with using INFRA devices from Sigicom. The products are of good quality and very easily managed, Corentin Castanie concludes.