AV Magazine
It would be alarming if security weren't at the heart of defence, intelligence, MoD, and Home Office AV applications. There's a pressing need to securely manage multiple classifications of information to ensure that the right content is being delivered only to the recipients who are authorized to view it.
Thinklogical has developed a specialised practice to help AV designers deliver secure KVM and video signal extension and matrix switching systems that meet demanding security requirements.
“Our products have been designed to allow the management of multi-classification information through a single, fibre-optic-based system – the only one of its kind to be approved for use by NATO, the US Department of Defense, and other government agencies,” states Robert Ventresca, vp marketing, Thinklogical. “In addition, this system allows organisations to enhance cyber security and minimise the intentional or accidental insider threat by allowing computers and video servers to be removed from the command and control room floor to a secure facility elsewhere, limiting access to the computer USB ports and hard drives.”
Security is just as important even for IPTV systems which may mainly be delivering entertainment to personnel in barracks. It means assurance that only authorized administrators can make decisions about where and how sensitive content can be distributed.
“Security is a critical element in the set-up of distribution solutions for defence, and is the topic that is often discussed first and foremost,” agrees Mark Stanborough, sales manager, Cabletime.
Other elements aside from security are increasingly important though. IPTV providers still have to demonstrate their solutions are cost-effective and flexible without compromising on quality, and they also need to be energy efficient.
“There’s definitely been an increase in the amount and diversity of AV we’re being asked to supply,” reports Amy Cronshaw, account manager, AVMI. “It’s still predominantly for strategy and training-based facilities especially when new troops are being readied for theatre.”
AVMI supplies kit including high-res touch-screens to MoD HQs at Northwood and Whitehall. When it comes to new technologies, Cronshaw says AVMI brings these to the MOD's attention but also that the department is “a lot more open” to innovation then previously.
“Everything has to be security vetted and it’s definitely a longer process than in other areas of our business but we are very selective in the types of technologies we choose to put forward to the MOD.”
“Everything has to be security vetted and it’s definitely a longer process than in other areas of our business but we are very selective in the types of technologies we choose to put forward to the MOD.”
On land
The government's ￡178 billion overall defence equipment and support budget planned over the next decade includes squadrons of F-35 jets, nine maritime patrol aircraft and four submarines. And new public address systems at its mainland bases.
The existing systems are antiquated and typically based on telephony wires making them unfit for modern emergencies such as warning personnel about mortar attacks or mid-air collisions.
“At RAF Lossiemouth the old circuit controls were shared with the street lights and when this was converted to fibre the installers inadvertently ripped out all the copper wires and they lost all PA function,” says Kevin Sherwood, field sales director, CIE Group. “On many sites the basic infrastructure is held together with string and glue. These are gradually being updated to IP networks running over fibre and CAT6 / CAT7 cables.”
SCIDA (Site Co-ordinating Installation Design Authority) oversee all MoD communication information infrastructure to exacting standards.
“On some sites there are black and red wires,” says Sherwood. “Black is fine, we can touch those, but red is top secret and we're forbidden to go anywhere near them. That said, the MoD is more open to using new technology than any government body. You'll get fifty engineers telling you why not to use something in other departments, so it's quite refreshing when you get to a RAF base, you suggest a solution and they just say 'yes'.”
CIE has done half a dozen revamps of barracks since the Defence Review including Air Command HQ High Wycombe, the SAS camp at RAF St Athan, and RNAS Yeovilton, the dive and airsea rescue crash facility.
“Where it used to be very hard to get your foot in the door, the MoD is starting to go to the market and find reputable companies and talk to not one but four or five of them which opens up the competition,” says Sherwood.
At sea
Defence departments the world over have realised that they can offer their employees stationed away for weeks on end a more 'home from home' experience. Indeed, cadets expect to access Netflix and watch their own videos from their smart phones on TVs in their accomodation “using a proper AV solution rather than a CRT TV or a digital flat panel from Argos,” says Tim Hoddy, head of sales, UK and Ireland at Tripleplay Services.
That holds true for delivery of TV services on boats. “A military ship has similar business drivers to that of a corporate or bank,” says Hoddy. “There's a need to deliver digital media across the organisation – for both entertainment and information - such that the organisation has centralised control over the content.”
TriplePlay outfitted British aircraft carriers HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales with a 500 screen IPTV systems. These vessels don't carry dedicated AV technicians so the kit has to be reliable and managed by non-specialists at sea.
“The overwhelming driver is for a solution that doesn't rely on external internet connections,” says Hoddy. “Like many corporate installs the ship's IPTV has to be self contained.”
Military craft are often designed a long way in advance of implementation so that the exact weight and size can be factored in, but this can cause problems if a piece of AV kit – a server, say – goes obsolete in the meantime.
“You can put kit in storage so that it is not 'end of lifed' but then you may have issues servicing it down the line,” says Hoddy. “Alternatively, a software-based system like ours can always be upgraded.”
Aircraft carriers are also massive communities – with one big difference: they move.
“A ship set up in Portsmouth with satellite receiver cards won't be able to receive that programming when it rounds the Cape,” says Hoddy. “Unless the system has a means by which the crew can easily swap media delivery from one set of satellites to another.
Given the amount of time they are at sea the people who live on these towns need time off so shift patterns are common. Tripleplay can programme a time shift so that when crew come in from work at 7am they can still watch Corrie in a schedule that make sense for them. “You can't underestimate the importance of this on a moveable town when you need an element of normality,” says Hoddy.
Rapid response
Mitsubishi partnered with French company IRTS to create a mobile instant control room screen for rapid set-up in emergency situations, such as in conflict zones or areas afflicted by outbreaks of disease.
“The criteria we were given is that the solution had to be capable of set-up by not more than two people, without tools and in just 15 minutes,” explained Peter Van Dijk, senior business development manager, export, display systems group, Mitsubishi Electric.
The prototype flypack arrangement comprises of four LCD screens which can be locked together by clips and height adjusted by a motorised lift.
Into space
Rocket research isn’t something you might associate with professional audio but when you are firing people into space, you need to check your ship is up to the job.
NASA’s Space Power facility in Ohio houses a chamber that recreates the pressure levels in a real launch scenario and uses XTA processing.
The massive acoustic chamber is excited with a variety of LF and HF pressure transducers, capable of generating pressures well over 150dB across a wide spectrum to simulate what would be happening at a real launch.
“Just as with standard aeronautics, there are lives directly at stake and this has to drive how all testing, verification and development is driven,” says Waring Hayes,
technical brand manager, XTA Electronics.
technical brand manager, XTA Electronics.
The fact that NASA have chosen to use equipment designed for audio reproduction to control equipment designed to shake the rivets from a rocket, and adapt its use to their needs would suggest they are innovating rather than being wholly conservative. On the other hand, their desire to stick to well tested, rugged equipment, instead of designing their own would suggest that they like to keep risk low.
For a second project XTA are working on in Munich, there are discussions about modifying its firmware to adapt it for NASA requirements. “This is a low risk strategy as the changes are minor, but significant to the success of integration,” says Waring.
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