Night Vision Labs
- based on an article written for Government Video Technology Magazine.

"CONQUEST OF DARKNESS"

Introduction

Although it was pitch dark in the desert, the heat was still stifling. Beyond the blowing dune and several thousand yards away from the US Army M1A1 tank lay the quarry - a Soviet built Iraqi T-72.

As the tanker's smile formed, caked sand dissolved and fell from his mustache onto the cupola below. He spoke softly into his mouthpiece with just enough emphasis to overcome the wind whipping his helmet. He stared intently at the ghostly-viewed prey until suddenly it disappeared in a violent burst of smoke and flames. Scratch one T-72.

History was being made.

The Army's latest Night Vision System had proved itself in actual combat. The satisfaction of success was felt in more than the theater of combat. Back at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, the concepts of the CECOM Night Vision Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) were being proven through thousands of similar attacks launched by the Abrams, Bradleys, Hummers and Apaches of the U.S. Army.

The NVESD spends much of its time developing and then demonstrating the capabilities for night fighting using sophisticated simulation systems. These systems, similar to those that demonstrate and train our military for daytime operations, prove the concepts of Night Vision.

The NVESD recently developed a new facility expressly for the purpose of this collaborative effort and the demonstration of night vision capabilities to both civilians within the administration and high-ranking officers.

General Projection Systems was selected by the NVESD to design and build the visual information aspects of this new facility in concert with NVESD engineers.

"We needed the ability to demonstrate our technology to many folks at one time; this increases our capacity to develop systems as well as show them to the people who have great interest in what we are accomplishing at NVESD; General Projection Systems could help provide that to us," said John Pope, Project Leader Manager for the facility.

Design

The center piece of the new facility is an auditorium-style seating area where up to 36 participants can watch night vision simulations piped up from real simulators (such as M1A1 or Apache simulators) to giant screen displays that use twin Hughes/JVC 330 projectors for the brightest picture possible.

The "bank" of Silicon Graphics Onyx Monster Reality computer systems which generate the sinulation graphics in the facility.

The highly "tiered" auditorium seating
faces a 300' wide screen.

Sound is first processed through Soundstorm network processors/sound effect machines and then amplified via Crown amps to ElectroVoice 300 series speakers which literally make the floor shake when simulating a vehicle passing by.

With the use of Synelec Mosaics display processors giving the capability to show four simultaneous displays by one projector and the views from several simulators can be viewed at the same time providing excellent feed back on the effects that new design have on operations within the military.

The auditorium can also act as a giant video conferencing facility through the use of three remote-controlled Canon cameras, 18 Audio Technica microphones using Lectrosonics mixers and the centralized PictureTel CODECS provided with the system.

In addition to the large, auditorium-style area, there are two Situation Awareness Rooms to which the same information can be sent for smaller group presentations and exercises. Specially designed wide format projection systems are provided in these rooms. Also, these rooms are outfitted with Fujitsu plasma displays along with Canon cameras for video conferencing when the large screen is retracted.

As previously alluded to, one of the best features of the design is the centralized control room and slaved equipment room. The control room, sitting well above the auditorium floor contains a large Stantron control console packed with Sony and Panasonic monitors, signal processing equipment and AMX control panels. From here, NVESD operators can run the entire facility.

Half of the large control room which runs
the entire briefing and conferencing facility.

The equipment room, located directly beneath the control room, houses racks of electronics, Autopatch routers, patch bays and audio equipment that does not need to be accessed regularly.

A large AMX system with control frames and touch panels located throughout the facility exert control over this "hub and spoke" system. By assigning equipment to a room, the operator locks out other rooms from control access to that equipment. In this way, expensive assets can be shared by all.

Additionally, "outpost" routers were installed in various user groups to allow their displays to be routed to the main system at the touch of a button.

Success

Now senior officers from the Pentagon as well as cabinet and congressional members can routinely visit the NVESD for not only the best in simulation after action reviews, briefings and video conferences but also to experience what that tank commander in the Gulf did when he could "see in the dark," and most importantly what will be seen by the soldiers of the future.

News Flash! This project has been upgraded. Read about it here!!

For more information regarding the completion of the CECOM NVESD job or General Projection Systems, please fill in our Information Request form or email Solutions@genproj.com