by: JAMES BRANDT

"They think it's really cool! The bathrooms still say Boys and Girls on the doors. Other than that, you can't tell that this used to be an elementary school."

That's the way Drake Wayson, president of systems integrator General Projection Systems, describes what has become the home for the Joint Warfighting Center in Fort Monroe, Virginia.

Despite being built in an old elementary school, the facility boasts one of the most impressive conference centers and war game simulation facilities ever built.

"We walked into a room that had the wood slats of a gym floor. At one end was a raised stage that would become the Commander's Conference Room."

"We had to take another room that originally was a storage room and turn it into an equipment room. We had to cut off part of the gym for a rear screen system and racks of computers. And we put in a one-way mirror so the people in the conference room could look out over the DSCC," explains Wayson.

The DSCC is the Distributed Simulation Capabilities Center, a facility built on the same principles as the wargaming room at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. It's designed primarily for strategic training.

The various commanders-in-chief and their task forces and staffs, observers, and techs gather in the room - it will hold about 100 people - and work out the logistics of moving large, international and inter-service forces around the globe in hostile environments without spending millions of dollars or risking lives.

Rehearsing and trying out various scenarios, similar to planning an offensive such as Desert Storm, can be sweated out at the strategic level. It's a bit like nonlinear editing: The generals and admirals can test their battle theories and rework the rough spots without sacrificing lives.

"What we wanted to do was to distribute simulators world wide. We can bring people in here and show them on the big screen what's going on, ' says Major Wayne H. Wentz, Chief C3I Branch (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence), a part of the inter-service organization that operates the center.

"The players can look at the data and manipulate it as required. They can look at the battle in different resolutions. They can look at very small areas or the entire theater. We train folks like a joint task force, and we train them on specific projects."

According to Wentz, when the project is fully operational, airplanes and ships will move around the board. Players will be able to see the whole battle or, with some simulators, they can go down to individual units and take it to a micro-scale war view.

The project was designed and contracted by E-Systems and their subcontractor, General Projection Systems. The general-purpose design called for a multimedia executive conference room, including audio and video, and for a smaller commander's conference room with capabilities similar to the main facility.

There were two main objectives: to provide a facility for high-level conferences and briefings; and to support wargaming exercises.

The wargaming exercises will be major multimedia events, simulating everything from massive troop movements and equipment to small commando-like strikes. Undoubtedly, the large-scale exercises will be the mainstay for the game players.

Putting It Together

The biggest challenge was the scheduling," recalls E-Systems' Greg Foster from his Dallas office. "They had an aggressive schedule with a four to five-month turnaround. The whole team had to do some facility modifications, including the addition of a wall. We put in raised computer floors .and lamps and dropped the ceiling. It was a major effort."

Foster says the raised floors there added to support a United Nations-type horseshoe table that seats 20 people. Interestingly, the table is reconfigurable - something that seems very impressive, if you measure it by the number of times people there mention it.

With the raised computer floor, each station has access to computers, telephones, and microphones in any configuration.

They also dropped a soffet from the ceiling. This gives hidden cove lighting and special task lighting for proper illumination.

The dropped drywall ceiling wasn't expensive, and it adds a great deal of impact when people enter the room.

"Initially, they didn't want a computer floor," notes Foster. "They didn't want to spend the money. Originally, they didn't want anything really special at all. Now they couldn't be happier that they spent the money."

Certainly, if this were a commercial operation, the repeat business would already have proven this a wise investment. Even though the facility has only been open a few months, they have already hosted four-star generals from the various services as well as the service secretaries.

Of course, fully functional facilities were behind the concept, and that's what E-Systems and General Projection Systems delivered.

The larger area of the facility centers on two Hughes-JVC 320S light valve projectors controlled by two Van San lecterns, with full remote control over everything from lighting to opening and closing a giant curtain.



The projectors are set up for rear projection with a 6x8-foot Stewart Film Screen Optiwave. "We put in a multi-tiered ceiling for aesthetic appeal and for acoustic reasons," says Foster. "Remember we were working in a former gym area that had florescent lights and atrocious acoustics. So, we had an acoustics engineer evaluate the plan and he advised us to add acoustic wall tiles.

To drive all this. they converted a closet into an equipment room. Its five racks of equipment now include Pesa Cougar router switching; a variety of VCRs, from VHS to Beta; two side-by-side projectors; and a Panasonic WV-F700ASH camera mounted between them in the wall to allow video conferencing.

They also have two Kodak Ektapro 7000 projectors, two 3-CCD presentation cameras. and three IEV T-200 scan doublers.

A Salute To Success

According to Wentz, much of the successful initial operations should be credited to Lt. Commander William A. Sheehan. the internal systems integrator of the project. In essence, the entire project was his responsibility, as chief of systems integration for the Center.

It was Sheehan who was charged with making the system function as a multi-purpose environment-an environment that facilitates training and reduces costs.

Aside from starting with a school building, money is saved because the facility cuts down on the number of people who would have had to travel to other locations. "We don't have to take the show on the road," muses Wentz, "and we don't have to set it up in some backyard. We can distribute the simulation to the training audience directly from this facility.

For smaller groups, there's the Commander's Conference Room. This space was built on the gym's stage. It includes a regular rectangular table with flush-mounted, built-in microphones, a Sony VPH 1292Q rear projection system, a desktop lectern, and a full view of the main room.

Right now, they're sorting out the process of installing video conferencing capabilities for the facility.

"We don't have any direct satellite access here," says Wentz. "Currently, we contract for communication services through a commercial carrier. We encrypt both audio and video, and video conferencing and simulation, so security isn't a problem.

"Videoconferencing was a capability that we knew we always wanted, but we weren't sure when we'd put it in. When E-Systems was asked to design the room, they kept videoconferencing in mind, so we'll only have to drop it in line when we get the equipment," says Wentz.

For What It's Worth

The room was built as a high-end system for briefings and to enhance cooperation between the services and companies. According to Wayson, that'll pay big dividends later on.

"As we experience further cutbacks. the various services will receive less and less money. They'll be forced to work together with our allies," continues Wayson.

"The 'Pac-man boys and girls' can blow up a lot of things after practicing on a simulator. Desert Storm showed us that. This facility is to make that capability available to the command staff. We already see the Navy bombing things for the Army. That type of cooperation will continue to grow.

"Meanwhile, Col. Verbeck oversaw the financial aspects of this project. He squeezed a lot of value out of it. Some people in the government throw money away. Col. Verbeck treated this like it was his own money!"

What a concept. Something functional. Something aesthetically pleasing. Something multi-purpose, and built largely with off-the-shelf products. And built with the idea that the money fueling the project wasn't liquid.

No pun intended; it's elementary.

For more information, email General Projection Systems at Solutions@genproj.com

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