Tag: QuanticoTactical

Viasat: Communications-on-the-Move, Mobile Satellite Broadband, No Matter Where You Are

Posted on by Mathew Pruitt

If you are in the military tactical communications systems business, you’ve seen broadband “Communications-on-the-Move” (COTM) promised by many satellite terminal vendors.  Many of those vendors do not tell you that their ability to provide said services depends on tenuous lashups with satellite companies, exorbitant bandwidth costs, and dead spots in your required area of coverage.  I’ve planned missions for and used many satellite terminals over my active duty years, but only one mobile broadband satellite solutions provider has delivered consistently:  Viasat.  Their success comes from their end-to-end integration capabilities, including satellite, terminal, and managed services.

 

Viasat has built and launched a high capacity, commercial Ka-band satellite constellation that is still growing.  In 2022 Viasat-3 will launch.  Once fully completed, Viasat will be able to provide complete global connectivity and provide high capacity satellite WiFi anywhere at “60 times more affordable” and “15 times more capacity than DoD satellites”. (https://www.viasat.com/products/government-high-capacity-satellites).

 

Viasat has been the lead satellite modem developer for over a decade.  Their modems are the de facto DoD-standard.  You can tailor your terminal for EBEM, LinkwayS2, or CBM-400 modems, with CBM-400 providing quad-band (X, C, Ka, Ku) access, diverse network topologies (including full mesh), and the most bandwidth (up to 400 Mbps (waveform dependent)).  Viasat offers several preconfigured satellite terminals for air, land, and maritime uses, but you can tailor your terminal to your specific needs.

 

Along with the satellite modem development, Viasat has been a leader in communications security equipment development and communications protocol development.  For example, the NSA Type 1 KG-255X HAIPE Inline Encryptor has enabled faster network speeds (2Gbps) for secure networks up to TS/SCI.  It can operate in Layer 3 HAIPE mode to maintain interoperability with their older, but still widely used, KG-250X, or as a VLAN/Ethernet tunneling on Layer 2.

 

Finally, there are the various services they provide.  You can choose to run your own network and only call for training, technical support, or repair/warranty support.  In this complex communication environment, with rapid deployments, using Network Operations and Management services from Viasat on a private IP network is a better choice.  Viasat’s Network Operations and Management services can provide:

 

  • Performance Monitoring and Fault Resolution
  • Traffic Management and Beam Optimization
  • Provisioning, Commissioning, and Configuration Management

 

Viasat’s ability to provide satellite broadband communications on the move is based on their end-to-end integration of the entire communications and services path, as I’ve briefly outlined.  With highly talented, expert satellite, communications, and cybersecurity personnel, Viasat is a winning option as your tactical network provider.  If you would like to explore that option, contact us at Quantico Tactical.

Sanitizing in a Time of a Pandemic

Posted on by Mathew Pruitt

What has the pandemic taught us? That our enemy is ever-evolving. We are witnessing the impact of a fast-spreading socially infectious pathogen.  And your tactical gear is a breeding ground for those potential pathogens.

 

Global Ozone Innovations has been working to find ways to defeat pathogens, such as Coronavirus.  They teamed with hospital groups, FDA, and NASA; and participated in an independent study by Georgia Tech to improve the Coronavirus sanitation method.  Global Ozone Innovations created the Decon Zone Sanitizing System as a vehicle for pathogen control. And now that control is at the fingertips of our front line responders.

 

Global Ozone Innovations created the Decon Zone Sanitizing System to regulate your disinfectant program. Utilizing the Decon Zone Sanitizing System, your application and disinfectant program can be reliable, accountable, and repeatable. Since time and concentration are the critical elements for disinfection, you need your system to be dependable. And if a new pathogen strain is discovered and requires additional time to achieve the proper kill percentage, you need to be capable of modifying the program. The Decon Zone Sanitizing System is reliable and adjustable.

The Decon Zone Sanitizing System has evolved to put all these parameters at your fingertips. You are now in control of the critical elements, controlling both disinfectant concentration and time of application. If you need to increase the amount of pathogen kill rate, you can change at the controls.  Additionally, the Decon Zone system lets you know when maintenance is required.  The maintenance program helps the system achieve maximum performance for reliability, repeatability, and accountability.

 

Items sanitized in the Decon Zone Sanitizing System cover a broad range of personal protective equipment such as body armor, face masks, goggles, shoes, scuba gear, pillows, blankets, sleeping bags, riot gear, PAPR suits, gas masks, sports, boxing, and combative equipment.  Even medical equipment, such as stethoscopes, lab coats, knee & elbow braces, portable stretchers, backboards, and other first responder equipment. If it can’t go in the laundry, run it through the Decon Zone unit. It is made for all PPE to mitigate cross-contamination from these lethal pathogens.

 

Decon Zone is designed to defeat these pathogens, such as Covid-19, but can also meet the requirements of future pathogens. Decon Zone will help you achieve the level of protection your unit deserves.

CineMassive Expeditionary Visualization Systems

Posted on by Mathew Pruitt

Having served in a variety of staffs, from the squadron to a Marine Force component as an S6/G6, there were few technology solutions more difficult to fully utilize than video teleconference systems (VTCs) and the video wall displays in both garrison and tactical conference rooms.  Video walls and their remote control systems had never been standardized, so the variations I experienced were vast, but the problems were similar:

  • Unfamiliar and/or difficult to operate user interface
  • Screens that flicker or do not work reliably
  • Poorly documented systems with little or no user guide help
  • Countless other network gremlins that show up at only the most important meetings

 

Inevitably there was always an issue that just made the video wall not work unless a special contractor with magic fairy dust made it suddenly work.  Given their expense, video walls were not easily replaced without proper budget planning.  They were also heavy, delicate, and not expeditionary – even the video walls we put into bulky, often homemade, embarkation cases, and deployed anyway.  CineMassive would have answered my prayers back then, so they may be the answer to your prayers now if you’re struggling with an outdated, difficult to operate, or even broken video wall.

 

CineMassive’s video wall offerings are impressive and they offer full-service support for them.  For brevity, I will only focus on their expeditionary and tactical visualization systems although they have solutions that support fixed rooms as well.  The heart of their expeditionary capability is their Alpha FX Stryke or Alpha FX Stryke SR processors.

 

The Alpha FX Stryke processor is rugged (no moving parts, MIL-STD-810G certification pending), man-portable (fits in a backpack and weighs 12 lbs), will work on battery backup if needed, and can support four 4K HDMI inputs and outputs.  Pre-loaded with the CineNet control software, it’s intuitive to set up varying screen layouts that the user, or command center, or commander’s conference room support, can easily understand and configure without calling for technical assistance.

 

The Alpha FX Stryke SR processor is semi-rugged, weighs 5 lbs. (fits in a backpack), and supports four 4K HDMI inputs and outputs. The Alpha FX Stryke SR is equipped with CineNet control software.

 

The Alpha FX Stryke and Alpha FX Stryke SR will work with any display (or projector). As an additional option, CineMassive has two kits that provide a ruggedized carrying case and a 2 X 2 industrial-grade 4K LCD video wall display (that’s four 22-inch LCD displays with 1920X1080 resolution).

If you need a larger video wall and you don’t have to hand carry it all in, you can opt for the Scalable Mobile Display (SMD) option.  This turn-key video wall system comes packed in rugged transport cases, requires no tools to put together, and includes the Alpha FX video wall processor, 10-inch touch screen with CineNet software, CineView LCD displays, mounting frame, all cables, and connectors.  The SMD option comes in 2 X 2, 4 X 2, or 6 X 2 display configurations with standard 12 video capture ports (can go up to 28).  Those video capture ports are where the various PCs/laptops, TV tuners, and VTC codecs plug in to be displayed simultaneously.  The COC can be up in minutes.

As easy as the SMD is to set up, configure, and operate, I would still recommend getting their onsite training package and GuardianCare 24/7 support.  CineMassive will support training OCONUS and will provide both remote and on-site support via GuardianCare.

 

It’s everything I needed, but just did not have, for an expeditionary video wall.