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| Making Videoconferencing Simple at Camp Anaconda |
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June 16, 2009
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Camp Anaconda (Joint Base Balad), one of the largest U.S. military bases in Iraq, is not in the middle of a severe conflict zone. While integrating the base’s videoconferencing, audio and video systems, Roy Graham, a civilian programmer working for ICD (Integrated Commercial Design based in Exton, Pa.) donned the body armor nonetheless.
While security was a key issue, the system was also designed to be as straightforward and userfriendly as possible. “They wanted newly rotated and visiting personnel to be able to use the videoconferencing system,” said Graham.
ICD was contracted to program the system at the new five-room installation. This entailed the main videoconferencing room, the CO’s office, the CO’sown videoconference room, a crew room that was strictly recreational for military personnel and a top-secret room known as the SCIF (Sensitive Compartmentalized Information Facility) that works like the “Cone of Silence” with a highly guarded connection to the outside world.
One of the core principles behind this design was the ability to send any video or audio from a central control room to all the other rooms in the system. Prior to any programming done onsite in Iraq, ICD made the flow standards at their office in Pennsylvania.
“Got to rack it before you Iraq it,” said Kevin Busza, vice president of ICD, which supports more than 250 integrators nationwide with AMX and Crestron design and programming services.
The main videoconference room at Camp Anaconda is home to a large Barco display system. The video wall is made up of 12 50-inch rear projection units, each measuring 39 by 29 inches. A Sharp 60-inch Aquos display is featured on either side of the video wall. “We gave them the ability to populate an Extron windowing switch quad view device however they wanted,” said Graham. This allowed the users tremendous flexibility in the content that could be fed to the other rooms.
The main room has its own Tandberg videoconferencing unit operating with three Sony BRC- 300 cameras. Forty-two PC inputs may either be brought up onto any section of the Barco wall unit or sent to the far end in a video conference call. There is another set of VBrick inputs so that content could be sent from a Web-based distribution network and displayed in the room. For audio, Biamp AudiaFLEX was used throughout. Audio routing was handled via three large switches: two AutoPatch RGBHV switches with audio and an Extron composite video switch with audio. With 64x64 switches there is plenty of room to expand. An Onkyo AV receiver covers the surround sound. All this equipment in the main videoconferencing room is run from the single AMX NXT-1700 VG touch panel, the main interface.
The main distribution room is able to send the base’s CO a single feed from any source available to the main videoconference room. In his office, the CO has one 60-inch Sharp display, a dedicated Tandberg 6000 VC unit and a Sony BRC-300 camera. He could run his own videoconference separately from the main room with his AMX control hardware.
In addition to his office, the CO has a separate conference room with a smaller version of the main room’s Barco wall consisting of six cubes: two rows of three. The functionality is very similar to the big conference room, except with automation to make it easier for the CO to run the room by himself. “In VC mode, it automatically sets up a default videoconference,” said Graham. This room can accept three separate feeds from the main room, in the same fashion as the CO’s office.
The top-secret room, the SCIF, does have some connectivity to the outside world with a videoconference system, “But it’s strictly managed and someone with clearance came in and set it up beforehand,” said Graham. “We did two Tandberg codecs in that system. When you switch between unclassified and anything else, they switch from one Tandberg to another, so the lines are completely separated.”
Then on the opposite end of the security spectrum, the crew room is a recreational area with two 60-inch Sharp Aquos plasmas and no conference gear.
For ICD, budgeting time properly was very important on this project. The three days of travel on both sides of the trip restricts any flexibility in going back for tune-ups to the system in person. “This kind of assignment requires solid relationships among ICD staff, good communications and the right incentive for the programmer,” said Busza.
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