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The King Abdullah Special Operations Training Center (KASOTC) located in Amman, Jordan, provides training on counter-terrorism, special operations and irregular warfare tactics, techniques and procedures. Since 2009, KASOTC’s facilities have been available to elite Jordanian and allied military and law enforcement units. A newly added US Army briefing center at this facility features RGB Spectrum’s Enterprise MCMS^TM control room management system and OmniWall^® Display Processor.

With the ability to accommodate 60 people, the collaborative briefing center is a key location for the gathering and exchange of mission-critical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) information. It features two 3 x 4 video walls that face four U-shaped tiers of seating. This arrangement provides each attendee with a view of the presentation materials displayed on the two video walls.

When designing the state-of-the-art briefing center for the US Army, AV integration firm Logic Integration chose RGB Spectrum’s products for their real-time performance, reliability, easy control, and advanced capabilities. “Logic Integration was extremely satisfied and customer expectations were exceeded by RGB Spectrum’s collaboration system,” observed Bill Craig, VP of Business Development. “The ease of use, fast switching, preset configurations, and preview capabilities of the system enable the client to conduct highly effective briefing sessions.”

During twice-daily briefing sessions that are conducted by the resident US Army General, subject matter experts from a variety of fields present updates about troop and ordnance intelligence, linguistic analysis, chat intelligence, meteorological reports, etc. to enhance the situational awareness of key decision makers. The collaborative design of the room is geared towards “BYOD” – allowing each presenter to bring their own device (tablet, laptop, etc.) and seamlessly connect to the video wall system.

Each presenter’s content varies and requires different supporting imagery. For this reason, the Army needed a video wall processor and control management system that could display a range of visual support materials: satellite images, ISR video, statistics, ground and weather maps, as well as PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets and other text-based documents.

RGB Spectrum’s OmniWall processor configures up to 28 input signals for display on the video wall, primarily from devices belonging to the various presenters. One input enables video conferencing with the Pentagon and other important command centers; another receives video feeds from military cable television.

The presentations in this room move very quickly. RGB Spectrum’s Enterprise MCMS system enables a single operator to quickly switch the high-resolution images displayed on the video wall by dragging and dropping live image thumbnails. Depending on the complexity of the specialist’s material, operators select and display video sources or utilize preset layouts with 2, 3 or 4 windows. Selected inputs are displayed simultaneously on both video walls (i.e. one mirrors the other) to ensure that all participants have a clear view of the supporting visuals.

One major advantage of the Enterprise MCMS system is its enhanced and highly intuitive user GUI. A key consideration for the integrator was the fact that the GUI seamlessly controls all system inputs and outputs while being simple to explain and easy to use. Craig remarked that after a 10 minute introduction, and about 20 minutes of exploring the GUI, he understood the system well enough to write a training manual for facility operators.

Craig’s experience with training further underscores the ease of use of RGB Spectrum’s Enterprise MCMS system. He recalls that “at the end of the training session, the operators asked if that was it…they thought it was too easy! They were expecting a much more complicated and cumbersome system and were thrilled with the end results.”

The words of Shawn Hansson, CEO and Founder, sum up Logic Integration’s positive experience: “Logic Integration has used a variety of video switchers and scalers over the years. For this project, the end user’s expectations were exceeded by the RGB Spectrum user interface, the switching speed and scaling on a large video wall. The setup was very manageable and we received excellent technical support from RGB Spectrum. I am very impressed with the quality of the RGB Spectrum system and the experience we had installing the product.”

RGB Spectrum is proud to play its part in this cutting-edge collaboration facility to help ensure the security of both troops and critical infrastructure in the Middle East.

About Logic Integration

Logic Integration is an award winning Colorado-based company that designs A/V systems for commercial and residential facilities, both local and nationwide. It has installed state-of-the-art audio and video systems for a range corporate, government, military, education, hospitality, health & fitness, retail, worship and residential applications throughout the continental United States. For more information, please visit logicav.net.