SPAWAR – Space and Naval Warfare
The Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center in Charleston, South Carolina have chosen a combination of Electrosonic VECTOR™ image processors and Clarity Wildcat LCD cubes for important applications of color to large screen displays on board their ships.
The SPAWAR Center at Charleston is set up to design, build, test, install, and support the finest frontline command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR for short) systems used today or planned for the future. They have been investigating the display problem as it applies to operations rooms, and have determined a number of priorities.
Navy personnel being trained in the use of COMMANDER display control software on the USS Carl Vinson. Photos courtesy of SPAWAR Charleston.
They need systems that are modular and easy to maintain. Simple things that do not matter on shore loom large at sea; such as lack of space and the need for equipment to pass through ship’s access-ways without dismantling. It goes without saying that the highest practicable resolution is required to deal with every kind of source from video surveillance cameras to high-resolution graphics.
A critical requirement is that any kind of image can be displayed at any size on demand, without any need to adjust the display. Electrosonic’s VECTOR™ processor in conjunction with specially developed CT COMMANDER software meets this requirement. This auto-detects all sources and makes glitch-free transitions between them, regardless of changes in image parameters such as scanning frequency and frame rate.
Electrosonic’s Orlando office has worked closely with Clarity Inc. and SPAWAR Charleston to ensure that the user requirements are met. The aim is to deliver systems for which SPAWAR can provide all the front line support, and this is being achieved by comprehensive training, and by close liaison between SPAWAR and Electrosonic development staff.
USS Carl Vinson was the first US Navy ship to benefit from SPAWAR’s new large screen display design, based on the use of a 4x2 array of Clarity LCD cubes (giving an overall image size of 128in x 48in and a displayed resolution of 3200 x 1200 pixels).
