Primagraphics Wins Contract to Supply Sentinel Screen Recorders to EDO Corporation.

Business Editors

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 30, 2002

Primagraphics (www.primagraphics.net), the command & control, video and graphics specialist, has won a contract from the EDO Corporation (www.EDOcorp.com), a leading US-based defense and aerospace technology company, to supply four of its Sentinel systems.

Sentinel is a commercial off the shelf (COTS) video recorder system, which provides a new and economical approach to recording high fidelity, high-resolution computer screen images directly onto a standard video cassette.

The systems supplied to EDO will be used to record the high-resolution screen images generated by the command and control system display consoles on board the offshore patrol vessels of an international coastguard.

The principal task of the coastguard is the interception of smugglers or other illegal intruders into territorial waters. If, following an incident, there is a subsequent prosecution in a court of law, there is a clear requirement to provide visual evidence to the court of the movements of the intercepted vessels. Engineers at EDO Corporation's combat systems unit in Chesapeake, Virginia, who have been installing new combat systems onboard the coastguard ships, needed a cost-effective method of recording the high-resolution (1280x1024) screen images.

"It was imperative that the chosen system provided a precise record of exactly what the operator saw on the main console screen - scan-converted data from ship's radars, the output from an infrared sensor, as well as a 'tote' page - which provides summary data on the coastguard vessel's position, course and speed," said Ernest Ladeveze, principal engineer and production manager for the coastguard program at EDO Combat Systems.

"The fact that Primagraphics' system recorded straight onto standard videotape was particularly convenient as many of the courts are already equipped with video replay systems."

David Johnson, North American technical support manager for Primagraphics, added: "EDO investigated various solutions to the recording problem but found that the Sentinel system was by far the most cost-effective and met all the coastguard's requirements."

Although Sentinel can be supplied as part of a standalone system based on a desktop or rack-mounting 2U enclosure, it is also available as VME cards that can be fitted into customer equipment. This was also advantageous for the coastguard system as the combat systems used VME based equipment racks that could conveniently house the single slot capture card and dual slot replay unit.

The Sentinel system provides a cost-effective solution to high fidelity recording of the fine detail of a high-resolution screen by using Primagraphics' unique pixel rate conversion technique, which maintains the original screen resolution by slowing the replayed content update rate.

The Sentinel card and Sentinel COTS video recorder system have been designed for use in civilian and military C2 markets in applications where there is a need for a precise record of exactly what an operator sees on the screen. This could include: mission critical applications, such as command and control systems; training or mission analysis systems; or for archiving key data from vessel or air traffic control displays.

Details of Primagraphics' range of cards and systems solutions are given on Primagraphics' web site at www.primagraphics.net. Contact Primagraphics by phone on 434 951 9460, by post to 1000 Research Park Blvd., Suite 106, Charlottesville, VA 22911, USA, or by email to: [e-mail].