Trilogy keeps Andøya Test Centre’s communications on target
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Issued July 2011 Trilogy, a world class supplier of voice communications technologies for the defence and industrial sectors has been selected to provide a range wide communications system for the Andøya Test Centre (ATC) located on the island of Andøya, 2 degrees north of the Arctic Circle, in northern Norway. |
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ATC offers a virtually unlimited test area for the testing of aerospace and ship-based applications such as surface to air, air to surface, subsurface to air or surface to surface including missile tracking and guidance systems. The Trilogy system forms a key element of the latest upgrade to the facilities at ATC and will provide a significant increase in capability once it comes online in summer 2011. The challenges addressed by the Trilogy system include the integration of communications from military and civil, air and maritime radios and a range of other devices. With an integrated subsystem, ATC is able to access all of the assets used on the range at any given time and from any of its operator locations. |
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The system consists of three main elements: the range control site; three deployable instrumentation nodes and the customer suite. These are connected together using IP via a microwave link allowing all voice traffic including the radios to be passed between locations. |
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The main range control is situated on high ground near the main facility and is equipped with Mercury Interface Units and communication panels. It also incorporates an AudioSoft voice recording system and a selection of Jotron military and civil UHF and VHF radios. The customer suite is located at the main facility and allows ATC’s clients to monitor all aspects of their tests. Once again it is equipped with a Mercury Interface Unit and communications panel. The final elements of the system are three, helicopter deployable, instrumentation nodes which are located in strategic positions on the range to cater for the specific test and flight paths. Once deployed, the operators connect to the other elements of the system using 16 Key operator panels in each of the nodes. |
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As well as the sophisticated voice communications functionality, the system offers innovative features that normally require the installation of dedicated subsystems. For example an emergency broadcast function is provided which allows an MP3 warning siren to be played out from the Trilogy system to all of the operator positions through both their panels and associated loudspeakers. Another unique feature of Mercury is its ability to pass GPIO/logic information across the same IP network as the voice traffic. ATC use this to control Red Light / Green Light indications from each of the instrumentation nodes back at the range control site, ultimately giving a dependable indication of when everything is in place for a test to commence. Each location has a Go / No Go button and the main control site has a bank of lights so a simple, immediate and visible indication is available rather than a series of radio/intercom calls to establish the same information. "The Andøya project demonstrates the comprehensive functionality available through Mercury, not only in terms of voice communications but also it’s ability to adapt to the additional requirements not found in the original project brief including the range wide siren and the Go/No Go indications ." said Mark Ellis, director Trilogy Communications. |
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About Trilogy Trilogy has supplied audio communications equipment to customers in more than seventy countries since 1986. The company was originally formed to design and build video and audio infrastructure equipment for the television and radio broadcast industries. It continues to serve this market but now also offers its products to a wide array of customers in defence, emergency management, training and simulation, oil & gas and other industries. Trilogy has achieved a compound growth rate of over 20% over the past 4 years and hopes its success in the 2009 Queen’s Award for Enterprise will spearhead activities over the coming years. Trilogy counts some of the world's best known names in defence and broadcast among its customer base. These include Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, L3, Lockheed Martin, SAIC, BAE, Teledyne, BBC, Sony, CBS, Hearst-Argyle, Radio France and others. About Andøya Test Centre (ATC) Andøya Test Centre can offer a virtually unlimited test area for testing of aerospace and / or ship-based applications. We have the ability to conduct a wide range of operations, both civilian and classified military. Our forty years of experience in the field is a significant factor for mission success, even for high risk applications. Typical applications include:-
As a fully owned subsidiary to and co-located with Andøya Rocket Range (ARR), ATC is an organization that draws upon the experienced manpower, infrastructure, instrumentation and administration of ARR. For more information please visit www.rocketrange.no Note: Photos courtesy of Andøya Rocket Range | ||||
