Some elements of training have changed little over many years, such as showing recruits how to take cover and shoot.
At one time, for example, basic training at Fort Dix, N.J., included crawling under barbed wire with machine-gun rounds whizzing overhead, or charging at "enemy" dummies and bayonetting them, then giving them a hard slam to the teeth with a rifle butt.
But other elements of training have seen transformational change, such as video systems that now can present combatants with shifting scenarios, realistic action and even 3-D. Trainees can
gain highly realistic experience from videos, tailored to the threat situation they will have to face in combat.
IP Video Systems
For example, IP Video Systems enables "very high-resolution, high-quality images of the simulation environment to be streamed
and shared over global IP data networks," Claude Sandroff, vice president of sales, said in an interview.
"We provide a higher quality visual experience at higher resolutions, utilizing less network bandwidth than is typically possible with JPEG or MPEG compression," he said. IP Video Systems is also able to capture swiftly-changing scenes well, such as the view from a fast-moving aircraft. And IP Video can transport images to trainees with extremely low latency.
"We really focus on very high resolution—5 megapixels and beyond," Sandroff said, and "very fast processing so that global collaborators and participants can view exactly the same image at the same time from any or multiple locations."
What is learned in the video training sessions is driven home by after action review sessions in which trainees are debriefed, he continued. Any mistakes made by a trainee can be captured and reviewed with the trainee, perhaps showing the trainee how another person in training responded properly to the sim.
The system involves a combination of hardware and software, Sandroff explained. If video is being remotely recorded in a training session in one location, video of training at another location can be recorded on the same central server. Or software can be loaded onto a local military unit's PC, so that people may become part of either the live session or the recorded session.
For example, if there are multiple trainees sitting before multiple screens, the system can track the actions of each trainee. Any video that planners decide to place on the network can be streamed for any secure party to view either during the training session or at a convenient later time, Sandroff said. Different scenarios can play out, depending on the trainee's response to the video streaming onscreen, he added.
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