Avaliant Training Experience: Video Management System

Avaliant has architected, designed, coded, integrated and tested a Video Management System that supports Mission Operator training for the US Navy.  The Avaliant VMS is arguably one of the most complex Video Management Systems in the training industry.  The Avaliant VMS has been operational for over a year with high availability and outstanding feedback from the Navy customer.  The Avaliant VMS includes 4 racks of COTS hardware (HW) components plus custom developed Java software to manage & control the HW and provide interfaces for remote execution of functionality.  Details of the functional capabilities, HW controlled by the VMS and external interface protocols are listed below.  This VMS has been modified to support 3 different training device configurations and is in the process of being extended to support 2 more training device derivatives.  The Avaliant VMS software architecture is highly modular, configurable, and components can easily be migrated to support other training devices configurations and needs.

VMS Capabilities

  • Simulates the interfaces and capabilities of a flight hardened Digital Video Recorder (DVR)
  • 64 total video record channels
  • 32 total video playback channels
  • Simulates the interfaces and capabilities of a flight hardened Video Switch Matrix
  • Encodes and decodes multiple (14) MPEG-TS video sources
  • Encode, stream, and record  multiple simultaneous WUXGA (70), XGA (35), NTSC (8) and 1080p (14) video sources
  • 132 simultaneous video sources
  • Stream and display varying combinations of video channels
  • 223 simultaneously displayed video channels
  • Remotely controls video display including: windowing multiple video streams, pause / resume, changing video streams and image capture
  • Provides time synchronized playback of recorded video to support debrief
  • 28 total video channels
  • Provides a centralized video management architecture that enables synchronized video playback from any training session in any debrief facility
  • Provides a detailed Built In Test (BIT) capability that checks all HW and SW and provided detailed graphic and textual feedback of any HW / SW failure including: location, scope of failure, troubleshooting tips and functional implications if the fault is not cleared
  • Provides a detailed Built In Test (BIT) capability that exercises most video sources
  • Multi-threaded processing of Telnet control interfaces (only for selective message types)
  • Enables pause/resume of VMS from remote interface
  • Simulates HW and SW faults of simulated subsystems (with remote interface for setting and clearing faults)
  • Reconfigurable to different training device configurations using Spring configuration files
  • Captures image snapshots and provide configurable encoding/compression
  • Provides GUI-based and automated test interfaces to simulate all VMS control interfaces to support hardware/software integration and troubleshooting
  • Automated SW shutdown, file cleanup and HW reset to maximize VMS availability without operator intervention
  • Automated log file post processing, compression and archival
  • Suite of test tools to help capture and execute detailed automated test procedures

COTS HW and SW controlled by the VMS

  • IP Video Systems / BARCO
  • XP-200, V2D I50 TX/RX video encoders (85)
  • DMS-100/200/1200/1500 video recorders (25)
  • MS-100 management servers (12)
  • Video display SW clients (66)
  • RGB Spectrum DGy video encoders (96)
  • AXIS Communications, IP-based video cameras (14) and video encoders (7)
  • Epiphan VGA2USB frame grabbers (64)
  • Extron analog and digital video switches (26), video format converters (64)
  • Curtis Wright Controls CobraAx video windowing cards
  • ELMA VME Chassis System monitoring boards
  • VideoLAN (vlc) video steaming server

Interface Protocols

  • XML over ActiveMQ
  • Extensible Markup and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
  • Avaliant developed the first XML schema to support the IP Video Systems 3.X API
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)
  • Telnet
  • Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
  • RTSP
  • Custom UDP and TCP interfaces
  • Digital Video
  • MPEG2-TS
  • H.264
  • Custom MPEG variant (IP Video Systems / BARCO)