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Aug 21, 2007
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Come together
New Soldiers Media Center Facility consolidates Army media outlets
by Nancy Caronia
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In April 2004, Col. Ricky R. Sims was riding in a Humvee from Baghdad to New Victory. As the commander of the American Forces Network Europe, he and his unit were there in support of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq.
"At AFNE we knew we had to be right beside the combat troops. You have to sit in the foxholes, eat the same food, sleep in the barracks, and in some cases fight with them," recalled Sims. "My guys performed admirably."
As a military news service provider, Sims said it's important to be in the trenches -- or you can become disconnected and lose perspective on the target audience. "For three years I was in Iraq and Afghanistan and would watch as an entire platform was deployed," said Sims. "Overnight, 90 percent of my audience became female and under the age of 34, with most around 25 years old with two kids. My audience and their needs changed.
"This has been my answer for years: Develop it with the wife and three kids in mind. We're trying to recruit and retain an all-volunteer military, we're trying to keep the morale up so they can fight effectively, and we have to take care of them and their families. It's what has kept me focused."
Last June, Sims became commander of the Soldiers Media Center, which was activated on November 9, 2006. The SMC, which incorporated the resources of the former Army Broadcast Service, is a consolidation of army.mil, Soldiers magazine, Army News Service, Hometown News Service, Soldiers Radio and Television, and the Army's Armed Forces Radio and Television Service outlets. With this evolution, the SMC includes delivery of broadcast, radio, Web, print, podcast, and video podcast to U.S. soldiers, sailors, airmen, civilians, and their families stationed throughout the globe.
Integrated Approach
According to Sims, this fusion of Army media services is a precursor to the SMC's merger with the Department of Defense scheduled for October, a move that will further improve the Army's ability to "put the right product at the right time in front of the right audience so that they may receive the right information."
While the overseas networks are joint units serving the Army, Navy, and Air Force, the SMC serves as the senior command for AFNE, AFN Korea, AFN Honduras, and AFN Kwajalein, which broadcast satellite news, entertainment, and information to the majority of U.S. Army soldiers, civilians, and their families stationed overseas. While the AFN units report to the SMC, the logo hasn't changed because of its familiar branding to soldiers and civilians.
The AFN networks focus on local and regional stories, but also broadcast national stories that may have a local impact. "We make sure that it's all nested so that when we talk to families they understand the strategic piece we're trying to communicate to them," said Sims. "We're a small piece with a large responsibility."
Stateside, the SMC was developed out of the Army's need to find the best way to induct integrated communications for the Army and its external audiences. "There is a fine line between internal and external communication," noted Col. Richard H. Breen, Jr., who is transitioning to retirement but was the first commander of the SMC and one of its primary architects. "The task force came up with the original SMC concept, where we took successful independent media centers throughout the globe and merged them into one unit."
The upgrade to the Crystal City, VA, facility took approximately 21 months. Four completely divergent organizations were moved from other facilities into Crystal City (at press time, the Army Web site was still being added), which meant one IT backbone was needed to serve divergent multimedia needs worldwide, according to Vagnerini.
"We have five satellites on the roof for up and downlinks and to bring in geo-sync signals. Our satellites are used to communicate with our mobile assets," noted Vagnerini. "Most of it is done through broadband links. Our streaming, both Windows and QuickTime, is done from Web sites and Flash will be added in the next three to four months. Our broadband connection is through nippernet, the military's broadband backbone, which we use to connect to our three networks in Germany, Seoul and Italy. We also have dedicated broadband in Honduras.
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| The new Soldiers Media Center in Crystal City, VA, houses the resources of the former Army Broadcast Service, as well as other media services. |
"It's a spoke and wheel concept, each facility spokes into here and then the information goes out. We're not completely done with this piece, but we're hoping by the end of year to have a completely private network."
This private network, according to Vagnerini, would mean the media services would have an active directory and a sharing of files on one single virtual worldwide enterprise system, with the SMC acting as the bridgehead, which will allow for a virtual private link with one significant firewall. "There are significant firewalls and this will enable us to have one major firewall," added Vagnerini. "This is a highly secure infrastructure with firewalls and encrypted tunnels."
SeaChange's Broadcast MediaCluster video server technology was recently installed in three broadcast sites in Riverside, CA, Manheim, Germany, and Vicenza, Italy to encode, store, and decode MPEG video. Additionally, Anystream's Agility server-based software is running the platform at each facility for SMC's broadcasting and Web-based applications.
"The biggest thing about Anystream's Agility was that it was an open platform and uses standard type codes for QuickTime, Windows, and other applications, including MPEG-4 for podcasts that require no special twist," Vagnerini explained. "Everything is native and will play on various players without a problem." Plus, in post production, an editor can export his timeline to QuickTime and Agility will automatically reformat it as a media file so it can be sent out for review or posting.
Digital Advantages
With the opening of the SMC's new facility in Crystal City, all Army media services are now digital facilities capable of collaborative multimedia projects between print, radio, TV, and the Web. Of the 19 facilities situated around the globe, the SMC was one of the last to receive a complete digital upgrade and facility overhaul, according to Mark Vagnerini, SMC director of broadcast operations. "We're totally tapeless, which is unusual in any facility," he said, "and we've been tapeless at the camera since 2000."
Ten years ago, when Breen was commander of AFN Korea, tape-based systems made timeliness difficult. "If I wanted to get a story from the Tushong Air Base," he recalled, "it needed to be taped and edited before it could make the four-hour trip to an air base, where it would then be put on another bus where the soldier picking it up would hope the tape wasn't wrinkled," he explained. "A story could take up to a week before it would air. In addition, the tapes and the editing machines couldn't be kept clean due to the air quality. It was a challenge."
In contrast, tapeless acquisition and editing saves time and improves productivity. "When I took the first team into Iraq," noted Sims, "we collected stories and edited them in the Baghdad airport before we sent them to Munich, where they were fibered to Mannheim and posted that same week."
Professional Products, Inc. handled much of the design and integration services for the new facility, which included the functionality of the entire space. "Previously, if their engineers needed to make adjustments, they had to go to that computer to do whatever needed to be done," explained Chuck Heffner, director of application engineering, PPI. "Here, the engineers can go to one computer and monitor satellite, TV, and radio. Their workload has been significantly consolidated."
The SMC has built a series of offices and studios including a broadcasting control room, three radio studios, three Avid editing rooms, an offline editing studio, a production control room, IT core, video duplication room, a large conference room, and an interview studio. Breen said,
Within the facility there are Echolab production switchers, Avid Aerospeed video servers, Miranda production screens, a QuStream Cheetah routing switcher, and Wheatstone mixers. There are Avid Unity servers with 15 Newscutter editing stations and three Adrenaline editing stations, as well as Apple Final Cut Pro, in the offline editing room. Ikegami Editcams are used for field production. There are Panasonic cameras in the production studio and another Panasonic camera in the interview room, a small standalone studio. And the conference room is outfitted with Tandberg videoconferencing equipment.
PPI chose APWMayville for the design and installation of 38 Stantron Broadcast Rack equipment racks, 26 of which are located in the main broadcast technical core, six in the IT portion of the technical core, and three apiece in the studio control room and the video dub room. According to Steve Losquadro, director of project management, PPI, the special customer request of two-inch wooden furring strips, which APWMayville accommodated, enabled the integration team to run Belden color-coded cables inside and between racks in order to ensure that the equipment could be properly cooled, maintained, and re-engineered.
The consolidation of SMC's assets has allowed for an ease of use and sharing of information that will enable the Army to get their message out in cross-collaboration of a variety of media. "The amazing part with all the moving, integrating, new installations, and packing, we didn't miss a beat. We never failed and that is a testament to the talent we have," said Breen. "I am happy about how the SMC has moved forward, and it will only get better."
In addition, the switch to digital realm has provided new capabilities. "One of those is to go into combat and post it live that same day or week," said Sims. "When we were in Iraq with the 1st Armored Division, we were able to develop and edit stories ourselves. The important part was we had a newscast from Iraq within one day. We did that so the families of the deployed soldiers in the 1st could see them in action.
"At the SMC, we need to be immediate and effective. Our audience is no different than anyone else in the world."
MORE INFO
Anystream anystream.com
Apple apple.com
APWMayville stantronracks.com
Avid Technology avid.com
Belden belden.com
Echolab echolab.com
Ikegami ikegami.com
Miranda miranda.com
Panasonic panasonic.com
Professional Products, Inc. professionalproducts.com
QuStream qustream.com
SeaChange schange.com
Soldiers Media Center smc.army.mil
Tandberg tandberg.com
Wheatstone wheatstone.com
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