Tsunami donation: Indian Naval Air Arm accepts AudioSoft voice logger

INS Utkrosh is the Indian Air Force and Coast Guard command center located at Port Blair on the eastern coast of the Andaman Islands. Having been badly hit by the Tsunami wave of 26th December (Port Blair is located 990 kilometers NNW of the epicenter), Indian forces stationed there - as well as their civil emergency relief partners, are nevertheless continuing coordinated relief operations. To enable this, extra landing fields have been constructed on the islands to deal with the increased air traffic and radio monitoring activities across the central sector of the Indian Ocean.

Impact upon the Andaman and Nicobar Islands themselves has been terrible: Salt water has washed over the islands, contaminated many sources of fresh water and destroyed large areas of arable land. At least 1,894 of the islands’ 400,000 people are confirmed dead and more than 5,500 are missing. About 12,000 people have been moved to relief camps on larger islands.

In this context, AudioSoft are pleased to have donated a 32 channel digital audio surveillance recorder for use in their air traffic communications center. A recent communication from the Commanding Officer on behalf of the Indian Naval Air Arm reads:

Utkrosh played a pivotal role in the rescue and relief operations after the 26 Dec ’04 earthquakes / tsunami disaster. Within hours of the disaster the unit was put into fully operational mode from then on numerous sorties of all types of aircrafts of the navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, Pawan Hans, Indian Airlines, Jet Airways, etc operated solely towards relief and rescue and evacuation purposes.

The scale and intensity of the flying operations was unprecedented. Defense aircrafts of various types were pressed into service. It included Dorniers, Ilyushin-76, Ilyushin-79, Avro - Mil-8, Mil-17, and Chetak helicopters, etc. The massive efforts continued for days on. It is still continuing.

We kindly request you to supply 32 channel digital multi voice logging recorder (MVLR) free of cost as discussed under tsunami relief package and we would like to thank AudioSoft Ltd for this kind gesture.

Regards,
Captain Vijesh Kumar Garg
Commanding Officer

The system will be installed in co-operation with AudioSoft's agents in India - Taurus Aerospace of Bangalore.

About Ultra Elecronics AudioSoft

Ultra Electronics AudioSoft, one of the leading software systems integration companies for speech and telephony applications in the UK, is at the forefront of the development of digital voice and data recording technology. Markets include Air Traffic Control, Courtroom, Defence, Emergency Services, Law Enforcement and National Security.

AudioSoft’s range of PC based recording, audio analytics and visualise products include AudioPC, Medirva™, AudioPC-CR, AudioPC-IR, AudioPC-LE, AudioPC-HS and SonarPC.

Typical applications include, digital data recorders, conference recorders, interview recorders and surveillance recording.

Satisfied customers include HM Government, The Bank of England, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Dutch Navy, Local Government, Public Authorities, International Airports and Commercial organisations.

Based in Cirencester, AudioSoft was recently named (for the third year) as one of the Top 10 fastest growing technology companies in the South West and Wales by Deloitte and Touche.