AudioSoft Radar Recording: How to meet the ICAO Mandated Requirement

Since the 23rd November 2005 radar recording has been an ICAO legislative requirement. The main reasons for such recording to take place are as follows.

• To assist in Incident investigation
• To provide Search & Rescue Information
• To provide Training material and feedback to controllers

With additional benefits to the above including,

• Technical Analysis and Statistics
• Noise Abatement analysis

Therefore the inclusion of an integrated radar recording system will assist in the complete reconstruction of an incident scenario in addition to providing immediate Search & Rescue capabilities with additional benefits being the provision of statistical and analytical information to engineers.

AudioSoft Recording Solutions

AudioSoft provide a number of recording solutions to satisfy the requirements.

• RadarPC-1000 systems provide the ability to record surveillance radar data via RS232 or RS422 protocols.
• RadarPC-2000 systems provide screen capture solutions to provide detail of controller interaction.
• RadarPC-3000 systems provide recording of radar data from network based protocols.

Such solutions are able to be deployed as standalone recording systems singularly, i.e. RadarPC-1000 only, combined, i.e. RadarPC-1000 and RadarPC-2000, and fully integrated with existing or new supply audio recording solutions.

In addition to the above AudioSoft have the capability to provide virtually seamless integration with 3rd party applications where appropriate to suit the application.

RadarPC–1000

RadarPC–1000 records all the primary and secondary radar including track information, RTQC’s, sector messages etc. RadarPC-1000 supports a wide range of different radar interfaces, protocols and formats. The recorded data is relatively small in size and hence RadarPC-1000 provides a cost effective alternative to the data hungry capture of an ATC operator’s screen.

RadarPC–2000

RadarPC–2000 records the operators screens through either the display systems X Server interface or alternatively by passively splitting the RGB or DVI video signal to the display. The X Server solution provides relatively low data storage requirements but is system dependant. The recording of the displays video signal is system independent and guarantees a faithful record of screen activity but is data hungry. The amount of storage required is minimized through the use of compression technology and adjustable frame rates. The capture is adjustable to allow the customer to manage the trade off between quality and storage. By recording the ATC Operators screen all user actions as well as the displayed radar will be recorded.

RadarPC–3000

Radar data is generally delivered from remote radar heads to radar processors and displays using modems and telephone or dedicated data lines using protocols such as LAP B / X25 and other more specialist protocols. However the radar data is often distributed within the Centre using IP based protocols. The most common of these protocols is UDP-IP (User Datagram Protocol-Internet Protocol). RadarPC–3000 records this network data from a single user configurable port. The advantage of recording network data is that all the processed radar data can be recorded without the need for expensive interface cards. Data can be regenerated back to the network, or to AudioSoft’s standalone PC based desktop radar display system. Alternatively with additional interface cards data can be re-transmitted as sync/async serial data.

Radar Recording has for some time been a recommendation, which is now becoming a legislative requirement. AudioSoft are well placed to provide new or modified recording systems to satisfy such requirements based upon technology which has been developed in anticipation of mandatory radar recording, and provided to a number of clients who have recognized the benefits of such solutions and subsequently been recording radar for a number of years.

AudioSoft’s current radar recording product range provides solutions to all known requirements of radar recording with the benefit of audio synchronization and the flexibility of a single recording solution which is independent of radar processing systems, and therefore provides guaranteed data integrity.

Discussions with industry experts indicate that a combination of both Surveillance data (RadarPC–1000) and screen capture data (RadarPC–2000) would address the requirements and recommendations. Such recorded data would enable Incident Investigation, Search and Rescue, and Training activities to be carried out, with the added flexibility of satisfying the recommendation of combining data with pre-recorded audio for flexible data distribution and complete incident analysis.

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.