Santa Maria, CA (October 16, 2013) – Quintron Systems announced that the installation of DICES VoIP command and control voice system equipment at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) has progressed past a major milestone this summer. The initial increment of user stations at the Base Command Center control rooms is now being used full-time for Range mission support. This includes about 100 of the WSMR-specific user stations that are direct physical replacements for the previous stations. A second major system start-up has been completed using the DICES VoIP T1 Gateway servers to facilitate remote connection of radios via IP back to the central servers.
Installation began earlier this year with programmed testing along the way to verify that all operational requirements were fully met prior to cutover to the new DICES VoIP system equipment. The WSMR system architecture includes a fully redundant main server along with a hot-standby server located in another building. A third server is also installed that will service remote user stations at the many operational positions scattered across the 3,200 square mile Range operational area. Special software called DICES VoIP Cluster Manager maintains a common system configuration database between all three servers and allows the hot-standby to re-establish user station connectivity and configurations in minutes should a very unlikely disastrous failure occur in one of the two active servers.
Plans to expand system utilization extend into 2014 using the already delivered user station complement with more stations to be shipped from Quintron through year-end. The expansion will include a small semi-independent operating site located off the main White Sands area along with over 100 more user stations of three different types. This will bring the delivered quantity of user stations to almost 700 total comprised of four types with additional licensing for 25 platform-independent Soft Clients that can be downloaded onto unlimited user work stations for access away from main operational locations.
A mid-program enhancement was also incorporated for WSMR. Use of the innovative DICES Mini-VoIP server at various locations allows autonomous local operations with audio channel connections back to the main WSMR servers provided via existing T1 connections over the WSMR Test Support Network (TSN). This system architecture allows these remote vans and vehicles to access connections to local radios, for instance, while also providing direct intercommunications between the local operators and back to the Base Command Center. The DICES Mini-VoIP is a 1RU non-redundant server supplying all the major DICES VoIP features in a very cost-effective design perfectly suited for limited functionality mobile applications such as this one for WSMR.
“White Sands and our technology partner there, ATAMIR, represent a major customer base for Quintron”, said David Wilhite, president and chief operating officer at Quintron, “and the success of the design adaptations that customize the user interface to minimize WSMR retraining and the many new system features developed are a great testimonial to the inherent design flexibility of DICES VoIP. We are very proud to be part of a great range testing resource for the United States like White Sands Missile Range.”
Technology partner ATAMIR Employee, who has been working on the system and design from the beginning, stated “It is good to see the forward movement in technology on WSMR. The Quintron System is flexible enough to meet all of our requirements. The feedback from the users is nothing but positive, and those assets that do not have Quintron assets yet are constantly asking when (the asset) are going to get their Quintron station.”
For more information, visit www.quintron.com.