Foreign Internal Defense .... and Specialized Civilian Affairs

International Security Cooperation Summit

“By, With, and Through”: Negotiating the challenges of Building Partner Capacity to deliver the highest return-on-investment programs with an eye to the latest innovative and cost-effective solutions.

Dear Colleague,

It’s no secret that we live and operate in an increasingly interconnected and complex world, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Central Region. In recent years, we’ve seen the uncertainty and conflict among regional state and non-state actors grow at an unprecedented rate, making the challenges of meeting security objectives increasingly interdependent with the relationships we have across this wide and diverse geographic region. But the security challenges we face are not simply regional - developing and aligning security cooperation efforts to meet a common threat picture in concert across the whole of government, as well as with our allied partners, presents its own challenges.

While facing these challenges, tight fiscal constraints only underscore the need to find new ways to more effectively and efficiently work together to get the most out of our security cooperation funding.

Over the three day summit, we will look at opportunities to engage stakeholders from government, academia, and industry to better address Building Partner Capacity in the Central Region. We will take an in-depth look at increasing return-on-investment cooperation in the security sector, including programs to Train and Equip forces to conduct Counterterrorism (CT) and Stability Operations. We will also look at requirements to develop partner nation Special Operations Forces (SOF) capacity, Border Security, Maritime Security, Logistics, Civil Affairs, Defense Institutions, and others.

We will kick off the summit with a deep-dive focus day examining security cooperation activities specifically focused on addressing the transnational threat posed by ISIL. Countering this deadly violent extremist organization is not just about find, fix and finish – it necessitates a comprehensive approach with coordination and cooperative activities across the full-spectrum of activity with our partners. We will look at specific capability development, sustainment of that capability, strategic goals, and the necessary adaptability of programs to anticipate and respond to emergent and dynamic requirements.

I look forward to seeing you at this year’s Summit!

LTC(R) Brett Mott,
Chairperson
2016 IQPC International Security Cooperation Summit

Oh the places you will go...! Into the whirlwind... Just Daydreaming..

360 Youtube -  Why? Just Look Up and You'll Understand

Kurt Wilms, Senior Product Manager, YouTube Virtual Reality, recently watched 

"Insane 360 video of close-range tornado near Wray, CO yesterday!"

2D Spooky

  YouTube experience like nothing you've seen before

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Ever wish you could swim with sharks, ride in an Indy Car, or go on a world tour? Well, later this year you’ll be able to experience these events and more as if you were really there with the YouTube VR app.

For more than a year, we’ve been adding support for new video and audio formats on YouTube like 360-degree video, VR video and Spatial Audio. These were the first steps on our way toward a truly immersive video experience, and now we're taking another one with the YouTube VR app for Daydream, Google's platform for high-quality mobile virtual reality, announced today at Google I/O.


We’re creating the YouTube VR app to provide an easier, more immersive way to find and experience virtual reality content on YouTube. It also comes with all the YouTube features you already love, like voice search, discovery, and playlists, all personalized for you, so you can experience the world's largest collection of VR videos in a whole new way.

And thanks to the big, early bet we made on 360-degree and 3-D video, you will be able to see all of YouTube’s content on the app—everything from classic 16x9 videos to 360-degree footage to cutting-edge VR experiences in full 3-D. Whether you want a front row seat to your favorite concert, access to the best museums in the world, or a midday break from work watching your favorite YouTube creator, YouTube VR will have it all.

To bring even more great VR content onto YouTube, we’ve been working with some amazing creators to experiment with new formats that offer a wide range of virtual experiences. We’re already collaborating with the NBA, BuzzFeed and Tastemade to explore new ways of storytelling in virtual environments that will provide valuable lessons about the way creators and viewers interact with VR video. Stay tuned!

We’ve also been working with camera partners to make Jump-ready cameras, such as the GoPro Odyssey, available to creators, to help make the production of VR video more accessible. And today, we’re officially launching our Jump program at the YouTube Spaces in L.A. and NYC and we will it bring to all YouTube Space locations around the globe soon.

We’re just beginning to understand what a truly immersive VR experience can bring to fans of YouTube, but we’re looking forward to making that future a (virtual) reality.

Kurt Wilms, Senior Product Manager, YouTube Virtual Reality, recently watched "Insane 360 video of close-range tornado near Wray, CO yesterday!"

MediaMapper Mobile Trialware 2.059

14-Day MediaMapper Mobile Version 2.59 Trialware

360 Immersion is Very Cool

X-Band and CubeSat - Nikon Images Just a Link Away...

DISASTERCASTEING 101?

Google’s push to become a major ISP is already well under way, with Google Fiber deployed in a handful of U.S. cities. Their next big rollout may happen well above the Earth’s surface: Google is reportedly preparing a fleet of 180 satellites that will blanket the globe with Internet access.

The company has been very public about ambitions to reach the nearly two-thirds of the world’s population that has inadequate connectivity to the ‘Net — or no access at all. They’ve already tested out one possible delivery system with the Project Loon balloons, though some of those have caused a bit of a stir. A test flight that floated off course a couple of years back in Kentucky had residents thinking that a UFO was circling Pike county.

They’re also considering the use of solar drones to provide access. Just last month Google acquired Titan Aerospace, who created the world’s first “solar-powered atmospheric satellite,” for $20 million. The drones are capable of remaining aloft for five months at a time and Google believes it could deliver Internet access at speeds up to 1Gbps to areas that they circle.

As for this new satellite initiative, it’s reportedly going to cost Google around $3 billion to execute. Each of the 180 satellites will weigh about 250 pounds, so these aren’t Cubesats they’re building. That’s too bad, because it’d give Google a way to re-use all the Nexus One handsets they probably have lying around the Mountain View campus.

Once deployed, the satellites will help ensure that billions of people in all corners of the globe will be able to generate analytics data and pump additional dollars into Google’s advertising coffers. That’s the real goal, of course, and it’s the same reason Facebook is also trying to deliver Internet access to underserved Earthlings.

CubeSats and NanoSatellites are low earth orbit (LEO) satellites, around 600 km above earth. Due to the small size of these satellites, consuming radio communication links cannot be used. In order to solve this constraint, Syrlinks is developing a high performance, high data rate, low power consumption and small size transmitter in X-band (8GHz) for telemetry downloading.

The use of an X band transmitter significantyl increases the downlink capacity of the payload telemetry subsystem. With a bit rate commutation operated in time splitting or versus predicted Eb/N0 during a pass, up to 13.3 GB per pass can be downloaded on a 5 m station or 5,8 GB per pass on a 3,4 m station.

The equipment operates in the 8025/8450 MHz frequency range with a 1MHz step. It exhibits a data rate up to 50 Mbps (100 Mbps in specific case). The RF output power is selectable from 30 to 33 dBm with 1-dB step which can be programmable in flight (option). The equipment was designed for missions of 2 year-lifetime at Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

APPLICATIONS

• High DataRate TeleMetry - Up to 100 Mbps
• 2 years life-time LEO missions
• Observation & Scientific payloads

BENEFITS & KEY FEATURES

• Qualified COTS design
• Faster, Cheaper, Lighter
• Miniature (24mm + cubesat compliant)
• Link budget optimisation, by in-flight configuration
• Option: S band TT&C receiver
• Export licence free (Worldwide ITAR Free)
• Low consumption

QUALITY & RELIABILITY

• Radiation tested & hardened
• Functional, Mechanical, Thermal Tests
• Smart protections against SEL
• Flight heritage:
• - GOMX-3, ESA/Gomspace (Ongoing Summer 2015)
• - EYE-SAT, CNES (Ongoing)
• - OPS-SAT, ESA/TU-Graz (Ongoing)
• - Based on EWC28 - X band Tx inflight proven: Proba-V (ESA), KENT (BST & NUS),...

Red Hen GEM Echo...

Convergent Design takes a stand on really high speed SSD - 10 years Guaranteed

(Colorado Springs, CO - March 17, 2016) Convergent Design today announces that beginning this week, all new Convergent Design 2.5” SSDs will come with a ten-year warranty.

"The level of performance and reliability of our SSDs is unmatched in the industry,” said Mike Schell, President, Convergent Design. “When we first began development of the Odyssey line, we had to go directly to the SSD manufacturers to have drives built to our specifications. There was nothing on the market that met our performance demands. These SSDs have performed remarkably well over the years, and we have found that they continue to so well beyond what we had originally hoped. Other manufacturers have also introduced products that meet our requirements, so we can now expand how we source our SSDs and allow us to extend our warranty."

Convergent Design SSDs (Certified for use with the Convergent Design Odyssey and Apollo monitor/recorders) offer a variety of qualities, detailed in the Convergent Design White Paper “Why to Trust Your Footage to Convergent Design Odyssey SSDs.” Features such as fast & consistent read & write speeds, both across the entire memory and across the lifespan of the SSDs, exceptionally long-life usability of the media, built-in power-loss protection, low power draw and robust reliability of construction are the hallmarks of the Odyssey SSD design.

About Convergent Design

Founded in 2000, Convergent Design started as a manufacturer of SD/HD signal converters and evolved the product line to include video recorders, RAW data video capture devices and professional monitors. Convergent Design's progressive technology design means that each new device includes the features and technology of the ones that preceded it. Convergent Design products are designed and manufactured in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and sold through our worldwide network of dealers and distributors.

About Red Hen Systems 

Red Hen Systems has relied on Convergent Design and its Nano proxy recorders for many years. The evolution of their Odyssey 7, 7Q, and 7Q+ into the Apollo four channel with a fifth as switch or quad-screen sets Convergent Design again as the leading technology as well as price point. What once cost $40,000 a few years ago for SD in a far less capable package for a tenth of that.  PRORES 4:2:2 1080p-30 running at 200+Mb times 4 + 1. You need more... add a bit of the 7Q+ magic and suddenly 4K stereo.

Remember your ABC's.... Always buy Colorado!