Classroom
Since the Eurofighter is a brand new fighter, all the aircrew and groundcrew need to be trained on how to fly it and maintain it. The Ground Training Aids (GTA) programme through a Supplier Consortium has been set-up to provide much of that training and VEGA Group PLC, along with their Supplier partners were faced with solving this issue.
This is being achieved through a combination of very complex and realistic PC based simulations, Self Paced Learning and Computer Aided Instruction. All the PC workstations had to be capable of complex 2D and 3D real-time rendered views using DirectX and Open GL technologies to deliver a variety of high quality visual material,including MPEG and AVI video; Macromedia Flash  and Authorware presentations; and detailed 2D images and photographs. In order for the workstations to reach their designed level of performance, a graphics card was needed that could handle these requirements and additional features, such as the ability to run three screens at 1280x1024.

Cost Effective Solution
After consulting with the Matrox sales team, VEGA and their partners decided to test the Parhelia 128MB card. In TripleHead mode, Parhelia can run at a resolution of 3840x1024; 1280x1024 across all three screens. Combined with the fact that it has a 10-bit colour pipeline, fulfilling GTA's need for true colour and can handle complex 2D and 3D images, made it an ideal choice.

Two other criteria VEGA had were product availability in all countries involved and long product life-cycles. Matrox is in a position to fulfil these stipulations with their global presence and long product transition periods.
 
"After testing, the Matrox Parhelia 128 was shown to provide the best overall performance across all different types of media format, in a single, simple, cost effective solution" says David Turner of VEGA.

That extra bit further
"Matrox demonstrated customer care and flexibility by introducing additional functionality in the drivers of the card specifically to meet the requirements of the Eurofighter customer, ie allowing use of a hotkey to move windows from one screen to the next." David Morland of VEGA. "Since the training system comes with a representative replica flight stick it was a Customer requirement to be able to switch full screen displays from screen to screen such that the window could be moved behind the stick where appropriate and to the side when the stick was not used"

What's happening now
The project is due to have a phased roll out over several years. There are already 14 classrooms installed at RAF Coningsby. Also installations have already taken place in Germany and Italy and a further installation in Spain will take place soon.

The Pilot and Maintainer Training will be starting in 2004 across the four nations involved.

Contact Details

VEGA Group PLC, 2 Falcon Way, Shire Park, Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL7 1TW, UK - Tel: +44 (0) 1707 391999, Fax: 01707 393909, Email: marketing@vega.co.uk, Web: www.vega.co.uk

Image Credit: Eurofighter GMBH

Matrox Graphics UK, Sefton Park, Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, SL2 4JS, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1753 665544 Fax: +44 (0) 1753 665549 Email: graphic.info.uk@matrox.com

 

---

Glenn's Take - I recall the first time I saw Matrox Graphics cards in action. I believe it was at the annual GITA conference in 2002.. or was it 2001? Anyway... like many users I would often quickly walk by a both that has a bunch of graphic cards layed out on the table (not really that exciting is it?), however, the curious "editor" part of me decided to stop and get the "skinny" from the marketing person "manning" the booth.. actually it was a woman in this case! Seeing 3 high-res flat screen monitors in front of me displaying a database on one pane, a satellite image on the second, and a GIS on the third was enough to convince me that this was something very special and something I would definitely want if I was still sitting at a desk developing coastal GIS applications like I used to do - where was this technology when I needed it! 2 years later I'm still thinking this technology is very cool and it makes me wish I could upgrade my 17" flat panel display to a pair of 21" monitors... in time! (Glenn Letham, Editor, GISuser.com)

---