Word of the Day..LRAD..Spread the word.
September 2005 Meeting Summary
The September meeting of the Kentuckiana Post of the Society of American Military Engineers was held Tuesday September 20, 2005 in the Cafeteria meeting room of the Mazzoli Federal Building. Approximately 32 members and guests were in attendance. Following the Pledge of Allegiance led by President Hans Probst, and invocation led by Clay Kelly, Gerard Edelen introduced the guest speaker, A. J. Ballard, Senior Director of the Government and Force Protection Group for American Technology Corporation (ATC).
The program was entitled “Shaping the Future of Sound” and was a presentation and demonstration of ATC’s Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD). The LRAD was developed after the USS Cole terrorist attack to enable ships to determine the intent of vessels that enter the 500 yard Naval Vessel Protection Zone. Prior to LRAD there was no existing technology to determine Friend or Foe short of using flares, warning shots or placing a boat in the water. There are over 350 LRAD devices deployed with the Department of Defense in IRAQ, commercial cruise liners, major police departments and at other critical infrastructure locations. New applications have subsequently emerged for highly directional, clearly intelligible, long range acoustic devices that provide an immediately escalating non-lethal capability. The mission suite is universal - communicates at safe standoff ranges, gain compliance, and determines intent to support an appropriate response. Effective multi-service use of ATC’s the LRAD in Operation Iraqi Freedom has led to significant interest for law enforcement and homeland security applications with New York and Boston Police Departments deploying LRADS for crowd control and mass communication. The presentation highlighted the technology and supported missions, plus its transition into border and critical infrastructure protection systems to provide an unambiguous acoustic hailing, notification and warnings over a large area. LRAD communicates with unambiguous intelligibility and authority to ensure that the recorded or live message is heard. This enables public safety personnel the ability to follow clearly defined rules of engagement without the unnecessary escalation of force. LRAD has the following characteristics: Loud - 151dB at 1 meter about 105dB at 500 meters Clear - Less than 10% total harmonic distortion Directional - 15-30 degree beam width Low Power Consumption - 4 amps max, 2 amps continuous Portable - can be moved to the appropriate threat axis Remote - Pan Tilt configuration for infrastructure safety Following the lecture portion of the program and some brief Post business, the attendees exited the building for a live demonstration of the LRAD. The program was quite informative and well received by the audience invoking several questions and interchange from the attendees.
Best,
S. |
