MEMBERSHIP Q&A
The ships that ISC supports are conducting One interesting project we supported last year
oceanographic projects that may range from was the search for the El Faro, a cargo ship that
using diving robotic vehicles to explore the was lost in transit from Jacksonville, Florida,
sea floor, to investigating shipwrecks, to other to San Juan, Puerto Rico, during Hurricane
types of studies that require the collection of Joaquin in October, 2015. Our team
large amounts of data, so we need to stream collaborated with the National
Five Questions with
Dwight Coleman video, audio, and enormous datasets over those Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the
network links. Because our facility at URI has Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI)
broadcasting capabilities, we can also take any to locate the ship’s “black box.” We assisted in
Director, Inner Space Center at URI of the feeds that are collected and move them installing telepresence technologies on
ashore, so that scientists can come to the ISC WHOI’s ship, the R/V Atlantis, and at NTSB
and participate in oceanographic projects just headquarters in Washington, D.C. These
as if they were in the ship’s lab taking part in technologies allowed images of the wreck to
the exploration. be transferred in real-time from the ocean
The Inner Space Center (ISC), located at URI, has garnered
national attention. Can you tell us what ISC is and what
it does?
The ISC also has a webcasting facility that
enables us to do educational programming. An
important part of our mission is to take all the
floor to the investigation team based in NTSB
headquarters. Our systems also allowed for ef-
ficient two-way communication between
the Atlantis and on-shore investigators.
The ISC is a technical facility that uses cutting-edge excitement of oceanographic exploration and technology, including telepresence, to explore the global package it into produced programs. To that end, I’m very proud of our work on this important
ocean, support research, and engage diverse audiences. We we have a television studio and production project. The ISC’s telepresence capabilities
receive real-time video and data streams from the depths of control room where live broadcasts are played a key role in the mission, helping to
the ocean and send that data to scientists, students, and the delivered to schools, museums, aquariums, public around the world – enabling people to communicate accelerate the recovery of El Faro’s black box.
and other locations using video-conferencing and participate live in oceanographic projects as they’re technology. Our broadcasting facilities also happening at sea. enable interactivity, where audiences can ask Our facility is equipped with high-bandwidth internet questions and receive live answers, so it’s a capabilities, and the ships we work with use tracking satellite two-way experience. This is important, because antennas for ship-to-shore bandwidth to establish a network students and the public are really learning The ISC is the exclusive live streaming partner
connection to a terrestrial station or downlink site that when they can engage in real time. The ISC also of the NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer and the
the ISC then peers with. Our network at URI is set up to supports live webcasting to a variety of sites Ocean Exploration Trust Ship E/V Nautilus,
interface with many stations via VPN tunnels and other including: as well as the URI-operated R/V Endeavor.
means of connection. For many of the vessels that we work innerspacecenter.org,
with, we extend the URI network out to the ship, so the
satellite connection essentially facilitates another branch of
our network, over which we can we run any internet service.
How does ISC help support research with
partners such as the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the
Ocean Exploration Trust?
All three of these ships have telepresence
connectivity to the ISC at all times. It is a full
nautiluslive.org time job to support them, because even if each
and oceanexplorer.noaa.gov ship is not at sea exploring 365 days per year,
all three are out for at least 120-180 days a
year, so it adds up to a full year for us.
46
|
CURRENT SPRING 2017
Stronger Together
|
47