Industry Interview: MetaVR
TISR 2011 Volume: 1 Issue: 4 (October)
Co-Founder and CEO
MetaVR Inc.
W. Garth Smith is co-founder and CEO of MetaVR Inc. Smith was formerly a member of the advanced distributed simulation technical staff at TASC (now Northrop- Grumman) prior to starting MetaVR. Before working at TASC, he was one of a team of simulation engineers responsible for the Bolt, Beranek and Newman German version of SIMNET (AGPT). (He was the least talented of the engineers.) SIMNET, a DARPA program, was the original simulation- networking precursor to modern multiplayer games.
Q: What types of ISR related products and services are you offering to military and other government customers?
A: MetaVR’s primary product offering to the ISR community is our virtual reality scene generator [VRSG], which is a real-time 3-D render engine that provides simulated video feeds for various intelligence gathering platforms. We provide geographic specific detailed terrain and entity models that are used by our customers to generate both simulated video and geo-referenced still-frame imagery. A key feature of our software is its ability to stimulate real ISR assets with our software’s real-time MPEG-2 or H.264 video generation with embedded KLV metadata using either EG 601 or MISB 104.5 standards. The result is that our software can generate video feeds that do not differ in format and contents from the real data feeds from autonomously manned systems.
Q: What unique benefits does your company provide its customers in comparison with other companies in your field?
A: MetaVR is a products-only software company, so we don’t charge to add features or 3-D entity models to our software in order to support customer requirements. We treat our customers, or potential customers, as subject-matter experts who drive our product feature requirements such that our products are always converging toward what the market needs. We are not bogged down by endless requirements documents, nor do we ever ask customers for a charge number to add a feature to the software. It is our common practice for our development staff to add multiple features during an evaluation that may take months in order to secure license sales.
Q: What are some of the most significant programs your company is currently working on with the military?
A: Our customers have integrated our products into a number of programs that culminated in their use at the U.S. Joint Forces Command’s Empire Challenge 2011. In addition to our traditional UAV video and still-frame imagery simulations, our customers have developed new ground control station embedded systems that use our software to simulate synthetic aperture radar imagery. As an example of the visual and behavioral fidelity that is possible with our software, in preparation for the Empire Challenge exercise, one of our customers requested a series of 3-D models of donkeys with and without packs. The customer wanted to simulate a donkey carrying an IED in a pack hidden amongst a herd of donkeys. The donkey was delivered with various configurations to carry a cart as well as a thermal model for the heat signature of the animal itself to train sensor payload operators.
Overall, MetaVR is the largest supplier of unmanned aerial system [UAS] commercial 3-D visualization software licenses for the U.S. military with over 1,500 active VRSG licenses in the field. Much of this installed base is through the Multiple Unified Simulation Environment/Air Force Synthetic Environment for Reconnaissance and Surveillance (MUSE/AFSERS) simulation system. VRSG drives the visuals for MUSE/AFSERS, which is the primary UAS training and simulation system used in the Department of Defense for command- and staff-level joint services training.
MetaVR visual systems are used in multiple UAS programs, including the embedded Shadow Crew Trainer One System Ground Control Station which used for training Shadow TUAS, Hunter, Aerosonde and Grey Eagle unmanned aerial systems. Our software is used by Northrop Grumman on the Global Hawk for simulating their large format, still frame, high-resolution imagery collection. Insitu uses MetaVR VRSG licenses for simulation training of one of its unmanned aerial systems. Our most recent customers who need to simulate ISR functions for their airborne platforms include Chandler May with their Fury system and Aurora Flight Sciences with their Orion.
Q: Are you currently developing new products and services relevant to military and government customers that you hope to bring to the ISR market in the future?
A: In addition to the ongoing feature addition to our render engine based upon customer input, our most significant product development has been the teaming arrangement and integration with Battlespace Simulations’ Modern Air Combat Environment [MACE] which provides a way for our customers to generate very realistic scenarios for simulating an ISR mission and, in particular, for training UAS operators. The MACE software can act as a ground control station, flight model, and semi automated forces generator. There had been a gap in the market of commercial high-quality, mission-creation applications and the MACE product has allowed us to compete in that market. We had previously been unable to provide a mission editor with ground control station capability and the MACE product has added significant simulation fidelity capability to our customer base. ♦
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