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Photo Info
Yellow AW119 helicopter with TrakkaCam mounted on it, in flight.

Trakka Systems launches new camera series

By Ben Forrest | January 23, 2017

Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 23 seconds.

Trakka Systems is rolling out a new line of gyro-stabilized multi-sensor camera systems created with many of the sensibilities the company brings to its line of sophisticated searchlights.

Yellow AW119 helicopter with TrakkaCam mounted on it, in flight.
Trakka Systems is planning to make its first deliveries of its new TC-300 multi-sensor surveillance system in Q1 2017. Trakka Photo

After introducing a prototype of its new TC-300 multi-sensor surveillance system at HAI Heli-Expo last year, Trakka is planning to make its first deliveries of the product in January through March of 2017.

“There’s a look and a feel to it that almost makes it — I’m going to use the word ‘sexy’ in terms of industrial design,” said Andrew Phillips, the company’s executive vice president of global business development.

“So we’ve tried to make it appealing to the marketplace, as well as having good performance and feature sets. But I think obviously the biggest thing that drives us is actually the positioning [of] the product in the marketplace.”

The TC-300 is the first new product in the TrakkaCam line, which also includes several legacy models from Swesystem AB, a Swedish camera design and development company Trakka acquired in December 2015.

There are plans to scale the TC-300 up and down in terms of size, adding new models that build on the success of the legacy SWE-LE series, whose prime market to date has been the inspection and utility market, said Phillips.

The TC-300 is a single-line replaceable unit (LRU) system that comprises an innovative, lightweight 300-millimeter (11.8-inch) gimbal and has a total mass of less than 19 kilograms (42 pounds), according to the company’s technical data.

It features high-performance, fully digital 4-axis gyro-stabilization and a payload suite with a medium wavelength, infrared (MWIR) thermal imager with continuous zoom, color HDTV with continuous zoom and various laser sensors.

 TC-300 closeup
The TC-300 is the first new product in the TrakkaCam line, which also includes several legacy models from Swesystem AB. Trakka Systems Photo

The TC-300 also has a fully-integrated inertial measurement unit/global positioning system and an advanced high-definition video engine with several features, including automatic target tracking, image blending, and haze reduction.

“The value equation is something like we offer 80 percent of the performance of the big gimbals, at approximately 50 percent of the price,” said Phillips. “And we’re talking about doing that in less than half of the mass and in a size of 300 millimeters versus 400 millimeters. So in an era where budgets are tight and where every kilogram that you put on an aircraft is quite crucial, I think that’s quite a good value equation.”

The TrakkaCam line is also exempt from International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), making it widely exportable to countries around the world.

While immediate applications for TrakkaCam systems will be mainly in airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), the company has taken some orders for ground vehicles as well, said Phillips.

“If you imagine, you would put these on an extendable mast on an armored vehicle, and whether it’s a SWAT team in the USA or whether it’s a military force trying to do IED protection or force protection out in an area of conflict, you can imagine that there quite a few ground vehicle applications of these kinds of sensors as well,” he said.

“I think it all goes about being able to see at long ranges and to be able to protect and allow people to keep at arm’s length from harmful devices and harmful characters out there.”

After debuting the TC-300 prototype at Heli-Expo in March 2016, Trakka also showed the product at the Helitech International tradeshow in October, by which time it had already taken its first launch order, followed by another shortly after the show, said Phillips. The response at both shows was “exceptionally enthusiastic,” he said.

“At Helitech … people were seeking us out for our new technology,” he said. “It was quite remarkable, and I would say the interest extended not only amongst operators — the forces who would actually use this technology — but also to the aircraft OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] with whom we have very good relationships.”

Phillips cited Trakka’s use of “disruptive technology” in the searchlight market and said the company is adopting a disruptive approach to its systems in the TrakkaCam range.

“I think we see great business prospects from it,” he said. “From the user point of view, they get far more bang for their buck and the ability to actually perform ISR at a much lower price. . . . It’s exciting, even in an era of downturn.”

 

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