Analog Way Eikos 4K Drives LED Videowall in Bridgewater State University’s New Cyber Range Cybersecurity Training Space
Bridgewater State University, the largest of nine state universities in Massachusetts, has opened its Cyber Range cybersecurity training space where an Analog Way Eikos 4K system drives the LED videowall displaying threat intelligence information for students.
Located in the university’s Dana Mohler-Faria Science & Mathematics Center, Cyber Range offers hands-on training through simulated cyberattacks, data breaches and other cybercrimes acting much like a flight simulator to emulate a highly-advanced virtual environment tailored for training cybersecurity experts with unparalleled realism. The 1,900-square-foot facility features 24 workstations with dual-screen monitors facing the LED videowall. Through simulated “stress-tests,” students navigate cyberbreaches in real-time, forcing them to detect, respond and remediate incidents. Cyber Range is available to the university’s students as well as other users from municipalities, nonprofit organizations and private industry. Its aim is to build the workforce necessary for this growing field: There are an estimated 20,000 unfilled jobs in cybersecurity in Massachusetts and more than 750,000 nationwide.
“It was exciting to see Cyber Range come to life,” says Kristin Bidwell, Principal Consultant at ACT Associates, the project’s AV design consultant firm. “Cybersecurity is a growing field and an excellent career path, and the BSU Cyber Range caters to those needs.”
She notes that, “coordinating the BSU Cyber Range AV system was critical to developing a training and learning environment that operates as a real-world command and control center. The project required multiple sources to be shown at the same time, picture-in-picture capabilities and robust processing. Analog Way is top tier for that and met the content demands in this demanding space.”
ACT Associates specified the Analog Way Eikos 4K, a powerful 4K60 multi-layer video mixer and seamless presentation switcher. The system switches multiple sources to the LED videowall, which has a screen resolution of 5760 x 2160. It offers the best image quality and the lowest latency processing in the industry – must-have features for the command center’s simulated mission critical scenarios. The Eikos 4K’s easy user interface enables users to quickly customize the screen’s look on the fly.
“Cyber Range incorporates many different technologies to engage the students,” says Jacriya Larson, Project Manager – Boston at integrator AVI-SPL. “It was so cool to see the videowall in action for the first time. Analog Way was extremely helpful through the entire process from phone discussions about how to set up and run the system to having their technician on site to help configure the system and work with our commissioning specialist. It was a very smooth experience.”
Bidwell concurs. “Analog Way is a great company to work with, and its people are just fantastic. They helped us ensure that everything was ready for opening day.”