IP Performance supplies NOCS with Avocent HMX KVMoIP solution for RRS James Cook
IP Performance are pleased to announce that we have just supplied the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) with a state-of-the-art Avocent HMX switched, multicasting KVMoIP system, and a Juniper Networks EX switching infrastructure, which will be fitted onto the RRS James Cook scientific research vessel from August onwards.
The HMX System will allow scientists on the research vessel to switch their desktop user stations (screens, keyboards, mouse, I/O peripherals) between target data sources (system CPUs, whether Windows, Mac or Linux/Unix variants) on demand, and to share the output through IP multicasting at Gigabit Ethernet speeds. The system will initially allow switching for 25 endpoints, but will have the capacity to grow to hundreds of workstations when required.
The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS) is the country’s focus for oceanography and represents an unparalleled investment in marine and earth sciences and technology in the UK. The centre opened in 1995 in a purpose-built, £50 million waterfront campus on the city’s Empress Dock. A collaboration between the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the University of Southampton, the centre houses around 500 staff and 750 undergraduate and postgraduate students.
NERC operates a number of research vessels, including the RRS Discovery and the RRS James Cook, its most recently commissioned ship (2006).
The RRS James Cook operates worldwide from the tropics to the edge of the ice sheets, enabling leading-edge multidisciplinary research.
The vessel can undertake both continental margin and deep ocean projects. The ship's design enables it to work in higher sea states than the NERC's existing dedicated research vessels. It will be more manoeuvrable, have more scientific berths and advanced technical facilities.
NOCS hope to extend the Avocent HMX and Juniper switching system to their shore-based lab facilities, and eventually to the RRS James Cook's sister ship RRS Discovery, which is currently undergoing refit in Hull. Discovery, even before refit, was the largest of the general-purpose oceanographic research vessels available in the UK. Scientific options include seismic, geological sampling, physical oceanography, chemistry, trawling and deployment of large overside packages.
