RadarView

Primary Radar Visualisa on

So ware for Windows

cambridgepixel.com
RadarView
RadarView is Cambridge Pixel’s Windows-based so ware applica on for the
visualisa on of primary radar and camera video. With radar video received from a
remote server (SPx Server), a direct network interface from the radar, or a local
radar capture card (HPx-200 / HPx-400e series), RadarView provides a ready-to-run
display applica on. It supports mul ple channels, mul ple windows and mul ple
display presenta ons for primary radar video in addi on to related data (AIS, ADS-B
tracks etc). Zooming and panning the picture is as easy as dragging the mouse, with
the radar picture being updated in real me to give a highly interac ve display.

CH-A
Radar Network
CH-B
(ASTERIX CAT-240)

Radar Signals AIS, ADS-B, Radar

CH-A tracks, Nav Data
HPx-200
Radar Signals
HPx-400e CH-B

Record & Replay

Radar Control RadarView

Camera Video

Intui ve Display Naviga on Display Presenta on

Click the mouse in one of RadarView’s windows and simply The colour of each video can be independently configured
drag the pointer to move the view posi on. The radar picture and videos can be displayed with or without history fade
is updated in real- me as the mouse moves. Simply use the trails, which are retained as the view changes. Up to 255
mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in or out. scans of history data can be displayed and new data can be
displayed in a different colour to history data for clear
dis nc on.

RadarView Scan Conversion

RadarView uses Cambridge Pixel’s high-performance Radar
Scan Converter so ware which supports PPI, B-Scan and A-
Scan display presenta ons and allows mul ple videos to
appear in a window, and mul ple windows to appear on a
screen.

The view can be scrolled and zoomed effortlessly, and in real-

me, using the mouse to move the radar centre and the scroll
wheel to zoom. Different videos can be shown in different
colours within the same window – for example, raw and
processed video, or mul ple overlapping radars.

02 - Cambridge Pixel
Display Op ons
RadarView supports the display of radar video in normal PPI view and, for
more specialised requirements, also supports B-Scan and A-Scan views.
A-Scan mode is especially useful for radar configura on and set-up.

PPI Display Mode A-Scan Display Mode

The PPI (Plan Posi on Indicator) view displays the radar as if In A-Scan (or A-Scope), the data is displayed as a signal
looking at a plan view of its coverage. It shows a rota ng strength or amplitude against me (equivalent to range) for
sweep that corresponds to the movement of the antenna. each return. The display is what would be seen if the radar
video were displayed on an oscilloscope.

B-Scan Display Mode

Typically used in fire-control situa ons, the B-Scan mode
shows range against azimuth. As the radar rotates, the display
updates across the window, from le to right.

Video Display
When used with a compa ble TV frame grabber card or
Cambridge Pixel’s SPx AV Server, RadarView supports display
of up to 2 real- me video windows. These may be used to
display PAL or NTSC TV signals, possibly derived from a
camera co-located with the radar to provide visual
surveillance of the radar coverage. The camera may be
controlled using an on-screen joys ck or by associa ng the
camera’s posi on with a radar track (slew-to-cue).

RadarView - 03
RadarView Graphics
RadarView displays the following graphical components:

North Marker
Primary and AIS Track Informa on
Indicates the direc on of North when using a
Detailed informa on contained within the
ship heading referenced display mode.
track messages for primary and AIS tracks
may be displayed for user-selected tracks.

Display Ruler Range End

Allowing measurement of range and azimuth This is a circle drawn at the end of range for
between two points. the radar.

Compass Ring
Heading Marker An arc that shows the range of azimuths
On moving pla orms, displays the heading of represented by the current view. The display
the pla orm. of this compass ring automa cally adjusts to
the scale and centring of the radar.

Range Rings
Underlay Map
These are rings drawn at configurable ranges.
The radar videos are blended with an
underlay map, which can be a led, raster or World Coastline Vector Map
user-defined map.
A coastline database down to a resolu on of
40m is built into RadarView.

Tracks Radar Posi on

These are tracks derived from a remote radar A symbol indica ng the posi on of the radar
tracker (ASTERIX CAT-48). They are shown as (or radars) centre.
a track symbol with op onal trail history and
course vector.
Coverage Map
Shows whether a target is poten ally visible
to the radar based on the radar's beam,
Range Scale height of radar and target and presence of
A line that shows the current range scale. terrain.

Feature Summary
Ÿ Radar input from Ÿ Underlay map display from led map (internet downloaded), Ÿ Easy-to-use Windows-based so ware Ÿ B-Scan (Azimuth-Range) display
- HPx-200 series cards user map or raster
Ÿ Runs on wide range of hardware Ÿ A-Scan (Oscilloscope) display
- SPx Server Built-in processing op ons including
Ÿ Ÿ Op onal TV video display Ÿ Synchronised Record and Replay of radar video
- ASTERIX CAT-240 & ASTERIX SCF - Filtering
- Network radars - CFAR Thresholding Ÿ Pelco-D camera control support Ÿ Built-in test pa ern generator
Ÿ Mul ple (up to 5) independent PPI windows - Clu er processing Ÿ Slew-to-cue Ÿ Configura on Wizard
Ÿ Independent view, colour and scale Ÿ Configurable display units (m/km/NM) Ÿ Radar Video Analysis Ÿ Magnifier available for PPI and B-scan windows
Ÿ Dual input channels Ÿ Area-based display using complex polygons Ÿ Radar Control (selected radars) Ÿ Full screen or window mode
Ÿ Sta c or moving pla orm Ÿ Built-in world coastline database Ÿ Track receipt and display Ÿ Coverage map
Ÿ NMEA naviga on input for ship systems Ÿ Overlay symbology Ÿ AIS target receipt and display Ÿ Alerts
Ÿ Radar status informa on panel Ÿ Configurable track labels Ÿ Track list and track analysis

04 - Cambridge Pixel RadarView - 05

Radar Acquisi on
Instead of using the HPx radar interface, RadarView can
RadarView works with Cambridge Pixel’s receive network radar video, either provided directly
HPx range of radar Interface cards and from the radar (in one of a number of proprietary
formats) or distributed from Cambridge Pixel’s SPx Server
is also capable of receiving network across a network. A remote SPx Server could be receiving
one or more channels of video and distribu ng to several
radar video from Cambridge Pixel’s SPx RadarView display clients in SPx or ASTERIX CAT-240
Server applica on or from radars which format.

provide a network video output directly.

Mul ple Scan Conversions

RadarView can be configured for one main PPI and four
addi onal windows, giving up to five windows in total. Each
window can contain one or two channels of radar video,
where a channel can come from an HPx card, a network
source or a recording file.

Finally, each channel can be displayed in raw and processed

form, where the processed form is derived using
RadarView’s built-in processing capabili es. So in total,
RadarView can provide 5 x 2 x 2 = 20 simultaneous PPI scan
conversions.

HPx Radar Interface Cards SPx Server

HPx cards are compa ble with a wide range of commercial SPx Server may distribute the radar video to any number
and military radars using video, trigger and ACP/ARP or of RadarView clients connected via Ethernet.
parallel azimuth signals. HPx cards provide a flexible range
SPx Server may also perform tracking on the primary
of op ons to support dual analogue and up to 8 digital video
video and supply track data to RadarView for display.
inputs. The card is so ware programmable to allow the
analogue and digital video inputs to be mixed to a single SPx Server is also capable of distribu ng AIS tracks to
intensity level for each sample. RadarView.

RadarView provides indica ons of received PRF and

provides a visual indica on of the presence of video and
turning data.

A single RadarView applica on can work with two HPx

cards to support dual channel radar display. The
independent radar signals may be presented together in a
single window with the same or different radar centres, or in
different windows.

06 - Cambridge Pixel
RadarView Opera on
RadarView reads a configura on file at start-up. This defines
RadarView is based on Cambridge ini al values for RadarView’s appearance and capabili es.
Pixel’s established SPx radar The so ware provides GUI tools to configure run me
opera on and a save facility, allowing the current display
processing toolkit. This provides a se ngs to be saved to the configura on file. A convenient
Wizard is provided, which guides the user through the ini al
powerful set of processing and configura on process, making set-up quick and easy.
display components for capture and
presenta on of radar video using
the capabili es of modern mul -
core processors and graphics
processor units (GPUs).

Radar Processing
RadarView provides radar video processing to support:

Ÿ LUT: A programmable look-up-table for arbitrarily

mapping input values to output values.
Ÿ Interference Suppression Filtering: STC and FTC
filters are available to help reduce sea clu er and
weather effects.
Ÿ Thresholding: Video may be thresholded using a
dynamic CFAR threshold, which is adap ve to the
local signal average, or a fixed level threshold.
Ÿ Clu er processing: A clu er map is calculated based
on a long-term average of correlated video. This
clu er map may then be combined with the original
data to produce the processed video. A simple
applica on of this is to remove sta c video and display
moving targets in the processed channel.
Ÿ Area Blank: Areas may be defined as complex
Cartesian polygons or polar segments. These areas
may be used to mask out video or to display it brighter
or in a different colour.

Camera Control
RadarView supports the widely used Pelco-D PTZ camera control interface. RadarView is able
to send pan, lt and zoom commands over a serial port connec on to any camera capable of
receiving Pelco-D commands. The Camera can also be controlled by associa on with a track in
slew-to-cue mode.

RadarView - 07
Radar Record and Replay
RadarView can be used to record the incoming radar video
(plus naviga on and AIS data, if present) onto a local hard
drive for later viewing. The video is compressed and stored
using a lossless coding format based on Zlib or ORC
(Cambridge Pixel’s Open Radar Coding). The recorded file
can be automa cally split into manageable por ons based
on size or me. Recorded data may be copied and moved
as normal Windows files, and then replayed into
RadarView. Recording and replay may be ini ated
independently for two channels of video.

Ordering Informa on RadarView Customisa on

To interface with radar signals, order the HPx-200 PCI RadarView is built on top of Cambridge Pixel’s flexible SPx
radar interface card (part number 161-100) (or HPX-200e, Radar Processing so ware library. The standard so ware is
part number 161-110 for PCIe), which is provided with configurable to accommodate many radar display
Windows drivers. Please see Cambridge Pixel’s separate requirements, with further customisa on op ons available
data sheet for the cards for full details of the supported according to customer needs. Consult Cambridge Pixel for
radar signals. details of customisa on op ons, including OEM supply.

Alterna vely, network video may be served from SPx

Server into mul ple RadarView clients. Consult Cambridge
Pixel for details of SPx Server.

To interface to TV signals, compa ble video capture cards

are available from Cambridge Pixel or a third party.
Alterna vely, video may be served over a network from an
SPx AV Server into mul ple RadarView clients. Consult
Cambridge Pixel for details of SPx AV and video interface
op ons.

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Royston, Her ordshire, SG8 0SS UK

T: +44 (0) 1763 852749

E: [email protected]
W: cambridgepixel.com
@CambridgePixel

08 - Cambridge Pixel Document Number: CP-16-110-84, V4.0