Press Release

Watching the traffic on the M11

Blighter radar goes live at DSEi

Blighter, the Plextek designed low cost, ultra portable electronic-scan radar goes into live action for the first time at DSEi 2003 - one of the most prestigious events in the international defence calendar - being held at ExCEL in London (9-12 September).

The radar will be positioned at Plextek's headquarters at Great Chesterford, near Cambridge, to monitor traffic movements on roads around junction 9 of the M11. The radar will detect people and vehicles amongst the surrounding countryside and present it in an Internet web-page format at the show in London. Wireless network enabled and linked with commercially available laptop computers or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), visitors to DSEi will see first-hand that the Blighter radar makes possible remote monitoring over wireless networks.

The antenna system of the Blighter surveillance unit will be positioned on the roof of the Plextek labs from where it will survey the Cambridgeshire roads and countryside for moving targets. The demonstration will include video streaming from a co-located video camera. Both the radar scan and video images will be linked to Plextek's stand at DSEi via the internet.

The radar at Plextek will be controlled by the PDA or laptop computer at DSEi via an IEEE 802.11 wireless link connected to the Internet. The larger display area on the laptop will allow it to simultaneously show live radar and video, whereas the PDA will be able to show a single channel at a time.

Senior project manager Mark Radford from Plextek's Digital Design Group said: "The Blighter concept was extremely well received at the Paris Air Show in June. With this first ever live demo, we can now clearly prove all the benefits of an electronics design that has resulted in a radar that is affordable, since it uses components and technology already on the market, is lightweight and easily deployable and also easy to use."

Released 01/9/2003