Barco introduced its MDU-2000 line of mission display units at Booth No. 441 here at Heli-Expo. The Belgian company said the MDU-2000 displays deliver high-performance cockpit technology yet are cost-effective as displays for a cabin-grade airborne mission. Barco’s MDU-2000 family includes the MDU-254 with its five- by four-inch landscape orientation, and the MDU-268 with a six- by eight-inch panel usable in either landscape or portrait mode.
Barco said its MDU-2000 line is a solution for an array of missions for military and paramilitary helicopters and is fully compatible with daylight and night video cameras, moving maps, computers and radar inputs.
Also at Heli-Expo, Barco announced its selection by Thales to supply advanced control display and management systems (CDMS), which will make it debut before the end of this year as part of the TopDeck avionics suite in the next-generation Sikorsky S-76D civil helicopter. Thales has contracted with Barco for its CMDS-3000 unit, which is compatible with Arinc 429 and Mil-Std-1553 interfaces. The Barco unit also supports Ethernet, mass memory and USB memory front loading.
Dave Simpson, Barco’s business development manager for North America, said the introduction of the MDU-2000 family positions it as the new reference in the marketplace, merging the highest standards of optical quality and easy integration, with the attractive cost of “run-of-the-mill airborne mission displays.”
The MDU-2000 displays are readable in sunlight, given their rich contrast and a large palette of grayscale. The units are equipped with active-matrix liquid-crystal displays and LED backlighting. These components yield a display with a compact dimension, low weight and low power drain. Analog video and digital video inputs (DVI) are accepted along with picture-in-picture function, a combination that builds situational awareness by allowing the same display area to host single or multiple sources of video.
The MDU-2000 family is certified up to level C for the DVI input, via their design to standards.
