The National Training Center at Fort Irwin provides Force-on-Force and Live-Fire training of US Army soldiers in an environment that is as close to real-world conditions as possible. Training exercises are conducted and recorded, with important sequences edited and played back for evaluation of the soldier's performance - a process known as "After Action Review" (AAR). During a simulated battle using live players, material is gathered from numerous sources including video, audio, tactical communications, instrumentation system graphics and data. Actions involving Armored and Mechanized Tactical Maneuver units, Light Infantry, Air and Fire Support units are recorded on videotape for subsequent incorporation into the AAR.

The increased workload imposed by the Advanced Warfighter Experiment (AWE) created a need for better and faster AAR preparation. To address the additional requirements of AWE, a new approach, involving the application of digital video technology on a previously unheard of scale, was designed and implemented at the NTC. The new system includes one theater presentation, nine video logging, and four edit/post-production workstations. The architecture is based on four networked video servers, each supporting four workstations, providing shared access to 810 GBytes of RAID 7 storage. This system cuts AAR preparation time in half, allows simultaneous digitizing, sharing, and editing of up to thirteen video sources, and eliminates the cumbersome storage of hundreds of videotapes from each rotation, while maintaining broadcast quality video.