+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
| #            | **Question**       | **Answer**                      |
| Organization |                    |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
| *            | In terms of the    | The guidelines in paragraphs    |
| *Diversified | traditional        | 6.1 and 6.2 are intended to     |
| Research     | procurement        | enable the offeror to plan and  |
| C            | paragraphs (6.1,   | cost a level-of-effort          |
| orporation** | 6.2, etc.), in     | consistent with paragraphs 6.1  |
|              | what range will    | and 6.2 guidelines and a means  |
|              | responses be       | by which to justify it.         |
|              | considered?        |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Can you offer      | See answer above. The duration  |
|              | level of effort    | should be consistent with your  |
|              | guidance and       | Tier 1 or Tier 2 proposed       |
|              | duration guidance? | duration.                       |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **University of On p. 22 of PIP:      The statement on p. 22 should be
  Illinois**       \"VACE III will not  clarified to read: "VACE III Tier
                  support new work in   2 will not ..." and will be
                  the area (human       corrected. There is a recognized
                  recognition).\"\      need for continued exploration in
                  \                     human recognition but should not
                  However, person id    be the focus of a Tier 2
                  and related issues    component/system level effort.
                  such as the           
                  recognition of        
                  gender, age,          
                  clothing, etc. are    
                  very important in all 
                  the data domains.     
                  E.g., p. 20:  \"Who   
                  was involved in the   
                  meeting?\"\           
                  \                     
                  Please clarify.       

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- -----------------------------------------
  **Perceptek,    Is it possible for    The requiring activity is NOT opening the
  Inc.**          PercepTek to provide  door for any capabilities briefings.  The
                  a capabilities        way to respond to the BAA is as found in
                  briefing to the       the website
                  technical program     (http://www.nbc.gov/fort_h/vaceiii.html
                  manager for this BAA  and in the announcement and PIP which are
                  effort?               hyperlinked there

                  Is it possible to get Yes, we will provide overview information
                  a list or a website   for each project in Phase II.
                  that would show the   
                  Phase II              
                  participants, their   
                  topics and points of  
                  contact?              
  --------------- --------------------- -----------------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Glinda        Will existing         The government owns the IP rights
  Digital         concepts that need    to all technologies previously
  Systems, LLC**  development for the   developed on the VACE program.
                  benefit of the        These technologies will be made
                  government be         available to Phase 3 participants
                  available to the      as appropriate and relevant to
                  developers for sale   your project. We encourage this
                  in the commercial     type of technological exchange
                  market?               among participants in Phase 3
                                        especially between Tier 1 and Tier
                                        2 projects. If these technologies
                                        have been incorporated into larger
                                        commercial products that you feel
                                        are more helpful to your approach,
                                        then you will need to proceed with
                                        a normal acquisition and/or
                                        teaming arrangement.

                  VACE III states a     This is true. It is not possible
                  large scope but the   for the VACE evaluation
                  VACE II evaluation    infrastructure to support all of
                  protocol is narrow.   the research tasks in the program.
                                        Rather, the intent is to focus on
                                        a few key tasks which are common
                                        across research efforts. These
                                        tasks will evolve as progress is
                                        made and new areas of emphasis are
                                        realized by the Government and the
                                        research community.

                  The \"Performance     The "Performance Evaluation
                  Evaluation Protocol   Protocol" for VACE II is exactly
                  for text, face, hand, that. It was arrived at based upon
                  person and\           the collective and individual
                  vehicle detection &   evaluation needs for VACE II given
                  tracking video        data that was available or that
                  analysis and content  could be collected. This Protocol
                  extraction (VACE      was not developed before VACE II
                  II),\" is listed as   but during VACE II once all
                  the sole criteria     selected research activities were
                  given for evaluation  reviewed, common threads
                  of a VACE III\        identified and an effort was made
                  proposal.             to ensure all participants had an
                                        evaluation venue. For VACE II
                                        TRECVID was an alternative means
                                        to participate in an evaluation.
                                        In the VACE III era there are
                                        anticipated to be addition
                                        "outside" evaluation venues in
                                        which to participate. A similar
                                        Performance Evaluation Protocol
                                        will be developed early on in VACE
                                        III once all the selected research
                                        is reviewed to scope the VACE III
                                        activities. Therefore the pointer
                                        to the VACE II should not be
                                        construed as a plan for evaluation
                                        in VACE III but merely an
                                        illustration that may assist the
                                        offeror to understand intent and
                                        assist in scoping offeror level of
                                        effort commitment.

                  If VACE II, alone, is There is no intent to use VACE II
                  the criteria to be    selection criteria for VACE III
                  used as the selection selection. Only the VACE III
                  criteria for VACE     stated selection criteria are to
                  III, then this issue  be used. Any reference to VACE II
                  needs to be addressed technologies in the VACE Roadmap
                  to more clearly lay   are merely to guide the offeror to
                  out the acceptability ensure his/her technology proposal
                  of all of the         is one that forwards the
                  relevant issues of    state-of-the-art and not address
                  image processing,     problems that have been solved
                  listed in VACE III,   already or are well along the path
                  not just those        to being solved for the government
                  relative to face and  is looking for innovation and
                  vehicle recognition.  disruptive developments.

                  Filtering is a high   Any VACE II reference as stated
                  interest area for RPV above is merely for illustrative
                  aerial videos where a purposes and in no way binding on
                  substantial number of VACE III.
                  frames have nothing   
                  of interest for       
                  further analysis. As  
                  now it stands, with   
                  the VACE II           
                  evaluation criteria,  
                  an\                   
                  offering on           
                  filtering, say a blue 
                  tarp in a green       
                  jungle, would be      
                  rejected because it   
                  did not meet the      
                  selection criteria as 
                  defined by\           
                  VACE II. In VACE II   
                  Don\'t Care Frames    
                  (DCFs) are described  
                  only in the\          
                  context of faces,     
                  vehicles, etc., not   
                  almost anything else. 
                  Because of this, if   
                  an offer came to you  
                  with the answers to   
                  the very\             
                  important question of 
                  how do you eliminate  
                  images quickly        
                  without having\       
                  to do a detailed      
                  analysis, in general, 
                  according to your     
                  selection criteria    
                  this much needed work 
                  would not receive     
                  consideration because 
                  it does not filter    
                  out crowds or         
                  cartoons as opposed   
                  to a face. Suggest    
                  VACE III either state 
                  face/vehicle          
                  recognition up front, 
                  or\                   
                  expand the evaluation 
                  protocol to include   
                  other needed          
                  advancements in\      
                  many areas of image   
                  processing, as        
                  expressed in VACE     
                  III.                  
  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Sarnoff       Is a Tier 2 solution  As mentioned on Page 10, section
  Corporation**   must be processed     3.1 Structure, \"Unlike the Phase
                  data from two         II program, Tier 2 solutions must
                  different data        address applicability to more than
                  sources using the     one of the heterogeneous video
                  same system? Or       data sources mentioned in Section
                  should two systems be 2 and described in more detail in
                  developed using a     Section 4.\" This was written to
                  number of components  describe the objective, but avoid
                  that are shared among suggesting an implementation
                  the two systems?      method to demonstrate. The
                                        government wants a Tier 2 system
                                        to show the capability of working
                                        with heterogeneous data sources
                                        commensurate with the performance
                                        objectives stated figure 3.

                  Can a Tier 2 system   Do not understand the difference
                  be focused on         between this question and the one
                  one domain and show   above. We believe the answer to
                  applicability of its  the question above also applies
                  components, not the   here.
                  whole system for      
                  another domain?       

                  Can the requirement   A Tier 2 system should be able to
                  of addressing more    demonstrate that it can provide a
                  than one video data   comprehensive suite of
                  sources for a Tier 2  capabilities for one data domain
                  system be             with a high level of performance,
                  reconsidered in order and have a reasonable subset of
                  to maximize the       capabilities within another
                  usability and impact  domain(s) with the same level of
                  of such a system to   performance. However, the
                  operational scenarios architecture should facilitate
                  for a chosen data     external component integration to
                  domain?               achieve comparable capabilities in
                                        another domain(s) as discussed in
                                        section 3.2.
  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Carnegie      Reference Monthly     We agree in part. Therefore, this
  Mellon          Status Reports        requirement will be modified to
  University**    (Section 6.3,         bi-monthly at the program level. A
                  paragraph 2) - We     change in frequency beyond this is
                  sincerely believe     left to the discretion of the
                  that one              COTR. Extending the reporting
                  comprehensive         period to quarterly presents the
                  quarterly report for  risk of catching an issue needing
                  the sponsoring agency attention too late in a cycle.
                  is of much greater    
                  confidence and value  
                  in conveying project  
                  state and issues than 
                  three one-month       
                  reports that are      
                  highly fragmented in  
                  progress.             

                  That the permitted    You are correct about the
                  electronic proposal   inconsistencies. The DTO wants an
                  formats include Adobe MSWord version because these
                  PDF, versions 6 and   materials are used for summary
                  7.  Versions of MS    information in presentations,
                  Word are notoriously  reports, etc. to management.
                  incompatible and may  However, if a proposer wants to
                  produce different     additionally submit an Adobe PDF
                  pagination and        version, this is allowed. Note
                  displacement of text  that a hardcopy is requested and
                  and images from       will be used to validate page
                  version to version    count requirements stated in the
                  and machine to        BAA to mitigate the issue of
                  machine depending     inconsistencies that may exist
                  upon local versions,  between MS Word variations from
                  configuration and     computer to computer.
                  printers.             
  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Southwest     The draft PIP         Although the VACE program is broad
  Research        indicates that this   in scope, we do recognize the
  Institute**     work must build on    limitations of this solicitation.
                  VACE techniques       We are always interested in new
                  already developed in  innovations that are relevant to
                  Phase II. Does this   both the VACE program and the
                  mean that you are not interests of the Intelligence
                  interested in new     Community. Please refer to section
                  innovations?          4.4.6.

                  If new innovations    A large evaluation team that spans
                  are to be considered  several government agencies will
                  what is the           evaluate all proposals. This
                  likelihood of an      evaluation will be implemented
                  award of this nature? according to guidelines within the
                                        Source Selection Plan as approved
                                        by the NBC Contracting Office and
                                        the DTO PMO. All proposals will be
                                        evaluated equally in accordance
                                        with this document.
  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **KT-Tech,      We have developed a   Yes.
  Inc.**          new form of digital   
                  compression           
                  technology that will  
                  allow the             
                  technologies called   
                  for work better,      
                  reduce the need for   
                  hardware and allow    
                  true real-time video  
                  over bandwidths you   
                  cannot currently      
                  operate over          
                  (today\'s cell        
                  phones, 802.11/WiFi   
                  and underwater low    
                  bandwidth modems).    
                   Would this BAA       
                  entertain such a new  
                  technology?           

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- ---------------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Lockheed      When do you expect to open   Instructions posted on NBC website
  Martin**        the registration for the     
                  bidder's briefing?           

                  On pg 10 of Draft BAA under  The latter: heterogeneous across
                  Tier 2 discussion, multiple  multiple domains such as Broadcast
                  heterogeneous video data     News and Meeting/Conferences
                  sources for system level     Surveillance, Ground
                  integration are mentioned.   Reconnaissance, and UAVs. Also see
                  Do you mean multiple         answer to Sarnoff question for
                  heterogeneous data sources   more info.
                  within a domain (e.g.        
                  Broadcast News) or actually  
                  heterogeneous across         
                  multiple domains such as     
                  Broadcast News and           
                  Meeting/Conferences          
                  Surveillance, Ground         
                  Reconnaissance, and UAVs?    

                  Should awardees expect GFI   No GFI or GFE. Access will be
                  and GFE, or access to, all   given to Phase I and Phase II work
                  Previous Phase I and Phase   as appropriate and relevant to the
                  II work related to the       project.
                  effort proposed?             

                  Will awardees have access to RDEC is an environment used to
                  RDEC or be authorized to get test, evaluate and demonstrate a
                  a drop at their facility in  capability once it has achieved a
                  order to work on this Phase  certain readiness level. Therefore
                  III effort?                  no RDEC access can be guaranteed.
                                               Any capability that will migrate
                                               to RDEC will be physically
                                               installed in the RDEC facility.
                                               The TRA is viewed as an
                                               intermediate step between a
                                               laboratory and the RDEC.

                  Should awardees expect to    No.
                  have access to SIPRnet       
                  connectivity in order to     
                  access the appropriate video 
                  data (e.g. CMIL).            

                  Is there a plan for expanded The VACE program is working
                  data                         several initiatives to provide a
                  availability/accessibility   large corpus of data in several
                  to the research groups?      domains. This will be done to
                                               support both the evaluation
                                               process and the individual
                                               research projects. The amount will
                                               vary, but it is the intent of the
                                               program to provide data in at
                                               least four data domains (BN, UAV,
                                               Surveillance, and Meeting Room)

                  Would we have access to      Only when a capability has
                  future video data stored     migrated to RDEC. There may be
                  within RDEC?                 exceptions but those would be
                                               reviewed on a case by case basis.

                  Would storage and            The program is working on a more
                  information management of    formal arrangement to support this
                  video files be GFE through   function. It would be our
                  something like RDEC or some  intention to allow this type of
                  other Government-sponsored   access within the program to
                  or owned archive or          facilitate the distribution
                  repository?                  process and reduce overhead.
                                               However, we do not have a formal
                                               contract in place at this time.
  --------------- ---------------------------- ----------------------------------

+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
| ##           | Can a single       | Yes. However, the prime on a    |
|  BAE Systems | organization       | Tier 2 team must be a U.S.      |
|              | submit separate    | company.                        |
|              | independent        |                                 |
|              | proposals under    |                                 |
|              | Tier 1 and Tier 2? |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Can you provide    | Instructions posted on the NBC  |
|              | more information   | website.                        |
|              | on the Bidders     |                                 |
|              | Brief, including   |                                 |
|              | the procedure to   |                                 |
|              | register for it?   |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Are any example    | Our security policy precludes   |
|              | video clips        | us from providing this data.    |
|              | available for      |                                 |
|              | proposers to view  |                                 |
|              | during the         |                                 |
|              | proposal phase?    |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Will there be a    | Our security policy precludes   |
|              | web site or other  | us from providing this data.    |
|              | venue defined for  |                                 |
|              | potential bidders  |                                 |
|              | to help identify   |                                 |
|              | teammates?         |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | For costing        | Program reviews will occur      |
|              | purposes, what     | within the contiguous U.S. Some |
|              | assumptions should | evaluation workshop may occur   |
|              | we make for        | in Europe, so consideration     |
|              | meeting locations, | should be given to what         |
|              | including          | evaluations are relevant to     |
|              | evaluations (e.g., | your technology and plan        |
|              | where in Europe    | accordingly.                    |
|              | might the          |                                 |
|              | evaluations        |                                 |
|              | occur), and        |                                 |
|              | Program Reviews?   |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | On Figure 4, could | This will be covered at the     |
|              | you provide        | bidders conference.             |
|              | additional         |                                 |
|              | description, such  |                                 |
|              | as a definition of |                                 |
|              | the terms used?    |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Section 3.2        | As the technologies depicted in |
|              | discusses real     | figure 2 become robust the      |
|              | time processing.   | emphasis will move to expanding |
|              | In analysis of     | scale and reducing a decision   |
|              | processing speeds, | cycle. Both processing speed    |
|              | several different  | and latency are major issues    |
|              | factors are        | regarding video processing      |
|              | important: a)      | technologies and must be        |
|              | processing rate    | addressed.                      |
|              | (e.g., frames per  |                                 |
|              | second); b)        | The issue of how processing     |
|              | latency (e.g.,     | will be performed (batch or     |
|              | time difference    | streaming) is application       |
|              | between reading    | dependent. So, either one or    |
|              | the first frame of | both might be appropriate for   |
|              | a video sequence   | the proposed technology,        |
|              | and producing      | depending on the applications   |
|              | results relevant   | that it seeks to address.       |
|              | to the first       |                                 |
|              | frame); and c)     |                                 |
|              | batch processing   |                                 |
|              | v. streaming data. |                                 |
|              | Which of these     |                                 |
|              | factors are        |                                 |
|              | important to the   |                                 |
|              | VACE program?      |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Section 4.5.1      | While certain data is in the    |
|              | requests a         | pipeline and will likely be     |
|              | detailed           | employed in VACE III,           |
|              | description of our | additional sources may be       |
|              | evaluation plan.   | explored if they are deemed     |
|              | Section 4.5.4      | important for the success of a  |
|              | describes the      | project. Current data resources |
|              | evaluation         | include security camera         |
|              | workshops. In      | recordings, meeting recordings, |
|              | order to align our | broadcast news recordings, and  |
|              | detailed           | limited UAV recordings. The     |
|              | evaluation plan    | program will seek to            |
|              | with the VACE      | synchronize evaluations on a    |
|              | program, can you   | periodic basis -- preferably    |
|              | provide any        | annually -- with ongoing        |
|              | details on the     | evaluation efforts a la Rich    |
|              | VACE program       | Transcription and               |
|              | evaluation         | Classification of Events,       |
|              | schedule, such as  | Activities, and Relationships,  |
|              | what tasks are     | and TRECVID. Our goal is to     |
|              | evaluated when,    | have extraction evaluations     |
|              | and what data will | take place in the spring and    |
|              | be made available  | search evaluations in the late  |
|              | for these          | summer. However, this is        |
|              | evaluations?       | subject to change.              |
|              |                    |                                 |
|              |                    | Dry run evaluations may be      |
|              |                    | implemented prior to formal     |
|              |                    | evaluations for new tasks.      |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+

+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
| ###          | In Section 4.5 of  | See answer to BAE Systems last  |
|  OBJECTVIDEO | the Proposal       | question for DTO evaluations.   |
|              | Information        | DTO-sanctioned, TRECVID (Search |
|              | Pamphlet (PIP),    | and Extraction) annually begin  |
|              | there are          | in April, finish in September,  |
|              | references to      | and are reported in November at |
|              | DTO-sponsored      | NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.         |
|              | evaluations. Could |                                 |
|              | you please provide |                                 |
|              | us with a list of  |                                 |
|              | when and where     |                                 |
|              | these evaluations  |                                 |
|              | are taking place?  |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Due to the fact    | No it will not be extended.     |
|              | that your deadline |                                 |
|              | for submitting     |                                 |
|              | questions has been |                                 |
|              | extended, we are   |                                 |
|              | requesting that    |                                 |
|              | the deadline for   |                                 |
|              | proposal           |                                 |
|              | submissions also   |                                 |
|              | be extended.       |                                 |
|              |  Please confirm    |                                 |
|              | whether the        |                                 |
|              | proposal           |                                 |
|              | submission date    |                                 |
|              | will also be       |                                 |
|              | extended.          |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Who is the TRAA    | The agent has not been          |
|              | (Technology        | selected.                       |
|              | Readiness          |                                 |
|              | Assessment Agent)  |                                 |
|              | for this project?  |                                 |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | What is the format | There will be a POC assigned to |
|              | of interaction     | your project from the TRA       |
|              | with the TRAA?     | organization. This person will  |
|              |                    | become knowledgeable of your    |
|              |                    | technologies and will work with |
|              |                    | you on refinements and          |
|              |                    | enhancements in preparation for |
|              |                    | migration to a larger and more  |
|              |                    | formal test environment.        |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | What is the level  | This is something that          |
|              | of detail of the   | continues to evolve. There is a |
|              | technology         | process defined, but            |
|              | transition plan?   | unfortunately we do not have    |
|              |                    | the ability to fully implement  |
|              |                    | it at this time. However, the   |
|              |                    | process is roughly based on the |
|              |                    | DoD TRL standards (DoD          |
|              |                    | 5000.2R), which defines a       |
|              |                    | maturation path beginning with  |
|              |                    | an idea to demonstratable       |
|              |                    | prototype to various test       |
|              |                    | environments and finally into   |
|              |                    | production/operations.          |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Do we have a       | You can do both.  However, the  |
|              | choice of (a)      | visuals (i.e. slide deck) will  |
|              | logging into the   | be available on the network and |
|              | Web conference on  | the audio will be available     |
|              | the internet OR    | through the phone.  The slide   |
|              | (b) dialing into   | deck will contain a summary of  |
|              | the conference by  | the Q&A and be part of the      |
|              | phone?             | presentation.  The Q&A details  |
|              |                    | will be posted on the NBC       |
|              |                    | website prior to the            |
|              |                    | conference. The meeting is      |
|              |                    | scheduled to last \~two hours.  |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Will the same      | Again, visuals only on website, |
|              | information be     | audio only by phone.  In        |
|              | given on both?     | addition, the website will have |
|              |                    | a \'chat\' capability where an  |
|              |                    | offeror can send questions      |
|              |                    | and/or comments                 |
|              |                    | electronically.  However,       |
|              |                    | please make sure to read the    |
|              |                    | preliminary Q&A document        |
|              |                    | thoroughly prior to the         |
|              |                    | conference to eliminate any     |
|              |                    | redundancy of questions.  The   |
|              |                    | government will do its best to  |
|              |                    | respond in the time allocated   |
|              |                    | within the meeting.  A final    |
|              |                    | set of Q&A will be posted after |
|              |                    | conference has concluded along  |
|              |                    | with the slide deck that was    |
|              |                    | presented during the meeting.   |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+
|              | Do we have to      | There is a very quick           |
|              | pre-register for   | registration process you will   |
|              | the conference     | go thru when you login into the |
|              | before January 20? | website.  We encourage everyone |
|              |  If so, how do we  | to do so at some point during   |
|              | do that?           | the conference.  This           |
|              |                    | information will enable an      |
|              |                    | offeror to become part of the   |
|              |                    | DTO distribution for this and   |
|              |                    | future solicitations.  It       |
|              |                    | is not necessary to remained    |
|              |                    | logged into the website during  |
|              |                    | the entire conference, but      |
|              |                    | it should provide assistance in |
|              |                    | understanding the presentation. |
+--------------+--------------------+---------------------------------+

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **University of As Tier2 solutions    The government's intent for Tier2
  Southern        are intended to be    solutions is to develop and
  California**    end-to-end systems    demonstrate a capability to
                  and different data    support both multiple feeds from a
                  sources have very     single domain and multiple feeds
                  different processing  from multiple domains. We
                  requirements,\        recognize there is a tradeoff of
                  these seem to be      performance and
                  incompatible          versatility/functionality. It is
                  requirements. A       important to be able to
                  clarification on the  demonstrate that given access to
                  motivation and goals  more resources (computational and
                  would be              component technologies) that a
                  most helpful.         Tier 2 system can scale and adapt
                                        to support multiple homogenous
                                        and/or heterogeneous data sources
                                        with performance levels
                                        commensurate with Figure 3.

                  Another question is   No restriction. However, the prime
                  whether there is any  on a Tier 2 team must be a U.S.
                  restriction on an     company.
                  organization          
                  submitting more than  
                  one Tier1 or Tier2    
                  proposals.            
  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------

  --------------- --------------------- ----------------------------------
  **Verizon       The term "video" is   Where applicable video refers to
  Federal Network used in a number of   all signals such as the example
  Systems**       places in the PIP. In you cite. But there are other data
                  Section 4.4.1 speaker sources besides broadcast news
                  identification is     that are of interest of VACE III
                  listed as a focus of  as stated in sections 4.4.1
                  video broadcast news  through 4.4.6.
                  exploitation. For the 
                  purposes of VACE III, 
                  can one assume that   
                  the term \"video\"    
                  refers to all of the  
                  signals or subsets of 
                  the signals,          
                  depending on the      
                  situation, in a video 
                  transmission (e.g.    
                  video, audio,         
                  captions, and related 
                  data in NTSC and      
                  PAL)?                 

                  Based on Section 3.8  No. Most of the research that has
                  platform (operating   been accomplished to date has been
                  systems and/or        primarily done on the MSWindows
                  hardware)             platform. However, in Phase 3
                  independence is       there is more of an emphasis on
                  clearly desirable.    performance (figure 3) and
                  Are there preferred   consideration of system
                  demonstration         architecture that would facilitate
                  platforms (operating  collaboration and integration of
                  systems and/or        technologies may require other OS
                  hardware) for VACE    platforms be taken under
                  III?                  consideration.
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