SOURCES SOUGHT
A -- Foreign Media Monitoring Systems (FMMS) Capability
- Notice Date
- 6/11/2008
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334220
— Radio and Television Broadcasting and Wireless Communications Equipment Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Engineer District, Vicksburg, Vicksburg Consolidated Contracts Office, Alexandria, 7701 Telegraph Rd, Alexandria, VA 22315-3864
- ZIP Code
- 22315-3864
- Solicitation Number
- W9132V-08-R-0010
- Response Due
- 6/26/2008
- Archive Date
- 8/25/2008
- Point of Contact
- Nilda Lugo, 703-428-6272
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Engineering Research and Development Center, Topographic Engineering Center (TEC), Alexandria Contracting Office is conducting a Request for Information (RFI) Sources Sought (SS) for Foreign Media Monitoring Systems (FMMS) capability for the U.S. Army Space Programs Office, Program Manager Sequoyah, Alexandria, VA. This request for information is for planning purposes only; this is not a request for Quotations or Proposals. No solicitation document exists and a formal solicitation may or may not be issued by the Government as a result of the responses to this RFI/SS. The Government will not be liable for payment of any response preparation expenses. Interested parties are responsible for adequately marking proprietary or competition sensitive information contained in their response. All interested firms that possess the capabilities and facilities addressed herein are encouraged to respond to this RFI/SS by providing the information specified below, on or before 2:00 pm EST on June 26, 2008. Responses to this RFI should be unclassified. Sources responding to this RFI/SS should indicate their business size in relation to the following NAICS code: 334220. Direct all questions regarding this Sources Sought to the attention of Nilda Lugo, Contracting Officer, Fax number 703-428-6995, E-mail: Nilda.E.Lugo@usace.army.mil. All requests for further information must be via email, telephonic requests for additional information will not be honored. The Program Manager Sequoyah, under the Program Director, Army Space Program Office (ASPO) of Program Executive Officer (PEO) Intelligence and Electronics Warfare Systems (IEW&S) is continuously seeking the means to satisfy the immediate need for production and deployment of FMMS in support of the Information Operations in the Operational Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), and Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). In support of Information Operations in OIF, OEF, and GWOT in the South West Asia (SWA) theater, a reliable FMMS capability that enables the warfighter to understand the local indigenous media is needed. The capability should support: 1) continuous monitoring of the interested Area of Responsibility (AOR) media (including any combination of or all of the following media sources: regional and international television, radio, and Internet) in selected DOD Strategic languages, which include Modern Standard Arabic, Iraqi Arabic, Turkish, Kurd, Pashto, Dari, Farsi, Spanish, Creole, Dutch and Portuguese; 2) provide an accurate and ready to use near-real time language transcription and translation of the foreign media; 3) receive, process, store, display, and disseminate uninterrupted flow of both source and target information; 4) provide multi-string search capability in English or in source language thru the exploitation of all-source intelligence data mining and/or analysis applications that enhance the ability of intelligence analysts and linguists to answer to intelligence requirements (for example, Priority Intelligence Requirement (PIR) and requests for information) in a timely manner and to effectively produce increasing volume of actionable intelligence products; 5) be flexible, scalable, modular designed, and easily upgraded in the field; 6) be user-friendly, uncomplicated and easy to use; 7) be ruggedized to function reliably in harsh military operational environments; and 8) be highly robust, reliable, network-ready, and interoperable as web services for distributed systems. Interested parties responding to this RFI should have: 1) a strong background and detailed knowledge in human language speech transcription, automated foreign language translation, and information extraction and distillation; 2) a proven and demonstrated capability of developing, integrating, and prototyping diversified emerging natural language processing and Automated Foreign Language Translation System technologies as well as transitioning product(s) from concept and laboratory phase to commercial market and field; 3) a demonstrated and detailed working knowledge of the DoDs Automated Foreign Language Translation Technologies, particularly understanding the operational, tactical all-source intelligences needs for these capabilities; 4) a proven and demonstrated capability in complex systems architecture with emphasis on collaboration, interface, database and workflow management issues; 5) a demonstrated capability and experience to provide logistics in deployed Area Of Responsibility (AORs), that can readily support detailed coordination with users, and installation, operation and support of the system; and 6) possess security clearances up to and including Top Secret. Interested parties possessing the qualifications outlined above are requested to provide an unclassified white paper describing at a minimum: 1.Corporate capabilities, past and current relevant performance information, available facilities and assets capable of FMMS production to include: current production rate for a system; current methodology for subcontractor/vendor management; identification of risks for production and associated risk mitigation plans; production and test plans and procedures currently in use; production management initiatives, specifically those related to product quality. 2.Minimum technical documentation of FMMS is to include detailed design and architecture documentations to address the following features and specifications: a.Input media- type, format, bandwidth, etc. i.Video- analog or digital satellite, cable, video capture configuration ii.Audio- radio frequency, sampling rate, signal to noise ratio iii.Internet- networking, security, information assurance b.Output- type, format, metadata generation, exported media format c.External Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) 3.Technical description of the FMMS and its components to include: a.Functional capability i.Languages, dialects supported ii.Language ID, speaker ID, topic ID, multiple conversations detection iii.Dictionary- size of terminology; subject coverage (e.g. general-purpose or a list of special domains); user dictionary and any limitation iv.Storage capacity- media storage size, cache algorithm v.Number of channels, program scheduling vi.Translation speed, throughput, accuracy vii.Translation aids- translation memory, editing tool, terminology updates and management b.Components description including characteristics and identification of developers and manufacturers- ASR (automatic speech recognizer), machine translation engine, translation memory, electronic dictionary, entity extraction, etc. c.Physical specification- weight, size/dimension, footprint, ruggedization, portability d.Operating environment- power, temperature, humidity, cooling system e.Hardware- processing capability, memory, hard disk space, etc. f.Software- operating system, database, client software, etc. g.Upgradeability/ interoperability of heterogeneous computing components 4.Provide any U.S. government, international, and/or industry-led quantitative and qualitative evaluation or assessment results on the system and its components - e.g. utility assessments from the operational customers, NIST/DARPA/R&D labs, and industry associations, etc. Desired quantitative results might be based upon the following metrics: ILR, WER, BLUE, METEOR, GTM, or TER. 5.All requisite supporting documentation to include: User training guide, Administrator training guide, Operation and Maintenance manual, Troubleshooting guide, etc. 6.Commercial catalog pricing and warranty information. 7.Information on supportability, training, maintenance, and upgrades. 8.Identification of existing customers for the system 9.Identification of any strategic partnering alliances that permit acceleration of component delivery or obtaining priority subcontracted support services 10.Identification of any commercial/industrial certifications or quality systems in use 11.Identification of Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of the system and its components 12.Corporate assessment of technology to include identification of system performance capabilities and limitations and associated technology roadmap 13. Point of contact for additional information. Any submission of such product literature or catolog cut sheets will be treated separate from, and will have no bearing on, any subsequent evaluation of proposals submitted in response to any resulting future formal Request for Proposal (RFP). TEC will not pay for information or comments provided and will not recognize any costs associated with submission of comments. This notice is not a Request for Proposals, Invitation to Bid, or Request for Quotes.
- Web Link
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- Place of Performance
- Address: Vicksburg Consolidated Contracts Office, Alexandria 7701 Telegraph Rd, Alexandria VA
- Zip Code: 22315-3864
- Zip Code: 22315-3864
- Record
- SN01591897-W 20080613/080611223040-0890acdb5a0c31eaf174e7135d06e22b (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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