DEFCOM 6: Digital Twins, Live Demos, and Conversations That Kept Going

Yesterday, July 28, 2026, TGS Tech joined founders, technologists, investors, and members of the defense and dual-usecommunity at the Quantico Cyber Hub in Stafford, Virginia, for Station Alpha’s DEFCOM 6.

Presenters included TGS Tech, SET Energy, and GT Edge AI, with technologies spanning real-time 3D and digital twins, energy infrastructure, secure edge computing, and AI.

For TGS Tech, the evening became an opportunity to discuss the practical challenges behind building complex 3D systems and digital twins, demonstrate both AE CoCast and Apex HEL, and spend a considerable amount of time answering questions about the broader Apex Engine platform. What began as a scheduled presentation quickly became something much more conversational.

3D Technology, Digital Twins, and Why Apex Engine Exists

TGS Tech founder and CEO Sarrene Miller was one of three presenters invited to discuss technology and its application within emerging and dual-use markets. Her portion of the discussion focused broadly on 3D technology and digital twins, including some of the challenges developers face when bringing complex real-time systems together. That naturally led into Apex Engine.

Whether a digital twin represents a building, infrastructure, an IoT environment, a simulation, or something considerably larger, the development problems often overlap: cost, time, integration, networking, collaboration, deployment, and the number of separate technologies required to make everything work together. Those are many of the same problems Apex Engine was created to address.

Rather than treating real-time collaboration, distributed infrastructure, development tools, networking, and deployment as entirely separate pieces, Apex Engine is being designed around a more unified foundation for building and operating complex real-time environments.

The discussion also provided an opportunity to talk about Apex HEL, which brings HeroEngine forward within that larger ecosystem, and how technologies developed across the Apex platform can serve applications well beyond traditional game development.

Putting the Technology in Front of People

TGS Tech also demonstrated AE CoCast and Apex HEL during the evening. CoCast allows multiple participants to share simultaneously without the constant presenter handoffs common to traditional screen-sharing tools, making it particularly useful when several people need to contribute visual information at the same time.

The live demonstration gave attendees a chance to see the technology operating rather than simply hear it described. And that is when the evening became particularly interesting.

As the formal program wound down, attendees continued gathering around Miller to ask about CoCast, Apex HEL, Apex Engine, and the technology behind them. Questions ranged from how the systems worked to where they could be applied and what TGS Tech was building next. The conversations continued long enough that the evening’s dinner came and went without much opportunity to actually eat it.

For a technology company, that is not the worst problem to have.

More Than an Event Conversation

One of the most useful measures of an event is what happens after everyone goes home. In this case, several of the conversations did not end at DEFCOM 6. As Miller put it:

“I also came away with four genuinely positive new connections. Two have turned into regular weekly conversations, and another led to an in-person visit and live demo, with another meeting already planned. That kind of continued interest is one of the things that made the event worthwhile.”

Those continuing conversations have been one of the more valuable outcomes of the evening. Events can generate plenty of introductions and exchanged contact information. Far fewer turn into ongoing discussions, follow-up demonstrations, and another meeting already on the calendar.

A Useful Night for TGS Tech

DEFCOM 6 gave TGS Tech an opportunity to put several parts of its technology in front of an audience familiar with complex systems, emerging technologies, and dual-use applications. More importantly, it created the kind of environment where a short presentation could turn into much longer technical conversations.

Miller also noted that the value of the evening went beyond networking alone:

“It is not only the new connections. The positive feedback and constructive criticism have also opened up some amazing new ideas and opportunities for us.”

That combination of direct feedback, technical discussion, and continued follow-up made the event especially useful from a product-development perspective as well as a business-development one.

The evening reinforced something TGS Tech has seen repeatedly while developing HeroEngine, Apex HEL, Apex Engine, and AE CoCast: once people can see how the pieces fit together, the conversation tends to move very quickly from what is it? to what could we do with it?For TGS Tech, that made DEFCOM 6 a worthwhile evening, even if there was never quite enough time to get dinner.