FEATURE: OIL AND GAS
oil fields. Sharp also works closely with project consultancies across Europe, such as Visual Acuity in the UK, who are specialists in providing visual solutions for applications in the oil and gas industry.” As Daniel Kugel,
international sales at eyevis, points out: it’s all about the availability of data and information – and, given the remote nature of many installations, reliability. “Our 3D EYE-LCD displays or 3D omniSHAPES enable quicker and safer decisions,” he says. “During prospecting, for example, 3D representation of geodata provides a much more realistic visualisation and significantly improves the user’s ability to make sense of the enormous amount of data available. Geodata is fed into three-dimensional solid models – and to avoid expensive miscalculations, experts analyse these models on 3D displays and videowalls. We see enormous growth potential with this approach.”
And if something does go
wrong? “One of the key challenges is location,” points out Christie’s Gavin Chatfield, who is the company’s business development manager for EMEA. “You need to understand the customer’s
requirements and provide solid support, wherever they are in the world and however inhospitable their environment is.”
VISUALISATION, SIMULATION, COLLABORATION “Wherever they are in the world” is perhaps the most significant pointer to how oil and gas companies differ from other multinationals in what they require from AV technology. Remote exploration platforms and drilling rigs need to share information with
headquarters – which, in many cases, need to ‘see’ what the engineers are seeing and to share information with them. As such, visualisation, simulation and collaboration solutions are central – mission-critical, even – to operations. The quality of the shared data is of paramount importance in an environment in which precise detail is a cornerstone of success. “A specific requirement of
the oil and gas market is high-resolution displays for collaborative environments,” says Cooper, “and we certainly see a big future for our 4K displays.” He also notes the desire of energy companies to be as environmentally friendly as
possible, so that features such as a proximity sensor – in which a screen automatically powers off if no-one is near it – are valued. “Basically, this is a remote
operations market,” points out Deame. “It’s not just about display of data, visualisation of remote systems and so on. Oil and gas customers want to control these remote systems –more so than other AV markets. Interactivity is key.” He goes on to note the growing prevalence and importance of simulation, and the need this brings for increasingly high resolutions. Bussens agrees on the subject of simulation, which he points out isn’t necessarily unique to oil and gas companies – automotive designers also use Barco simulation solutions. There is, however, one AV technology that has struggled to find a meaningful niche, but that is proving essential to oil and gas companies. “A rather unique
requirement we encounter in exploration applications,” he says, “is the need to display a combination of 2D with 3D stereo imagery on the same screen.”
Christie’s Chatfield sees things similarly. “Oil and gas companies really like 3D and therefore the merging of 2D
and 3D is more prevalent in the oil and gas market,” he adds. “Increasingly, they’re favouring solutions with 3D capability so they are not locked into a 2D-only solution – they like the fact that they can buy a 2D Christie 3-chip DLP projector and upgrade it to 3D later if required.” “Image processing is also ‘hot’ with the Christie Vista Spyder X20 allowing the capability to mix 2D and 3D sources while maintaining full image frame rate,” he continues.
ACCURACY IS VITAL “Oil and gas companies are very receptive to our projectors that offer 3D capability or higher resolutions,” says Laney, who points out that Digital Projection’s new 3-chip TITAN LED projector provides a colour gamut that goes beyond that of HDTV or Cinema – allowing for absolute image accuracy. That accuracy is also a
focus for eyevis. “Data distribution using DVI streaming is popular because it uses standard networks, which are cheaper and more reliable,” claims Kugel. “But when data is compressed using the common H.264 standard, it is possible that interference can occur within
KUWAIT OIL COMPANY CHOOSES BARCO MEGACADWALL FOR COLLABORATION
the images. The compression can alter the colour of details such as one-pixel wide lines, for example. For standard applications, this is no problem. But in sophisticated applications with detailed ground plans or high- resolution displays the authenticity of the displayed content is important. Therefore, we have developed a high-end compression standard for our eyevis eStreaming solution to ensure that our screens display every detail even with highly demanding applications.” Getting accurate, complete data to where it’s needed is the lifeblood of oil and gas companies. Natalie Harris explains how one of Steljes’ customers uses AV technology. “Tullow Oil has taken the standard SMART Board and developed its own solution called Technology Assisted Production (TAP) where the SMART Board plays a critical role as a key visualisation and collaboration tool,” she says. “TAP brings together huge volumes of data, the system processes it and sends it out to the relevant parties. This takes a lot of data management away from engineers, enabling them to concentrate on using the data to make more informed
The Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) has upgraded its 3D Visual Reality Center, by installing – working with long-standing technology partner Schlumberger Information Solutions – a MegaCADWall collaborative display system from Barco. This features six Galaxy NW-12 projectors and a giant (7m-wide) superflat glass rear-
46 October 2013
projection screen – among the largest in the oil market worldwide. According to KOC, the exceptionally high resolution and brightness of the new solution, its 3D rendering and its ease of use readily foster collaboration. At its 3D Visual Reality
Center, geoscientists, petroleum and reservoir engineers collaborate to
better understand complex data, plan projects and take informed decisions. “The main objective of the 3D Visual Reality Center is to create an intelligent and collaborative decision-making workspace for E&P [exploration and production] experts from multiple disciplines, where they can easily analyse all of the available data and
collaborate in the most effective way possible to decide on the best course of action,” says KOC’s senior systems analyst, Saleh Al-Mutairi.
The six Galaxy NW-12
projectors – featuring 3-chip DLP technology, WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolution and professional 3D stereoscopic functionality – are driven by an
XDS-1000 display management system. As the XDS-1000 system is readily ‘boltable’ to other hardware, such as DVD, satellite TV, videoconferencing systems, laptops and so on, KOC can easily display all kinds of images – data, models, presentations, videos, live streaming – coming from a range of sources.
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STUDY CASE
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