The United States is now the largest global crude oil producer. As drilling operations expand to new, remote and geographically challenging areas where travel is dodgy and communication options limited, an opportunity to improve connectivity for professionals working in those rural areas has emerged.
Our startup company TotalView Industrial Imaging, a technology and communication consulting firm, is leveraging the HoloBuilder platform to create 360° virtual tours of industrial facilities in rural communities throughout Alaska. With a goal of mainstreaming communication between workers, planners, and engineers, TotalView has created Incident Management Training (IMT) drills, Maintenance Shutdown walk-throughs, and trainings on confined spaces, fall protection and more.
Our company is also working with the renewable energy resources sector to map solar arrays, wind turbines and hydropower plants to be used for energy literacy and comprehension among teachers, students, and the general public.
Making use of HoloBuilder’s wide set of possibilities, we’ll walk you through a few sample scenarios that demonstrate how the platform can be utilized in industrial facilities.
Scenario 1: Remote Maintenance and Project Planning
Due to the secluded nature of the remote oil fields on Alaska’s North Slope, communication can be especially challenging. To address these unique communication challenges, we use HoloBuilder to create 360° virtual tours of job sites that help planning teams communicate more effectively with their workforce. The virtual tours allow contractors to review and walk down job plans from anywhere in the world prior to arriving onsite, saving hours of travel time and maximizing the amount of time actually spent working.
360° virtual tours of job sites help planning teams communicate more effectively with their workforce.
Scenario 2: Industrial Emergency Preparedness and Incident Management Drills
The oil and gas industry is exposed to high-level project risks every day, including chemical spills, gas leaks, and catastrophic equipment failure. The ability to prepare for and anticipate emergency scenarios before they happen is crucial to building an effective Incident Management Team (IMT). We create mock incident scenarios for IMTs — from a high-pressure glycol leak to a vehicle fire, essentially any emergency scenario is possible to build in the HoloBuilder platform. Using the intuitive navigation, emergency responders can plan access and egress, where to stage equipment and assess other potential hazards in the surrounding area. The ability to bring all members of the IMT to the same incident virtually is a powerful tool.
The ability to bring all members of the Incident Management Team (IMT) to the same incident virtually with mock incident scenarios is a powerful tool.
Scenario 3: Immersive Workplace Training
Traditionally, outdated videos and mundane PowerPoints have remained the standard in industrial workplace training. These antiquated methods of teaching are rarely effective at demonstrating crucial skills and concepts to the workforce. We wanted to shake things up to connect with the workers in an engaging and useful manner. Using the HoloBuilder platform, we are able to create an immersive training experience that allows workers to be in the field virtually — enhancing practical learning of the subject matter — without ever leaving the classroom.
An immersive training experience that allows workers to be in the field virtually — enhancing practical learning of the subject matter — without ever leaving the classroom.
By tapping into HoloBuilder’s easy-to-use application, we are excited to take industrial remote communication to the next level.
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This is a guest post by Arthur Jensen, who is president and CEO of TotalView Industrial Imaging, a technology and communication consulting firm based in Anchorage, Alaska. He has 10 years of industry and construction experience in remote locations, four of which were spent as a Health, Safety, Environmental and Training (HSET) adviser for operations on Alaska’s North Slope.
