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Projectiondesign projectors in largest offshore training simulator in Perth

Friday, January 27, 2012 in Software

Projectiondesign of Norway reports that its projectors have been used in the world's largest offshore training simulator, being installed in Perth, Australia.

Jens Stoltenberg, prime minister of Norway, attended the opening ceremony of the simulator in Perth.

Projectiondesign supplied 48 of its F22 DLP projectors for the facility. The images from the projector blend together to produce a 360 degree image which is 7m high and 15m diameter, in a shape which could be described as half a teacup.

It is similar technology to what is used in IMAX simulators.

The simulator centre was built by Offshore Simulator Center (OSC) of Aalesund, Norway, and is owned by Farstad Shipping (also of Norway), a supplier of support services to the international oil industry.

OSC is a joint venture of Farstad Shipping, Rolls-Royce Marine, Aalesund University and Marintek Trondheim. It was formed in 2004 with the aim of developing training centres that could accurately simulate the complex manoeuvres associated with repositioning oil rigs, positioning anchors, and the loading and offloading of rig cargo.

The simulator can also simulate operation of Rolls-Royce engines.

OSC says that the project is its most ambitious installation to date, with two large 360 degree bridges, so when using the simulator you feel like you are on the bridge of a vessel.

The user can operate controls for mechanical hardware such as winches, working together with other personnel and rig cranes.

There is an emphasis on teamwork rather than individual tuition. " When we train, we train the entire crew of a vessel together, because if something goes wrong in a ship's engine room, for example, it affects what happens on deck," says OSC's design director Joel A Mills.

"It also allows us to involve more than one vessel and various crew roles."

When it comes to projectors for the simulator, "ather than using a few large, powerful projectors, our requirement is for a large number of relatively small devices that can nonetheless deliver very high-performance imaging over a short throw distance," he says.

"The F22 is perfect in this respect - bright, consistent, rugged and reliable.'

'The visual simulation aspect of the system is fully integrated with the hardware on the 'bridge', which is all Rolls-Royce marine equipment and which behaves exactly as it would if you were really at sea,' Mills continues. 'As soon as the simulation starts, you are convinced not only that you are surrounded by water but that the water is actually moving and that you are moving with it.

'A lot can happen when you are servicing an oil-rig in a remote, offshore location, especially if the weather is bad. So the simulator gives us the opportunity to re-create those adverse weather conditions. As the waves grow larger, the movement of the vessels within the 3D environment is mathematically and physically resolved so that their response is exactly as you would expect to find in the real world.'

'We've had an excellent working relationship with OSC for many years,"says Anders Løkke, International Marketing Director, projectiondesign.
"Each project they bring us into seems to be more ambitious than the last. Their need for total consistency in terms of brightness, optics and colour matching is a reflection of the mission-critical nature of their work, and we are delighted to be their preferred supplier of visual solutions."

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