Remote operations
Marc Prempain
15 April 2024
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EVOLEN’ UP is the R&D and innovation accelerator launched by EVOLEN: an organisation whose aim is to promote French excellence in the hydrocarbon and new energy industries worldwide. It is also co-lead by Impulse Partners. In seeking to disseminate scientific and technical knowledge to promote the development of inter-professional networks specialised in the energy sector, ViiBE was invited to join this association’s accelerator program.
New technologies, and more specifically video-assistance solutions, are particularly useful in the energy industry to mitigate real-time communication issues and equipment failures that may occur. When incidents arise, such platforms provide an optimised way to remotely repair equipment and establish a collaborative dialogue between all the stakeholders of a project.
By combining the use of sound and video in high-quality, real-time communications, onshore and offshore operators can restore the productivity of their facilities in the event of a breakdown. In this particular context, ViiBE’s solution fully optimises communications and keeps projects on track, no matter the problem encountered.
Thanks to ViiBE, operators can take live pictures of the situation and change the camera’s point of view. They can then add comments or annotations to any pictures or documents. These functions are capable from any device, including smartphones, tablets, computers, and RealWear connected glasses.
Over the past three years, ViiBE and Total have collaborated to provide high-quality, remote assistance to Exploration and Production (E&P) teams.
When an issue is identified on-site, the operator raises the problem to his or her supervisor. The supervisor then contacts the technical leads to better assess the situation. ViiBE aims to deploy “Internal Guest” licences for on-site operators and “Expert” licenses for remote technical leads. Then, the operator can send a call request to a pool of experts tagged as having the skills needed to solve the problem. The first expert to answer the call joins a ViiBE session with the operator in order to help him or her better assess the situation.
To date, ViiBE has been deployed in 10 platforms (in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Qatar, Nigeria, Italy, and Australia). Over 2019, an average of 34 calls were successfully made each month between offshore teams and smart rooms or onshore teams. These calls have consistently led to a resolution of the problem.
Having already demonstrated its success in the energy industry, ViiBE was invited to join the accelerator, EVOLEN’ UP, in June 2020. The support offered by EVOLEN’ UP is comprehensive, helping dynamic start-ups optimise their operations.
EVOLEN and its partners bring their business expertise to start-ups by assessing their obstacles, analysing their competitive environments, and expanding their technological maturity. In addition, thanks to high-quality methodological coaching, EVOLEN’ UP helps start-ups consolidate their value propositions while defining individualised action plans.
EVOLEN’ UP additionally supports ViiBE’s business development by integrating ViiBE into the partner network and providing the opportunity to be part of a dedicated, technical platform that can serve as a showcase for the start-up.
Having joined such a program is not only a great achievement but also an advantageous opening to the future. This accelerator provides a dedicated channel where EVOLEN participates in the growth of start-ups by facilitating contacts between key accounts and start-ups.
Additional support is given by providing start-ups with invitations to webinars. These webinars are an opportunity for start-ups to present their products and technologies to leading players in the industry. The accelerator also actively promotes its start-ups by giving them the opportunity to be featured as innovative organisations in EVOLEN’s magazine.
The selection of ViiBE to join EVOLEN’ UP highlights the relevance of such a solution in the energy sector. ViiBE’s performance in this industry has already proven successful following its deployment at Total. Integrating ViiBE into their workflow has allowed them to reduce both breakdown costs and trips to offshore platforms.
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