"Rather 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. The F22 is perfect in this respect – bright, consistent, rugged and reliable."
Joel A. Mills, OSC design director
Farstad Shipping, the owner and operator of Offshore Simulator Center AS (OSC) of Ålesund, Norway, is a leading supplier of support and services to the international oil industry. The Perth project is the OSC’s most ambitious installation to date and was opened in December by the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg.
The offshore training simulator is the world’s largest of its kind, located in Perth, Australia. It is built to simulate two large, 360 degree bridges, using 48 of projectiondesign’s F22 wuxga DLP® projectors. The aim is to have the bridge personnel train to operate large-scale mechanical hardware, such as winches, by working together with other bridge personnel and rig cranes in a team effort, in an environment as close to a real life as possible.
The images were seamlessly blended together to produce a full 360-degree image that was some 7 meters high and 15 meters in diameter. The “half a teacup” shaped screen incorporates similar technology to that used in IMAX cinemas, and Joel A. Mills, the OSC design director, explains: “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. 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.” Mills continues; “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.”
The projectiondesign projectors were chosen due to OSC’s need for total consistency in terms of brightness, optics and colour matching, reflecting the mission-critical nature of their work. Joel A. Mills explains: “Rather 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. The F22 is perfect in this respect – bright, consistent, rugged and reliable.”
