16th March 2009: BP’s network of oil rigs in the North Sea is linked by Polycom HD video to its new North Sea Headquarters in Aberdeen where there a eight monitoring suites and a new Emergency Response Centre. 16 March 2009.
 
16 March 2009. UK systems integrator Saville Audio Visual has completed the biggest single project in the company’s history, with the handover of a £2.2 million installation at BP’s new North Sea Headquarters in Aberdeen.

Over 1200 BP staff are now working in a complete audio visual world, equipped with the very latest in green communications technology, destined to provide the company with huge savings in energy, labour and travelling costs.

Working closely with Barco, Saville won the contract to equip more than a hundred rooms in the new BP headquarters, including eight identical ‘Advanced Collaboration Environment’ (ACE) monitoring suites and a new Emergency Response Centre.

Two four-man teams in each of the ACE suites now have the benefits of the latest IP-controlled Barco projectors, NEC flat screen monitors and Polycom High Definition videoconferencing systems, linked around the clock to BP’s network of oil rigs in the North Sea.

Using flat screen displays, the Polycom systems are permanently connected to the control rooms of the offshore platforms via BP’s own IP infrastructure, enabling constant two-way communications alongside real-time performance data being projected in the ACE suite. A highly directional Sound Tube speaker has been installed above each member of the monitoring team, so that extraneous sound is eliminated and operators can hear – or switch off – their own sound feed as and when required, without being cut off from what’s going on around them.

The new Emergency Response Centre provides minute by minute monitoring for the entire oil rig network, via sixteen PC computers and a constant multisite videoconferencing link. The Centre is equipped with five NEC projectors, a range of LCD monitors and a large main screen with two interactive SMART Boards. Ceiling mounted microphones and CCTV cameras operated from the adjacent control room capture activities at each workstation for analysis and evidence in the event of an actual emergency.

Installation work commenced in November and was completed on time in March within a demanding four month schedule. Led by Senior Project manager Jim Millar, a team of engineers from the Saville head office at York flew to Aberdeen every week.

The project involved the installation of 43 Barco NH-5 1920 x 1080 resolution projectors with on-screen windowing, 43 Polycom HD videoconferencing systems, over sixty NEC LT-280 projectors and more than a hundred 32” and 40” NEC LCD screens, plus some 46” and 57” screens in the communal areas.

Colin Critchley, IT Project Manager at BP said: “Saville differentiated themselves by working collaboratively with EDS, our current offshore network suppliers and all other (sometimes competing) parties. Their flexibility ensured that the project met a very aggressive timeline.  As testament to their work, our users were in the building on each prescribed day, up and running from the off. Feedback has been great, with only minor snagging issues.”

Senior project manager Jim Millar added: “The project presented the biggest technical and logistical challenge that Saville had ever faced. With so many lives and enormous business revenues at stake, the demand for reliable, efficient communications could not have been more critical. We’re proud to have delivered every stage of the project on time and on budget - to the total satisfaction of the client.”