RGB Spectrum has announced that its RGB Spectrum MediaWall display technology has been used in the opeartion to install a replacement cap on the Deepwater Horizon Well in the Gulf of Mexico. The delicate work was handled by deepwater remote operating vehicles (ROVs) controlled shipboard by an integrated control system that used RGB’s technology.
Each ROV communicates video images from cameras mounted on it to a control ship where an operator manipulates the mechanical arms of the ROV. The MediaWall, by concentrating camera feeds with other operating data, provides enhanced awareness to the remote operator for the work taking place more than 1,500m underwater.
Recent estimates indicate that up to 180 million gallons of crude oil have leaked from the well since the fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform on 20 April 2010. BP, which is responsible for the disaster and clean up efforts, used remote operated vehicles during the evaluation of the well’s status and to implement all recovery and repair procedures. Due to the extreme pressures of subsea operation, ROVs are the safest and most cost-effective means of addressing seafloor operations. Without a robust and effective remote control solution, timely subsea operations would not be possible.
BP vice president Kent Wells commented: “Results monitored from control rooms on ships at sea and hundreds of miles away at the company’s US headquarters in Houston showed the oil staying inside the cap, rather than escaping through any undiscovered breaches.”
“RGB Spectrum is pleased to have been an important link in the chain of the solution to this economic and environmental disaster,” said Bob Marcus, RGB Spectrum founder and CEO. “Control rooms around the world, which monitor critical assets, operations and safety, are made possible through the use of RGB video processing technology providing faithful, real-time, high-quality, visual display of monitored situations.”
