Upstream Professional Development Center

Client : Saudi Aramco
Location:  Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Aramco’s Upstream Professional Development Center (UPDC) is a state-of-the-art classroom and training facility to foster collaborative learning of graduate-level curricula designed for tomorrow’s oil and gas engineers and technicians. Saudi Media Systems provided the engineering, installation and operations support for one of the leading education facilities in the region.

The UPDC comprises 21 classrooms, 3 simulators, 8 huddle rooms, library, conference rooms, large multi-purpose atrium and 60 offices for administrators and training staff. Each of the classrooms is equipped for interactive collaborative learning, with large 6.4 x 2.7 meter displays for sharing sources that include instructor Linux and Windows workstations, interactive touchscreen, streamed content from video-on-demand servers at the data center, and high resolution imagery generated at high-performance servers at the data center. All classroom displays are 3-D capable, with 14 of the classrooms featuring edge-blended passive stereo projection systems.

Six (6) of the larger classrooms are designed for 3-D active stereo displays, and two of these classrooms feature the world’s largest rear-projection systems. These 50-person classrooms can display interactive immersive 3-D imagery, with students steering through data sets of Saudi Aramco’s exploration engineering applications.

The Geology and Earth Sciences Classroom was designed as a flexible, reconfigurable environment in which instructors and students can move freely through the room. Saudi Media Systems designed the room as a turnkey project, including architectural design, acoustic treatment, furniture and technology systems. All content is streamed across a wireless LAN segment so that the instructor present from various positions in the room, using a tablet for presentation. Microscopes for individual examination of sam ples are supplemented by a high-resolution interactive touchtable where students can zoom into scans of core samples using multitouch controls. The main display is a large Microtile array, with sources switched from the LAN, and side-displays are interactive touchscreens.

The UPDC has two simulators. One of them, the Drill-rig Simulator, provides realistic hands-on training for rig operators. The simulator consists of driller and assistant driller stations, 4 large screens (5m x 3.75m), a “dog house” and an observation platform. It also has an instructor station to control simulation sessions. Users are able to practice with a Blow-Out Preventer (BOP) panel, choke control panel, standpipe manifold and choke manifold.

The other simulator is a virtual environment, a CAVE or CAVE Automated Virtual Environment. Saudi Media Systems designed and engineered the UPDC Well-bore Simulator, which is the world’s largest solid screen reconfigurable CAVE. Imagery originates at a cluster computer in the Data Center and is transported via a fiber matrix to the simulator. The CAVE is a four-sided immersive virtual-reality display, with each 3 x 3 meter screen served by two edge-blended HD projectors providing synchronized 120Hz stereo imagery. This allows UPDC students to experience the locations, equipment, and concepts of upstream oil and gas operations and processes. Using a 6-degree of freedom steering system, students stand on a glass projection floor and are surrounded by virtual experiences such as virtual reservoir exploration, rock outcrops/field visits, virtual well site visits, vertical seismic profile (VSP) simulation, well logging, and seismic acquisition. They also learn to visualize complex concepts like borehole environment, multiphase fluid flow, acoustic wave propagation, neutron thermalization, reservoir management, and geophysical scales.

Visitors and students at the UPDC are greeted by a large atrium lobby that hosts exhibitions, graduation ceremonies and other special events. Two touchscreen totems provide interactive information on courses and way-finding in the Center, and a 5 x 3 meter Microtile display provides a bright high-resolution backdrop to events in the atrium.

The main conference room lies directly off the atrium lobby. The conference room features an active 3-D stereo display system, video conferencing, video streaming and audio discussion systems.