CASE STUDIES – Harvest Technology Group

Case Study | Remote technical support

Marnie Fulmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:59:26 +0000

Case Study | Remote technical support

CUSTOMER

Subsea engineering services provider

LOCATION

APAC

SECTOR

Energy

SOLUTION

Remote expert support

VERTICAL

Offshore support service

CUSTOMER

Harvest facilitated remote expert communication for a global offshore services customer who provides subsea engineering and specialised tooling for the energy sector.

Since 2020, Harvest has been collaborating with this customer providing technology solutions to enable remote expertise by utilising ultra-low bandwidth video and audio streaming onboard vessels.

THE PROBLEM

The customer specialises in the manufacture of subsea tooling and engineering solutions for energy sector customers. To install or inspect equipment on vessels, the customer’s technicians often need to be present in remote locations.
For one project, a vessel crew in Southeast Asia needed communication and expertise from technicians based in the customer’s Australian headquarters to commission equipment. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the customer was prevented from sending its technical experts onto

vessels for planned inspection and commissioning activities due to travel restrictions. Therefore, it needed to be done remotely.

Additionally, the vessel had limited satellite bandwidth. In order to avoid disrupting the project schedule by diverting the vessel into port, the customer sought a technology solution using low bandwidth to allow the crew to effectively communicate and receive guidance from technical experts in Australia to ensure continuity of operation of the vessel’s equipment.

THE SOLUTION

Harvest provided a remote inspection solution that allowed the customer to give technical instructions from Australia to the crew onboard the vessel in Southeast Asia over restricted, poor quality bandwidth. The solution consisted of a wearable headset embedded with the Wearwolf encoding software application for crew members to wear, and two NSM decoders located in each of the technical experts’ home offices in Australia.

Onboard the vessel, a local crew member conducted the physical component of the inspection and testing wearing the Wearwolf headset. Instructions and technical assistance were provided by the onshore technical experts. The crew members and experts

were able to communicate with each other in real-time, respond to visual cues, and assist with commissioning and operating equipment. This allowed for 24-hour support to cover day and night shift operations.

Wearwolf provided decision-making quality video over ultra-low bandwidth of less than 100kbps. The team were able to adjust the bandwidth, frame rate and latency within the available vessel bandwidth to get the best quality output.

This solution enabled the customer to have two experts remotely commission and supervise equipment operation using the crew onboard.

We deliver livestreaming solutions to enable remote support and operations. Asset, industry and network agnostic, our technology connects operations and people anytime, anywhere.

THE RESULT

As a result, the customer was able to successfully commission and operate its specialised tooling on the vessel, without the need for technical experts to travel, streaming audio and video over ultra-low bandwidth. Previously these experts were required to stay on the vessel for the duration of a project charter, even if the vessel was required to complete other project tasks. Using technology, they were able to carry out the supervision of operations from their home offices in Australia. This meant the customer could maintain 24-hour operational continuity despite COVID-19 travel restrictions.

Another key benefit was the increase in operational efficiency by reducing the number of people needed on the vessel, which in turn reduced the cost of the operation for the customer as well as the cost of port visits to transfer personnel. The technicians were able to stay at home, out of harm’s way and remotely complete their scope of work. This also reduced the environmental impact of the customer’s operations by eliminating the need for extra travel.

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Case Study | Remote class survey (Lloyd’s Register)

Marnie Fulmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:49:04 +0000

Case Study | Remote class survey (Lloyd’s Register)

CUSTOMER

Lloyd’s Register

LOCATION

Australia

SECTOR

Maritime + Offshore

SOLUTION

Remote inspection

VERTICAL

Maritime regulations + compliance

Customer

Lloyd’s Register (LR) is a global professional services company, specialising in providing classification and compliance services to the marine and offshore industries. Harvest engaged LR to conduct the annual survey of its DP2 offshore support vessel “VOS Shine”.

LR is a world-leading class society with a global network of specialists and surveyors who provide trusted advice to ensure ships are built to the highest standards, operate safely, and comply with strict maritime and environmental regulations.

The Challenges

Due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and delayed offshore projects, the “VOS Shine” was on standby. Unable to secure sufficient berth space in Western Australia, the vessel transited to Adelaide, South Australia.

The “VOS Shine” was due for its annual survey in April 2020, while it was alongside in Adelaide. Typically, an annual survey is carried out by classification society

appointed surveyor(s) who physically attend the vessel for 2-3 days. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the LR Senior Surveyor assigned to the “VOS Shine” was not able to travel from Perth to Adelaide.

Without a completed survey by the due date, the vessel would be deemed unseaworthy and thus unfit for any future project work.

The Solution

Harvest proposed an innovative solution that would enable LR to conduct a remote survey trial using livestreaming technology.

This trial was supervised by an Adelaide based LR Surveyor and included a number of scenarios from the annual survey. Onboard the “VOS Shine” the vessel manager conducted the physical component of the inspection wearing a Wearwolf headset with the local LR Surveyor present. This was streamed to a Senior Surveyor in Perth via a NSM video decoder, for instruction and comment. The Vessel Manager and Remote Surveyor were able to communicate live and respond to video cues to confirm equipment condition and demonstrate functionality.

Wearwolf is an encoding software application that delivers reliable video and audio communications over satellite at ultra-low bandwidth. The headset is voice- activated and settings are adjustable on-the-fly. The NSM decoder received the video and audio and allowed for audio to be transmitted back to the Wearwolf headset in real-time.

Additionally, the video stream was distributed via Harvest’s AVRLive web platform so that other LR personnel could watch the survey securely online from their own device.

LR found that Wearwolf provided high-quality video at a range of different bandwidths, camera zoom levels, lighting and noise-cancelling functionalities for remote inspection.

"At all times during the survey, the staff in the Perth office were able to communicate clearly with the wearer of the headset onboard the vessel and were able to guide him to whatever items of equipment were considered to be of interest. Based on the survey test conducted on the VOS Shine, the equipment is considered to be capable of providing an acceptable audio and video link to conduct remote surveys."

JEFF BAKER

LLOYD’S REGISTER OFFSHORE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, AUSTRALASIA

The Outcome

As a result, DOF Subsea and Esso Australia have gained reliable situational awareness of the “Skandi Darwin” operations without having to travel to the vessel and remain onboard for the duration of operations, or rely on manual reporting or communications.

The customisability of the AVR2 system allows bandwidth to be adjusted on-the-fly according to the specific use case. This solution enabled DOF Subsea to work smarter and safer, making decisions based on real-time information while enhancing its ability to remotely monitor its operations. By leveraging technology to support the decommissioning project, DOF Subsea reduced the number of personnel required onboard the vessel, resulting in cost savings, decreased HSE exposure, further reducing unplanned downtime and minimising environmental impact.

Tangible results include:

Live situational awareness – 24/7 eyes on the job
Remote monitoring of critical operations
Multicast livestreaming to key project stakeholders and end-client
Compliance with end-client requirements
Reduction in project personnel and crew required on the vessel

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Case Study | 24/7 situational awareness

Marnie Fulmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:40:20 +0000

Case Study | 24/7 situational awareness

CUSTOMER

Vallianz Holdings

LOCATION

APAC

SECTOR

Maritime + Energy

SOLUTION

Situational awareness

VERTICAL

Offshore vessel services

CUSTOMER

Vallianz Holdings is an established provider of specialised vessels to customers in the offshore renewable and conventional energy sector globally. Based in Singapore, Vallianz operates a substantial fleet of offshore vessels offering critical support to the

global energy industry with customers across Asia, the Middle East, and Gulf of Mexico. The group also has its own shipbuilding, engineering, and fabrication division in Batam, Indonesia.

THE PROBLEM

With a steadily growing fleet, Vallianz faced a significant challenge: a lack of real-time situational awareness of its vessels from onshore headquarters in Singapore. Long recognising the imperative to future-proof its operations through digitalisation, Vallianz required awareness for supervision of onboard activities, access to historical data for troubleshooting, and a means to further add value to its vessel operations for clients.

To address this, Vallianz sought an advanced solution to backhaul livestream video feeds from up to 12 onboard CCTV cameras to its operations centre (V-Hub) in Singapore. This relied on using ultra-low bandwidth and ultra-secure remote operations technology.

THE SOLUTION

Harvest presented an efficient and cost-effective way to livestream Vallianz’s onboard CCTV cameras across its VSAT network back to its V-Hub.

Onboard the “Vallianz Prestige”, Harvest’s NQE 4-channel encoder was installed to transmit video and audio from the vessel to the NQD 4-channel decoder onshore located in the V-Hub. This enabled onshore personnel to view 4 simultaneous camera feeds from the ship, for situational awareness and improved decision-making.

Once the video is decoded at the V-Hub, it can be distributed using Harvest’s secure web portal

AVRLive. The video streams can also be recorded onshore for distribution when required.

Vallianz also used the Nodestream android mobile app to enable real-time point-to-point video and voice communications for remote expert and immediate support to the vessel via any mobile device from anywhere.

This solution enabled Vallianz to have complete coverage and situational awareness of its vessel, reliably streaming high-fidelity secure video to its operations centre and end-customers.

“Harvest’s solution will increase the operational efficiency of our vessels and improve the safety of our people as well as enhance the capabilities of our vessels. With Harvest’s technology, our V-Hub operations centre will be better equipped to monitor our vessel and people on a real-time basis. ”

ELISA WOODWARD

HEAD OF ENGINEERING, NEW BUILDING AND TECHNOLOGY AT VALLIANZ

THE RESULT

Harvest’s solution was designed to offer remote situational awareness and promote collaboration in decision-making with a real-time connection between offshore and onshore personnel.

For Vallianz, the adoption of Harvest’s Nodestream technology addressed the need for remote situational awareness at a low bandwidth and enabled video livestreaming with ease. This allowed Vallianz to better monitor its crew and vessel operations, improve communications between the crew and onshore team when troubleshooting, improve the onshore team’s decision-making capabilities and facilitate a better understanding of the vessel’s operations.

Tangible results include:

Live situational awareness – 24/7 eyes on the job
Multicast streaming to key stakeholders and end-clients
Monitoring of remote cargo and critical operations
Immediate onshore support for onboard incident investigations
Timely assistance from onshore technical experts to ensure continuity of plant and equipment

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Case Study | Smart buoy subsea remote monitoring

Marnie Fulmer — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 09:25:06 +0000

Case Study | Smart buoy subsea remote monitoring

CUSTOMER

Oil + Gas operator

LOCATION

APAC

SECTOR

Energy

SOLUTION

Subsea monitoring

VERTICAL

Subsea assets

Customer

One of Australia’s largest oil and gas exploration and production companies engaged Harvest to develop a unique remote monitoring smart buoy solution to

enable the transmission of live data trends from sensor readings from offshore subsea assets, viewed securely by its onshore operations team.

The Challenges

Traditional subsea monitoring and retrieval of data requires a suitably sized vessel with onboard remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and a full suite of inspection personnel. Obtaining information from such methods can take weeks and months, leading the customer to rely on retrospective data when making critical operational decisions relating to repair, maintenance and asset integrity. This delay between inspections created the potential for issues to go unnoticed until the next inspection which could be scheduled at a much later date.

In addition to time and safety concerns in working on water, traditional monitoring methods also come with a significant expense and environmental cost to the customer. Recognising this and looking to improve efficiencies, the customer sought a way to future-proof its operations by adopting remote monitoring technology. A visit to inspect an individual asset would typically inherit a six-figure cost upwards of $125K per day, and the customer would have to undertake multiple visits through the year scheduled around available weather windows in order to inspect its assets and retrieve relevant data.

The Solution

To meet the customer’s requirements, Harvest custom-built a remote subsea integrated monitoring solution utilising acoustic transfer to transmit data through the water from the monitoring structure on the seafloor to a buoy on the surface.

The buoy acts as a modem to communicate this information back to shore. The data is securely transmitted via the web, providing stakeholders with real-time access to the information they need in any location at any time. This allows the customer to receive live data from the seafloor to facilitate immediate decision-making.

Harvest employed its proprietary Nodestream technology to transmit this data at a fraction of the bandwidth typically required, and with low latency. Harvest designed a self-powered system to operate for a long period of time without the need for ongoing in-person inspection and maintenance, and the solution will alert onshore headquarters if there is major change in sensor readings so they can intervene on an informed basis.

Harvest manufactured this solution in partnership with two other Western Australian businesses, Ausco Products and Land and Sea Services, who provided the engineering design and construction and electrical services for the construction of the structure.

We deliver livestreaming solutions to enable remote support and operations operations. Asset, industry and network agnostic, our technology connects operations and people, anytime, anywhere.

The Outcome

The development of a subsea remote monitoring solution that transmits live data from the seafloor to an onshore location alleviates the customer’s challenge of relying on retrospective data for critical operational decisions.

With this technology, the customer can receive remotely recorded measurements and monitor the status of its asset in real time. The data can be viewed live through a secure web portal and analysed by key stakeholders.

The system is also capable of alerting onshore headquarters when there is a significant change in sensor readings. This allows the customer to respond quickly in an emergency or closely monitor the situation until intervention is deemed required.

Having dynamic, live information instead of retrospective data enables the customer to have a better insight into the condition of its assets, providing them with enhanced capabilities at a significantly reduced cost. Instead of multiple visits to an asset for data capture at a cost of at least $250k per visit and waiting on weather conditions, the customer’s associated operational costs are reduced by more than 50%. Implementing a technology solution, rather than relying on traditional inspection methods, also reduces the customer’s carbon footprint by up to 90%.

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Case Study | Secure vessel monitoring

Marnie Fulmer — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 17:12:07 +0000

Case Study | Secure vessel monitoring

CUSTOMER

DOF Subsea

LOCATION

APAC

SECTOR

Energy

SOLUTION

Situational awareness monitoring

VERTICAL

Offshore Vessels

Customer

Harvest has enabled remote situational awareness for DOF Subsea during its 3-year contract with Esso Australia, decommissioning its extensive oil and gas structure in Australia’s Bass Strait. Global offshore and marine support services provider, DOF Subsea, supplies vessels, project management and teams for inspection, maintenance, and repair (IMR) operations.

For this project, the client, Esso Australia required the use of Harvest’s technology onboard DOF Subsea’s Multi-Purpose Supply Vessel, ‘Skandi Darwin’ to enable situational awareness of operations. Harvest has been working with Esso since 2019, delivering a technology solution to stream live video from vessels via satellite using ultra-low bandwidth.

The Challenges

Decommissioning offshore facilities involves hazardous tasks for people, assets, and the environment, and requires various technical experts
to manage the process safely. DOF Subsea previously relied on manual communication or personnel onboard for understanding operations. However, manual reporting lacks comprehensive insights, and Esso Australia needed real-time access to it’s contractors activities at it’s project.

Having all decision-making personnel available onboard a vessel is expensive in cost, time, HSE risk, and environmental impact. To address this, DOF Subsea sought real-time situational awareness of its vessel operations using technology. They aimed to enable onshore and client personnel to remotely monitor vessel situations, ensuring informed decisions, technical support, and guidance when needed. The main challenge to achieving this situational awareness was the vessel’s limited satellite bandwidth.

The Solution

Harvest provided a remote livestreaming solution to enable DOF Subsea and it’s clients to monitor the vessel through a reliable and secure video stream from onboard CCTV and subsea ROV cameras, allowing enhanced operational awareness and the ability to make immediate informed decisions related to the project.

The AVR2 secure video streaming system offers plug- and-play usability, utilising ultra-low bandwidth on unreliable or congested networks. AVR2 is a self-contained streaming solution that allows 1 channel of video to be streamed from a remote location and multicast via the AVRLive web viewer in real-time.

DOF Subsea’s onshore project team, management and end-clients, Esso Australia can log into AVRLive from their own device from anywhere at any time.

AVR2 provides SD video streaming for situational awareness over bandwidth as low as 60kbps. DOF Subsea’s video stream is secured using Harvest’s Nodestream proprietary protocol with 384-bit encryption, ensuring authorised users are the only ones with access to the video stream.

We deliver livestreaming solutions to enable remote support and operations operations. Asset, industry and network agnostic, our technology connects operations and people, anytime, anywhere.

The Outcome

Tangible results include:

Live situational awareness – 24/7 eyes on the job
Remote monitoring of critical operations
Multicast livestreaming to key project stakeholders and end-client
Compliance with end-client requirements
Reduction in project personnel and crew required on the vessel