While the oil and gas sector wrestles with fluctuating prices in the energy market, Tim Kridel asks what this means for AV integrators supplying companies working in this field. In one part of a series of detailed Q&As he speaks with Igor Isheev, CTO of Polymedia.
TK: What are some new/emerging AV technology trends in the oil/gas market? For example, are they using 4K widely? What are they using that companies in other verticals aren’t yet using widely or at all?
II: We are using more than 4K resolution when installing display systems for control rooms and situation centres of oil and gas companies. As a rule, 4K resolution is not enough to display mimic panel, so the typical videowall has 8K resolution.
In a similar approach to other basic industries, the oil/gas market considers decision making systems – such as situation centres or control rooms - a priority and are using software for visualisation management, such as VuWall and Polywall
But the basis for situation centres (SC) is the information-analytical system. There is growing competition between the developers of such systems across the world, and Russia is not an exception. We have a few informational and analytical platforms in Russia, so, based on our wide experience in creating SC we developed our own analytical platform. This year was the first pilot implementation.
There are also innovative AV solutions in oil and gas industry, which have not yet been used. I'm talking about augmented reality and artificial intelligence, that [theoretical physicist] Michio Kaku has often devoted speeches to when talking about future technologies in oil and gas industry.
TK: Oil prices remain depressed, with no sign of a major rebound anytime soon. Many producers have cut capital spending sharply as a result, but they haven’t made those cuts in every area of their business. Are you seeing any cuts to AV spending? Or is AV spending actually increasing because a lot of the technology is used for identifying reserves that can be tapped once prices rebound? In other words, do they see AV as one of the investments that they need to keep up so they’re poised to succeed when prices rebound?
II: Today, AV cannot be considered in isolation from IT, so I will answer this question, keeping in mind “AV & IT” when talking about “technology.” Today, the use of technology in business is focused on data collection, project management monitoring, analytics and forecasting. And such solutions are especially in demand during the crisis. Russian customers from oil and gas are ready to invest in BI solutions.
TK: Governments in some oil-dependent countries are late paying contractors and vendors in other trades (e.g., construction) because of the downturn. Are you hearing/seeing anything similar when it comes to AV integrators, consultants and vendors? If so, is it a ripple effect, where a government’s late payment to a general contractor means that contractor is then late paying its AV subs?
II: Yes. Of course, it happens. I would not say that this is happening everywhere. Often the cause of the late paying is some “intermediate” subcontractor in the whole chain of project contractors who has a problem and as a result cannot pay the others.
Igor Isheev contributes to a wider discussion on the oil and gas market that you can
read here.