As a sector specialist, we’re always keen to bring our customers the latest, smartest solutions to everyday challenges in Offshore Oil & Gas and Renewable energy. In this article, we explore the capabilities of Computer Vision, and explain how IoT and AI are now effective and affordable in supporting your health and safety efforts and improving the monitoring of equipment and physical spaces.
What does Computer Vision look like?
Imagine a worker arriving at a facility. They can be checked for the right PPE, issued with equipment and granted access to restricted areas with no input from a human being. If there’s a need for emergency mustering, a Real Time Location System will tell you the whereabouts of every worker at a glance. It can also bring visibility to unmanned spaces, such as offshore rigs and windfarms. This means Computer Vision can be transformative, reducing risk, streamlining operations and simplifying remote monitoring.
IoT Cameras see and do more
The eyes on the ground that create the foundation for these capabilities are Cisco Meraki MV cameras. These powerful AI computers are able to process what they see and hear at the edge of the network, in real-time. As an IoT sensor, and in partnership with enhanced Computer Vision AI software, they can watch, learn and automate actions in response to what they see. Not only can they recognise objects, people and vehicles out of the box and at the edge, they have ambient light detection and microphones built in, making them able to report on smoke detection or hear an audible alarm signal to trigger an emergency response.
What’s more, everything captured by Meraki MV cameras can be converted into insightful dashboards that reveal valuable information such as space utilisation metrics and health & safety and compliance adherence. It means these cameras generate value for non-IT stakeholders, such as Operations Managers, HR and Remote Platform monitoring teams.
No more issues over bandwidth
Meraki has simplified the deployment of smart cameras, removing the need for costly and complex digital video (DVR) storage and the high bandwidth networks required to retrieve and view footage. In fact, with considerable AI edge processing capability in the Meraki MV cameras, video is analysed on the camera itself, with only minimal bandwidth needed (typically 50Kbps) to stream the AI-processed metadata back to the Meraki Cloud. For offshore users, this delivers full 24/7 automated AI monitoring, without the cost of streaming multiple video cameras to an onshore central video processing and security facility. To save you more time and resources, there’s no need to trawl through hours of footage to track down an event. The system is smart enough to spot it and email you the relevant clip. You can read more about security and easy deployment on the Meraki MV cameras web page.
A whole ecosystem of possibilities
Another advantage of choosing MV cameras is the Meraki Technology Partner Cloud and integrations for third-party hardware and software. As a specialist Cisco Meraki services provider, 4MS can offer multiple AI software vendor options to fit the exact use cases required across your environments.
We can help you explore object, person and vehicle recognition and how this can enable automation within your operation. With our knowhow, you could automatically track workers by zone for resource utilisation optimisation, reduce health and safety risks by ensuring correct PPE is worn at specific locations, and even integrate with Access Control Systems using facial recognition to increase security in specific areas.
To see how Computer Vision applications harness the input from Meraki cameras to deliver valuable analytics, take a look at EVERYANGLE. who specialise in AI algorithm development for Meraki MV cameras to recognise specific objects and human behaviours.
To see livestream camera demos of object, people and vehicle recognition using Meraki MT sensors and MV cameras, also visit V-App.io, a market leading Meraki Technology Partner at https://www.v-app.io/demo.
Location, location, location
With our specialist knowledge, we can help you deploy a comprehensive real-time location monitoring solution using Cisco’s extensive IoT Marketplace of third-party sensors. For example, low-cost BLE tags, badges and anchors enable very low-cost location-based monitoring and alerting for both assets and employees, meaning you can track movement flows across any platform, vessel or building. With the new Cisco integrated Portal Beam solution, you can now benefit from combined high resolution thermal imaging and real-time Computer Vision with environmental sensors, in an easy-to-deploy and low-cost package.
For more demanding environments, in particular drilling platforms where ATEX rated IP and thermal cameras are required, 4MS can provide specialist software services. These include predictive maintenance monitoring for offshore and marine equipment from static or drone-based cameras, as well as people, object and vehicle tracking from PTZ cameras.
4MS is your partner in Computer Vision
With our in-depth sector experience and Cisco Premier partner certification, 4MS is uniquely positioned to create Computer Vision solutions for customers in the Energy industry.
From site survey to design, consulting to procurement, testing to implementation and 24/7/365 support services, we simplify the whole conversation around the art of the possible for offshore and vessel-based monitoring, connectivity and digital transformation. We can also offer low-or zero-cost proof of concepts, giving you certainty about your move into IoT and Computer Vision.
Discover what we can do for your organisation. Get in touch and arrange a demo of the Meraki MV smart camera and Meraki Technology Partner enhanced software.