Offshore staff
HOUSTON -- EV has unveiled what it claims is the industry’s first commercial wireless subsea camera.
The battery-powered Neptus Wireless Subsea Camera (WSC) is designed to stream live video over distances of up to 5 m to a pick-up point such as an ROV or hard-wired receiver.
It can also operate in water depths of up to 350 m (1,150 ft) for 10 hours.
The camera and receiver can provide multi-perspective views of operations such as subsea tool intervention, construction, and remote monitoring of subsea equipment. WFS Technologies supplied the through-water wireless radio frequency (RF) technology.
EV CEO Francis Neill said: “Early application of the camera, which can readily and easily be deployed by ROV or attached to subsea hardware, also brings the very real potential of cutting out costly and time-consuming operational phases.
“For example, instead of deploying additional ROVs to capture a second or third perspective, which requires extra support infrastructure, Neptus WSC overcomes this by providing the additional view point and communicating wirelessly back to the operating ROV.”
Neptus WSC can be used to make up subsea connections between jumpers and manifolds, risers and templates or vessels; provide an additional view of operations such as subsea intervention around templates or wellheads and valve manipulation; and provide leak monitoring or structural assessments from remote locations where cabled solutions are not practical.
The tool will be launched commercially next month, and EV plans to introduce a new version in January 2012 featuring an increased pressure rating, longer subsea life, pan and tilt zoom capability, and a wireless range of up to 10 m.
05/03/2011
