ACADEMIA

Increasing the amount of oil and gas recovered and doing so by drilling fewer wells are some of the potential benefits of more accurate characterizations of reservoirs. Silicon Graphics with its affordable, open-systems, standards-based Silicon Graphics Prism family of visualization systems is helping geoscientists accelerate interpretation of seismic datasets with solutions that deliver up to five times the interpretation power at as little as 20% of the cost of previous generation systems. SGI will be demonstrating how seeing more data through high-resolution displays, visualizing entire data sets at end-user desktops and collaborating with remote team members can accelerate and optimize resource recovery. In its booth at the 75th annual meeting and exhibition of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), SGI will show how high-resolution, single projector environments can lower the cost of implementing and maintaining team rooms. The combination of the new Sony SXRD 4K projector with a Silicon Graphics Prism system creates a team room with more than 8 million pixels of resolution and the visualization power that allows asset teams to exploit regional surveys and the latest multi-attribute visualization capabilities. SGI will also highlight how geoscientists can take advantage of the power of the latest large memory, CPU-intensive multi-attribute visualization applications from anywhere, with anyone and at anytime they need to through SGI thin-client solutions. High-resolution team rooms Teamwork is critical for the success of any asset team, and group visualization environments are key elements in the interpretation process. Up until now, asset teams had to decide between using high-resolution corporate environments-which were inconvenient to access and hard to book-or using low-resolution environments which lacked the visualization power they need. However, today's asset teams can have the best of both worlds. Small, easy-to-deploy Silicon Graphics Prism systems provide significantly more interpretation power than previous generation corporate centers at 20% of the cost and new solutions built using a single Sony SXRD 4K projector give teams up to six times the display resolution while making them easier to deploy and manage. Thin-client visualization The energy industry is rapidly moving to a thin-client environment, and the combination of Silicon Graphics Prism systems and SGI Visual Area Networking (VAN) technology supports that direction by delivering the scalable interpretation power to individual geoscientists who are using low-cost Windows or Linux desktop PCs. This allows each geoscientist to accelerate their personal interpretation activities by accessing large, multi-attribute data sets that far exceed the capabilities of standard desktop systems. Furthermore, since any single interpreter will only use this high-end capability for a portion of a day, it simplifies IT infrastructure by centralizing high-end resources and then efficiently sharing them on an on-demand basis. Organizations taking this approach to seismic interpretations are looking to save millions of dollars per year in operating expenses while at the same time increasing their interpretation capabilities. Remote collaboration No matter how individuals or teams are working, needs often arise to consult with experts or to present analyses and drilling plans to management in a different location. SGI's VAN technology that enables thin-client solutions can also be used by remote users or managers to participate in collaborative sessions. In this way, decisions can be quickly made without moving data to or replicating resources at remote locations. Data Management Another aspect of accelerating seismic interpretation is managing large data sets through SGI InfiniteStorage SAN and NAS (network attached storage) solutions. SGI and its channel partner Houston Information Team will be highlighting the exceptional performance and breakthrough price/performance of the new SGI InfiniteStorage NAS 330 solution. Organizations need to structure a data management solution that allows individuals or teams to have fast access to data whether they are on a SAN or are accessing data over the network. SGI's leadership suite of SAN, NAS and Data Lifecycle Management products can be instrumental in improving productivity and reducing data management costs.