Press Room

Panoram Premieres The Brightest, Sharpest, Curved Screen, 3D Visualization Display Ever At Oil/Gas Industry Showcase.

Visitors to Panoram booth at this year's October 6th to October 9th SEG (Society of Exploration Geophysicists) show in Salt Lake City, Utah are in for an extraordinary treat. Panoram will be featuring its new GVR XTS, a curved screen, seamless, multi-projector display utilizing 6,000 lumen DLP stereographic projectors. "I do not believe that anyone has actually shown such a display before." Says Theo Mayer, Panoram's President/CEO. "I know such a curved screen with 3D capability had been attempted at both the 2001 and 2002 SIGGRAPH conventions but I do not think it ever actually worked in 3D stereo either time."

Bringing such complex new technology to a deployment stage is daunting but not unusual at Panoram. "We did not rush into this. Our R&D posture was 'steady & forward' because we knew it was going to be difficult to make it work. Being "first" was not our priority. Coming in with a stable and deployable solution is much more our style." says Mayer.

Curved screen, stereographic visualization displays, for use in interpretation and drilling planning, have been used by the oil/gas industry since late 1997 with well over 150 such facilities deployed worldwide in the industry. These collaborative visualization facilities have proven to be a powerful technology, offering tremendous return-on-investment with significantly faster results than traditional upstream development processes.

To date, these facilities have all been based on CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) data projector technology which is capable of being warped onto curved screens as well as displaying images at extremely high frame rates to allow users to view their volumetric geological data in 3D using LCD shutter glasses. Although capable of this, CRT technology unfortunately drifts, requires a great deal of maintenance, is rather dim in brightness and tends to look fuzzy when viewing detail data such as type.

Around 1999 a new type of projector hit the scene based on the Texas Instruments DLP technology. This projector technology offers incredible brightness, sharpness, stability and color purity.

Next, in 2001, Christie Digital, a premiere manufacturer of DLP projectors introduced the DLP MIRAGE line of projectors which are capable of the high frame rates required for stereographic 3D display.

The remaining challenge has been for an edge blending and image warping system capable of seamlessly mapping these "hot" new projectors onto curved screen surfaces in 3D stereo. Enter the Panoram Pure Digital I/O Series and the PanoMaker® V system introduced in the summer of 2002. This fifth-generation, multi-projector image processing system from Panoram warps the image onto the curved screen, blends the multiple projectors together into a seamless display, features a special "Black Level Technology" for blending dark scenes and most importantly, it works at the extreme resolutions, frame rates and bandwidths required by stereographic 3D imaging.

With all the pieces in place, Panoram chose SEG as the first public demonstration of a complete and deployable solution.

Previews of the new GVR XTS display to existing Panoram customer have been met with great enthusiasm. Many of the curved screen facilities, which Panoram has installed since 1997 are ready to be upgraded and the new technology is arriving just in time. .

The first upgrades, as well as the first new installations of the Panoram GVR XTS displays are already scheduled for Q4 of 2002 with expanded deployment through 2003.

"You really need to see it to appreciate the brightness and the clarity of this new technology," noted Panoram's Strategic Accounts VP in charge of the company's oil/gas industry efforts, "SEG will be a great showcase for this system's capabilities. The curve screen, stereo 3D format has been a standard in this industry, and now we can deliver the brightness and clarity of DLP stereo as well."