The challenge
We were approached by one of the UK’s largest oil refineries to deliver an industry-leading safety training experience for its flagship, purpose-built induction facility.
Success meant engaging staff in the psychology of safety, helping them identify and respond to a range of risks they might encounter on site, with real-time assessment of their decision-making.
The response
With users arriving in groups of 25 at a time, only a VR training suite, capable of recreating life-size, life-like refinery environments, would deliver the immersive shared experience we needed.
We created simulations of the site and played them back on to a seamless wrap-around screen, commissioned to our own specification. The same high definition, rear-projection technology that you’d find on a Star Wars sound stage meant users could approach the reality on screen without occluding the image and breaking the immersion. Sounds pre-recorded from the refinery heightened the realism still further.
Each user interacts with the simulation using a handheld AR device, with a single instructor assessing responses to dramatic incidents in real-time.
The result
To date, several thousand staff and contractors have been inducted, in what has become one of the world’s most intensively used VR training facilities.
But as a platform, our technology supports so much more than a single H&S application. It’s completely adaptable to suit a variety of demands, including high- impact training and assessment, planning, communications and presentations.
Holosphere managed a fully integrated process of concepting, discovery, design, development, installation and maintenance, to deliver a world-class experience that is consistent, repeatable and requires minimal oversight.
And in producing an entirely bespoke and shared VR space, we’ve proved our capability to instantly transport a room full of people anywhere on this planet or beyond.
The reaction
“We wanted to set a world standard for safety training, and that’s what Holosphere delivered. The experience is so realistic and powerful – you can see the impact it has on our people and our record. It’s a total game-changer.
The science involved is cutting-edge and helps us assess ergonomics, attention to basic direction and hand-eye coordination, before the attendees are immersed in the environment itself.
Site induction is now an experience attendees actually enjoy and it has led to a remarkable improvement in our safety performance and attitude to personal safety on site.
The UK Health & Safety Executive were blown away and called it a new benchmark for industry.”
Brad Francis
HSE Training Leader, Phillips 66