The challenge
Following the success of our first HoloCAVE installation at Phillips 66’s Humber Refinery in the UK, we were commissioned to design and deliver a second system — this time for the Ponca City Refinery in Oklahoma, the first HoloCAVE in the United States.
The refinery needed to move beyond classroom-based and computer-based training to give workers — both employees and contractors — genuine spatial familiarity with the site and its hazards before they entered a live operating unit.
The response
Holosphere designed and built the HoloCAVE at the heart of the Ponca City Refinery’s new training centre. The system places groups of up to 25 trainees simultaneously inside a life-size 3D recreation of the refinery, projected across three wall-sized screens forming a wrap-around environment.
Users interact with the environment using handheld AR controllers, identifying hazards across the refinery in a safe, controlled setting — building familiarity with the site and its risks before ever entering a live unit.
The HoloCAVE is now being expanded with two significant new capabilities. A rapid 3D scanning system will allow refinery personnel to capture areas of the site themselves and view the scans directly in the CAVE, without relying on specialist capture teams. We are also integrating VR headset-based training into the CAVE space, enabling smaller groups to work through focused, discipline-specific technical tasks using head-mounted displays alongside the full-room shared experience.
The result
The Ponca City Refinery Training Center was officially opened on 21 May 2025 and has already been visited by Phillips 66’s Executive Leadership Team, including President and CEO Mark Lashier. What began as a contractor onboarding facility has rapidly expanded into a regional training hub, recognised across the Phillips 66 network as the most advanced training environment of its kind.
As reported in the Kay NewsCow and Ponca City Monthly.