The DROPS Asia Web Forum has been retired as most contributors preferred to share their knowledge via email, one-one meetings or via our LinkedIn page. Below is an extract of the most read articles. 

April 22, 2021, 00:52
 

Suggestion Box

We greatly appreciate your feedback in improving our DROPS Forum Training and Conference app.

If you have any suggestions that could improve the overall experience such as

  • Bugs in the apps
  • Registration and onboarding process
  • User interface
  • Hardware issues
  • Content improvement

If something has taken you a long time to figure out how to work, that is very valuable feedback too.

In submitting your bugs/suggestions/ideas, please include the following information

  • Phone/PC/VR device specifications – were you using headphone or speaker?
  • Internet connection – any blocking of VOIP services suspected? Slow speed?
  • Location in the app
  • Include screenshots if you know how
  • Do not share sensitive information such as username or password.

Please submit your ideas in a response to this message.

If someone has already shared your idea, please give it a thumbs up and if you have further information, build on their post.

If you do not wish to share your ideas publicly, please send an email to secretary@drops.asia

Last edited on April 24, 2021, 01:21 by 
 
Nisarg Patel@nisarg-pbt18spt-pdpu-ac-in
 
April 24, 2021, 09:40
 

Hello Joachim and DROPS VR Team,

Having use this app a few times, I have few suggestion and feedback to the same. First of all, the initiative is one of its kind, Awesome! and I feel there is a great need of a solution like this to the virtual meetings platform, wherein you can have a feel of attending a real life exhibition/conference. My suggestions and observations are mentioned below.

Suggestions:

  1. We can instruct the attendee in-advance to use a short name of their organization so that it is legible to the others/ we can assign different color for name & organization. (For the name plate on back)
  2. I feel that there must be a pop-up menu containing instructions for using exhibition hall features.(Along with that lady avatar)
  3. Infographic Boards/Poster size in the Hallway & Conference room may be increased somewhat so that attendees can read it.
  4. It would be great if we can have zooming feature in FPV mode of camera.
  5. We can have small displays between tables to show the presentation/what’s been shown on the main screen.

Observation:

  1. I found many a times that overhead names of attendees obstruct the view through it. We can decrease the font size of the same.
  2. Even though using a decent quality PC and Internet, I found that many a times rendering isn’t proper. It has glitches like the attached screenshots.
  3. Many a times I am unable to see the other attendees, even though they can see me.

At the end, I am very much pleased to use this kind of application. Hope you find my observations and suggestion valuable to the betterment of the application.

Thank You with regards
Nisarg Patel
Pandit Deendayal Energy University
nisarg301000@gmail.com

Uploaded files:

  • Capture.JPG
  • Glitch.JPG
 
 
 
 
 
 April 30, 2021, 07:11
 
Quote from Joachim on April 22, 2021, 12:52 am

We greatly appreciate your feedback in improving our DROPS Forum Training and Conference app.

If you have any suggestions that could improve the overall experience such as

  • Bugs in the apps
  • Registration and onboarding process
  • User interface
  • Hardware issues
  • Content improvement

If something has taken you a long time to figure out how to work, that is very valuable feedback too.

In submitting your bugs/suggestions/ideas, please include the following information

  • Phone/PC/VR device specifications – were you using headphone or speaker?
  • Internet connection – any blocking of VOIP services suspected? Slow speed?
  • Location in the app
  • Include screenshots if you know how
  • Do not share sensitive information such as username or password.

Please submit your ideas in a response to this message.

If someone has already shared your idea, please give it a thumbs up and if you have further information, build on their post.

If you do not wish to share your ideas publicly, please send an email to secretary@drops.asia

 

Hey Joachim and DROPS VR Teams!

First of all, I would appreciate the efforts of creating a unique virtual reality meeting application, its AMAZING!

However, I would like to suggest one thing and that is regarding my experience in the conference room. While sitting at the front table it is somewhat okay but having a sit at the backside, one is not able to clearly watch the presentation screen! If we can increase the screen size or screen resolution it would be great!

To suggest one thing, it would be fantastic to have tablet like big screen on the table itself also where everyone can watch and use it!

Thanks and regards,

Kunj Patel

Pandit Deendayal Energy University

March 5, 2021, 01:41

DROPS Asia Webinar on Inspections, Surveys and Audits 11 August 2020

Prepared by Kamsin Sajnani, Akshay S. Manjramkar, Sourabh Hulawale and Omkar Khodke of the MIT World Peace University

Due to the dynamic nature of operations carried out in O&G Industry, the Dropped Objects incidents are increasing with time. Thus, to design the Prevention Strategy for dropped objects, the role of Internal Inspections and Third Party Inspections has gotten significant. Various Operators, Drilling Contractors, Service and Inspection companies are zeroing in on the most proficient method to oversee such internal and third party inspections effectively.

The webinar talked about how different operators, drilling contractors, service and inspection companies do their internal inspection and third party inspections, the frequency of conducting such inspections, deliverables of their inspections and the required competencies for the inspector. These were addressed with the help of different industry professionals.

The first speaker was Mrs. Afizza Anis Abdul Rahman, who was the newly appointed Head of Wells HSE from Petronas, and she shared her perspective of Petronas on DROPS inspections.

The subsequent speaker was Mr. Allen Smith, trainer and facilitator with DROPS global. He focused on the importance of reliable securing or secondary retention, available tools and publications on DROPS forum about different secondary retention techniques. His special emphasis was on what are Split pins/ cotter pins, their design and installation procedure. He likewise examined about the learnings from IOGP/ CAA workgroup on helideck inspections.

The third speaker was Mr. Sagar Raut, HSE Manager from Seadrill. He talked about Seadrill’s approach for internal and third party DROPS inspection, about DROPS strategy, DROPS survey, training and competence.

The last speaker was Mr. Cameron Stevens who shared how technology can assist in improving DROPS inspections using an Augmented Reality Head device. With the help of this gadget, one can snap a picture of any equipment or tool and check whether its plan and establishment is as per the best suggested rehearses from DROPS or not. Likewise, one can store the information during examination in the gadget and can refresh as well. With the assistance of this gadget, one can take the assistance of topic specialists through calling him/her while conducting an inspection.

Following the presentations, there was a Q&A session, for which a large virtual whiteboard was used. This worksheet also included the contact details and presentations from various industry professionals. A special thanks to the team at RP Squared for volunteering to facilitate this.

This webinar gave an insight about how various companies plan the preventive strategies on the Dropped Objects, assessments with their own wellbeing approaches alongside DROPS suggested best practices.

We had some technical difficulties with the Teams live event meeting and some of the scheduled presenters could not log in. We thank Simon Walker from Transocean, Phil Rusden from Borr Drilling and William Lai from Baker Hughes for preparing.

165 participants from a mix of drilling contractors, operators, service majors, inspection companies as well as non-oil and gas joined this webinar, a record for the DROPS Asia chapter.

The following speakers have agreed to record their presentation after the webinar and we have posted these videos on our YouTube Channel here

Keynote – Mrs. Afizza Anis Abdul Rahman, Head of HSE Wells at Petronas Carigali

Overview of DROPS publications related to inspections, Kamsin Sajnani, Akshay S. Manjramkar, Sourabh Hulawale and Omkar Khodke of the MIT World Peace University

DROPS Global Update – Allen Smith, Facilitator & Trainer at DROPS Global

Drilling Contractor Perspective – Sagar Raut, HSSEQ Manager Asia Pac & Middle East, Seadrill

Service Provider Perspective – William Lai, QHSE Leader Asia Pacific, Baker Hughes

Head Mounted Tablet for hands free inspections – Cameron Stevens, Solutions Engineer at RealWear Inc.

Various Q&A – Allen Smith & Joachim van der Meulen, DROPS Global & DROP Asia.

This webinar was sponsored by Dropsafe. Please check the interview with Mike Rice on their latest helideck perimeter netting product.

 

 May 22, 2020, 06:04

 DROPS Asia Webinar 31 March 

 

  • A presentation of the DROPS Asia Objectives for 2020
  • A presentation by Shell on Recharging the reduction of high potential dropped objects
  • An update of the development of DROPS VR

April 24, 2021, 08:47

Increasing the capacity of Tables / Decreasing the capacity of each Table

Hello Everyone,
I have a suggestion for increasing the capacity of people in each room.
We can add more tables to each room by decreasing the number of people on each table. With the increased number of tables, the tables will be closely packed. Hence in order to make the accessibility of the tables easier we can assign a code to the tables and from Reception, we can give the attendees their choice of table.

Thank You,

Jayesh Bellani,

IADC PDEU SC

 March 17, 2021, 04:57

 DROPS Asia Webinar – 28 January 2021 -Recording & Minutes

Bow-tie Expert David Jamieson and Chapter Secretary Joachim van der Meulen facilitated an active audience and a panel of industry experts including Rizal Nasiran (Petronas), Sagar Raut (Seadrill), Gary Dunn (Stopdrop Tooling), Wayne Bauer (Vantage Drilling) and Allen Smith(DROPS Global) to explore the most common causes of dropping tools as well as preventive and mitigating barriers.

By attending the workshop, participants gained

  • A better understanding of the bow-tie methodology
  • Understand the most frequent causes of dropped tools from height
  • The most common and effective barriers to prevent such incidents (or the impact thereof)
  • The opportunity to connect and build relations with industry peers.

After the webinar, participants in first our experimental networking reception. To try it for yourself, view the instruction video here.

The webinar was sponsored by the DROPS Asia Steering Committee & Stopdrop Tooling.

For questions about this and future webinars, please contact the DROPS Asia Chapter secretary Joachim van der Meulen at @drops.asia”>secretary@drops.asia

 December 15, 2020, 05:41

DROPS VR Conference/Exhibition/Networking

Now available for Windows 10, try our our experimental Conference Application

https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/drops-metaverse/9NT6GRNRCBT8

 

May 23, 2020, 01:45

The DROPS Asia Chapter 

The DROPS Asia Chapter was established in 2009 and aims to facilitate collaboration and support throughout the oil and gas industry to implement DROPS best practices in order to continuously improve elimination of dropped objects and prevent harm to the workforce.

The chapter consists of a steering committee which includes Shell, Petronas, BP, Enquest, Transocean, Seadrill, Borr Drilling and Baker Hughes

The Chapter regularly organizes online webinars which are usually recorded and posted on the Youtube Channel 

To stay up to date on events and and webinars, register for the mailing list here

DROPS Asia Chapter

June 29, 2020, 06:32

Oculus Go to be Retired

In a recent post, Facebook announced the retirement of the Oculus Go headset.

When starting the development DROPS VR, we picked the Oculus Go as our primary hardware to develop the content around and then make it cross platform compatible later. At a price point of 200 USD, the device which required no external PC to power it and yet delivered great quality. We felt it was an easily accessible and affordable solution. The rationale was the even people not really interested in VR, would be happy to spend that kind of amount so they can experience the DROPS VR app.

Facebook is doubling down its investment in the big brother of the Go called the Oculus Quest. “with full head and hand movement powered by our Insight tracking system. Quest enabled incredible VR games like Beat Saber, Dance Central, and The Climb with the freedom of an untethered experience, plus access to high-powered PC games like Asgard’s Wrath and Stormland through Oculus Link. Just past the one-year anniversary of Quest, we’re humbled by its continued success. The community response has been overwhelmingly positive, and you’ve told us loud and clear that 6DOF feels like the future of VR. That’s why we’re going all-in, and we won’t be shipping any more 3DOF VR products. We’ll end sales of Oculus Go headsets this year as we double down on improving our offerings for Quest and Rift. Today we’re also excited to share a sneak peek at a new way for developers to distribute Quest apps starting next year, so that even more of you can join the next chapter along with us.” 

While we totally agree that the Oculus Quest is a far superior experience, it is also less accessible.  At a price point of 400 USD, it is double the commitment of the Oculus Go and it currently is also a bit more difficult to setup. The added functionalities of the Quest and in particular the 6DOF vs 3DOF are really nice, but often not necessary for B2B training applications like DROPSVR.

To maintain the principle of easy access for DROPS VR, we will be exploring various alternatives to the Oculus Go, including running an application on your mobile phone. The processing power of high end mobile phones like the Iphone 11 or Note 10 greatly exceeds that of an Oculus Go and in combination with a VR viewer costing roughly 50 USD, we can create a similar experience.

May 22, 2020,

About DROPS VR

 
 

DROPS VR is an initiative by the DROPS Asia Chapter administered by Drilling VR to create a free Virtual Reality based awareness training and collaboration tool.

Students will learn through a series of real world simulated assignments to

  • Understand the potential of dropped objects
  • Recognize common causes of dropped objects
  • Methods for preventing dropped objects and preventing harm
  • Become familiar with reference tools and publications of the DROPS Forum

DROPS is all about collaboration and the DROPS VR will be a tool where members can

  • Virtually remotely meet in a range of Industrial simulated environments
  • Interact with the Virtual Environment by pointing at and moving objects
  • Speak with each other through a multiplayer avatar system
  • Designed for subject matter experts to meet and collaborate for the prevention of dropped objects

DROPS VR will be built collaboratively with volunteer subject matter experts and is made possible through sponsorship. We currently have a demo version with a few environments and scenarios and will gradually build upon this until the first full version is ready.

If you would like to get involved, you will need an Oculus Go Virtual Headset available in most countries at around 150 to 200 USD. After obtaining the device, you will need to register an account with this website and hit the “download” button on the top menu.

If you have any questions about this project, please do not hesitate to contact the DROPS Asia Secretary Joachim van der Meulen through the contact page

 
 
 

 May 22, 2020, 02:36

Stopdrop Tooling

is the second sponsor for DROPS VR and supports the project with funding as well as technical expertise around working with tools at height

Stopdrop Tooling provides hand tools which have been designed to prevent dropping when “Working At Height”. These tools are commonly called tools at height, tools aloft or tethered tools. The tooling is designed and modified to enable user freedom and maintain product functionality but continue to safely control the tool.

Dropped objects are one of the major sources of incidents in heavy industries and construction. In the drilling industry it is estimated that one in ten dropped object incidents are caused by falling hand tools. Stopdrop Tooling works closely with its global customer base including drilling contractors, rope access specialists and scaffolding companies to get the tooling and modifications industry specific. By properly securing the hand tools to a fixed point or person with a lanyard and using locking techniques for individual tool parts, dropped objects incidents can be prevented. Stopdrop is a member of the drops workplace organisation which is dedicated to reducing dropped object incidents on and offshore, all Stopdrop Tooling manufactured tools are DROPS compliant.

Visit Stopdrop Tooling at http://www.stopdroptooling.com/

July 13, 2020, 02:06

Dropsafe Champions New DROPS VR Virtual Reality Training Platform

Dropsafe backs the pioneering platform created by DrillingVR and DROPS to deliver free online space for collaboration, meetings and learning about Drops prevention

Singapore, 13 July – Global leader in Drops prevention, Dropsafe, has thrown its weight behind a new virtual reality platform called DROPS VR, from Singapore-based software firm DrillingVR and global O&G industry safety group DROPS. The unique platform is designed to drive awareness and education around Dropped Objects (Drops) prevention in industries such as Oil and Gas (O&G).

DROPS VR is a collaborative online programme that encompasses training apps, exhibition areas and virtual conference spaces – all in virtual reality. Firms will be able to access new online Drops prevention training tools for free via the system, aiding dissemination of HSE best practice on a global scale.

The virtual reality space supports continuing efforts by industries such as O&G, power generation, marine and mining to drive down fatalities and injuries from Drops. This challenge has been underlined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has impacted operational practices, while placing greater emphasis on online collaboration, and shifting critical training functions to a digital setting.

The DROPS VR software enables personnel in all roles to train more effectively to identify and neutralise Drops hazards on offshore assets. Best practice Drops prevention technology, such as high quality, corrosion resistant steel mesh nets, can be deployed within the software. Practical application of Drops prevention products in a versatile virtual environment prepares personnel for the real world – where mistakes cost lives.

Dropsafe recognised the potential of the project early on, sponsoring the further development of the software platform. As well as providing Drops prevention expertise and digital models of its best-practice prevention systems, Dropsafe has a virtual booth in the online exhibition space.

Joachim van der Meulen, Secretary, DROPS Asia, said: “We believe that Drops incidents can be eliminated through a combination of high-quality engineered solutions, robust and comprehensive regulations, and well-trained, competent workforce. Dropsafe’s expertise has been invaluable during the process of creating the DROPS VR and we invite businesses and professionals from across the HSE sphere to share their expertise and engage with the platform as we develop it further.”

Mike Rice, Commercial Director, Dropsafe, added: “Although Drops prevention has come a long way in recent years, the O&G industry must continue to push forward by adopting the latest technologies in the fight against Drops. We are hugely excited by what Joachim and his team have already achieved, and with further support it is clear that this platform will help to start a new chapter Drops prevention.”

Uploaded files:

  • Drilling-VR2.png

May 22, 2020, 02:08

About sponsorship

DROPS VR will be a free training and collaboration tool made possible through sponsorship and volunteers.

Current sponsors include

  • Stopdrop Tooling – Specialist in Tools for Working at Height
  • DropSafe – Provider of Secondary Securing netting and safety barriers
  • DrillingVR – Specialist in Virtual Reality Training and Collaboration Tools

If your company provides products or services that assist with the prevention of, or harm from dropped objects and are interested in promoting your products through the DROPS VR application, please do contact us

May 22, 2020, 04:09

BBC Program around VR

Check the below link for an interesting program about how VR is used to visit Church services in VR during the Covid 19 crisis.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct0pcg

BBC Program around VR

 

September 23, 2020, 07:10

Oculus Quest 2

Oculus Quest 2

Facebook Inc have recently launched the Oculus Quest 2, just 16 months after launching the first version of their stand-alone gaming headset.

The new headset comes with a much faster processor, sharper screen and is 10% lighter.

The 64 GB option sells for US$ 299 and the 256GB for US$ 399.

Readers are cautioned that the Quest 2 requires users to login with a Facebook account. A business version which does not require a Facebook account or has any distracting games on it is available but at more than double the costs.

The DROPS VR demo looks great on the Quest 1 and will look even better on the Quest 2. For the moment, you will need a fairly complicated process to load the app using a process called sideloading  It is expected an improved and simplified loading process will be available from early 2021.

If you are interest to buy the Quest 2, please use one of the links below. (a small commission will be shared with DROPS Asia and this will contribute to the further development of DROPSVR)

Oculus Quest 2 64GB @ Amazon

Oculus Quest 2 256 GB @ Amazon

May 22, 2020, 03:07

What is DROPS?

Within the oil and gas industry, everyone knows the potential cost of a dropped object. It’s not just about equipment damage and lost production. It’s about life!

The problem is common to everyone in the industry, across all regions, sectors and disciplines. 

DROPS is an industry-wide initiative focused on preventing dropped objects, with the ultimate goal of delivering a second nature dropped objects prevention strategy across our industry.

DROPS is essentially a Global Work Group, represented by 200 operators, contractors, service companies and industry bodies, all sharing commitment and enthusiasm for the common goal of dropped object prevention.

To learn more about DROPS visit https://www.dropsonline.org/