PaleBlue: Immersive VR- and AR-based Training for Professionals

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Felix Gorbatsevich, Managing Director

KBA Training headquartered in Singapore is one of the leading companies that provides training for offshore personnel. However, providing certification courses with required real-time training for operational supervisors or other senior staff was a difficult feat. Sending people onsite for the training was not only expensive but dangerous as well due to the unpredictable environment on the ships. The only way to conduct real-time training in a safe and controlled environment was through a simulation model. They found the perfect solution for their need with PaleBlue—an innovative company with simulation tools that could not only guarantee an engaging experience but could do so cost-effectively. In a recent interview, Felix Gorbatsevich, the Managing Director of PaleBlue, talks about the company's conception, clients’ challenges, and how they solve them.

Please provide us a brief overview of your company?

The company came to be known as PaleBlue after merging with Virtech in 2013. The idea for our conception was to make real-time graphical and simulation systems for industrial and professional use. Over the years, we have seen consistent growth and expansions with locations in Europe, Asia, and the US, and we are still growing. Our priority, right from the start, has been our clients’ needs, and currently, we are expanding our customer base within professional and industrial markets.

PaleBlue's combines simulation with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies. We create simulation systems for several industries, which started from the industrial and marine sector to the construction industries and, now includes, healthcare and biotechnology field. Now, we have a portfolio of products and services that span across many industry verticals, but the added advantage is that we can take our simulation platform and tailor it according to our clients' needs pertaining to training and operational issues.

Is there a particular industry that you focus and target your solutions towards, or is it a holistic solution that can be leveraged by multiple industries?

One of the key areas for us is training, which is very tightly connected to the operational, HR and HSE departments of any company, that wants to educate their employees. All our sessions are modeled to create an interactive and immersive environment to ensure that individuals are well prepared and trained for any situation. Our training systems include normal operational scenarios as well as emergency scenarios to help one gain insights into the exact steps and procedures to be followed, while interacting with others in the same multi-user session. Since exigent circumstances can be difficult to imitate in real-time training models, simulations solve the challenge by recreating unfeasible, unexpected and improbable cases in a safe and controlled surrounding.

Our virtual reality simulators create an artificial collaborative multi-user environment for individuals with specific job roles in the marine, construction, oil and gas sectors and other industrial businesses

In your interactions with CIOs of leading companies, what sense do you get of the challenges they face now in the Simulation landscape, and how is PaleBlue effectively addressing these issues?

There are a number of challenges that prevail across industries, in construction, manufacturing, and particularly healthcare. One of them is retaining talent while increasing competencies as well as knowledge transfer, which every sector demands. How can they manage to address that? By exposing their staff to different training modules through various expertly crafted simulations. Another challenge we solve is eliminating the cost associated with mobilizing their workforce or using heavy and expensive equipment and machinery during real-life exercises. With VR solutions, the only thing to worry about is to ensure that everyone has access to the VR sets and connect into a session from anywhere and still be able to communicate with each other. The time taken to gather people in one location and manage such training sessions previously would have taken our clients weeks, but now takes much less time.

Please shed some light on your simulation technology based on the on boarding methodology, features, and benefits involved?

The Paleblue Simulation Platform offers many advantages like the flexible architecture of its advanced, next-generation IT platform that scales rapidly. Our highly customizable workflows are designed and built using our PaleBlue platform and its modular, “building-block” applications, which allow us to make a breakthrough in technology.

Our virtual reality simulators create an artificial environment for individuals with specific job roles in the subsea and diving, oil and gas sectors or other offshore businesses. Head-mounted displays along with headphones and hand controls transfers user into a virtually immersive environment where they can get acquainted with the work practices and processes for future business.

For instance, in an off shore team training simulation, our systems allow crane operators to leverage VR and operate a virtual crane via controllers and to lift, harness, and board virtual loads into the water. From there, a person operating an underwater robot virtually places the objects in subsea while interacting and reporting to the crew on deck. Divers also take part in the simulation and oversee the installation and configuration of the object on the seabed. The example portrays how the system can build a team exercise while ensuring that everyone involved in a virtual case understands their roles and are trained during the process, thus, increasing their competencies and overall operational excellence.

And traditionally, commercial divers are at increased risk, as the quality of training is limited by the cost and practical difficulties of providing realistic operational diving scenarios in an accessible, safe, and controlled training environment. The diving simulators offer a cost-effective way to deliver training and provide an experience that can’t be gained “on the job.”

What does the future hold for your organization?

To determine our next course of action, we need to be aware of the state of technology as we rely on current hardware and software tools. We are in the early stages of the company, so we will continue to strive and do the best we can in all of our endeavors.