In order to address the growing demands of the geophysical industry for large channel counts in difficult environment and total flexibility in layout and telemetry modes, Sercel has added Vibtech's™ 3-in-1 Unite cable-free system to its portfolio of industry-leading seismic acquisition products.
The Unite System offers an alternative to the traditional cable approach through the patented Cellular Seismic™ technique, which offers customers unprecedented levels of flexibility. The stand-alone field Units can be deployed in a regular grid or at random to accommodate field obstructions and/or permitting restrictions.
Unite customers can choose to operate in three telemetry modes:
- Real-time telemetry, where data are transmitted and recorded within the shot cycle
- Stored data with reduced bit QC real time transmission for high quality visual display
- Stored data mode, where data are stored locally for subsequent harvesting
The Cellular Seismic™ method enables an unlimited number of channels to be deployed by dividing the seismic spread into a number of radio cells, with each cell operating on a different radio frequency to its neighbour.
The system has two principal field components:
- Field Acquisition Unit (Unit)
The field Unit is a stand-alone item, capable of handling 1, 2, 3 or 4 analogue input channels. Each Unit has an internal Lithium Ion battery, 2 Gb non-volatile flash memory (expandable to 4, 8 or 16Gb), Advanced GPS for synchronisation, internal 2.4GHz and GPS antennae and a multi-functional connector for re-charging, connecting external power supply and the down-loading of data through an Ethernet facility.
- Cell Access Node (CAN)
The CAN controls the field Units in a radio cell, by sending and receiving commands, data and status information to and from the Central Recording Unit. The CAN is capable of communicating with the Central Recording Unit either via Unite's new license free high data rate 5.8GHz radio network, via fibre-optic cable or a combination of both. The CAN has multiple battery ports to enable hot-swapping of batteries to maximise field efficiency.
Features and Benefits
- Uses the latest communications technology
- Huge reduction in weight resulting in quicker, safer and less expensive deployments and reduced environmental footprint
- Less potential acquisition footprint through finer spatial sampling
- Higher flexibility regarding spatial sampling
- Better support large channel count on difficult terrains