With the current exploration industry challenges, there is an ever-increasing push to improve seismic project efficiency in both cost and productivity, while not impacting data quality. With the widespread adoption of nodal recording technology, there remains a costly node hardware implementation and operational burden to repetitively perform receiver spread QC. As channel counts continue to grow on land geophysical surveys, the notion to frequently gather equipment health statistics has given rise to an escalating workload, contrary to the need for economizing. The full reasoning and perceived necessity for this additional field effort is not easily explained, although when observing these endeavors, you may easily surmise some lack of confidence in equipment reliability. Technological and process advances have given us a means to simplify & automate with electronic products that we implicitly rely upon; you turn them on and they work, unfaltering, and unchecked.

Apply this to the far-reaching world of seismic acquisition, and what you find is a functionally simplified node design offers operators opportunity to take advantage of immense cost savings, substantial improvements in production, and unquestionable reductions in HSE exposure. SmartSolo have been fortunate enough to perform some of the largest autonomous node projects, and the case for moving away from repeated QC of the deployed spread has not only been compelling, but essential. The time, the crew utilization, the reliance on additional in-field equipment and their associated intricacies to go check each and every receiver, …the expense?

This shift in seismic acquisition methodology is no longer just something being spoken about; it’s something being done. Those that have already made the transition do not look back, and are seeing the myriad of benefits applying this approach to geophysical surveys large and small. In field operations, simple dependable equipment enables efficiency, and a smarter way to work. SmartSolo®