Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd bags Augmented and Virtual Reality Award in engineering

Its Computer-Aided Virtual Reality Environment gives users an immersive visualisation and shared experience when viewing a 3D environment.

Surbana Jurong Consultants Pte Ltd received the Augmented and Virtual Reality Award in the engineering category during Singapore Business Review's recently concluded Technology Excellence Awards for its Computer-Aided Virtual Environment (CAVE), a state-of-the-art immersive visualisation platform that allows teams using Building Information Models to conduct Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) coordination and research.

The architecture, engineering and construction industries have been incorporating VDC to address constructability issues within a project. VDC allows clients to view and verify designs or make changes before it's built, which helps avoid the major abortive works at later stages of construction.

Moreover, this technology helps spot potential conflicts virtually before the actual execution, allowing design and construction issues to be resolved immediately amongst concerned stakeholders during Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) Sessions. The potential benefits of this action include reduced schedule variability, a smoother workflow, and increased productivity overall.

One significant aspect of VDC is the use of 3D design visualisations, which is a key feature of Surbana Jurong’s CAVE. Installed in the company’s Collaboration Hub, CAVE uses an Immersive Virtual Reality System (IVRS) Innovation process that allows 3D content to be created and projected in the CAVE.

Users can then visualise this in stereoscopic 3D by wearing compatible 3D glasses. The five-wall CAVE is configured to provide 1:1 perspective, such an actual scale display, for the sensation of "being there". Users in the CAVE can also navigate around the 3D model—both inside and outside—of a design prototype, such as viewing a building from the ground up, a single floor, or just a single room.

Another significant advantage of CAVE is its immersive visualisation system that becomes a venue for client coordination meetings. CAVE allows the staff to maximise the use of digital 3D content to communicate with clients, allowing design teams and clients to interact with one another.

At the SJ Collaboration Hub, the immersive visualisations are operated by a VDC software in a special enterprise configuration—the CAVE facility with VR devices with VDC LITE software. It includes a middleware that gives all users access in the same collaborative space whilst using the different visualisation platforms and over a network—even across long distances for multi-site coordination meetings.

More importantly, CAVE allows all the users inside the structure to retain a full, real-world awareness and see one another for on-the-spot discussions, whilst being able to choose a virtual location and perspective for their common view. These processes are integrated with the user design journeys and have become core design processes. The CAVE also allows connectivity to other CAVES if there is a shared protocol between the two CAVEs. That means that if there is another CAVE set up other than that of SJ and there is a shared protocol between them, the two CAVEs can interact with each other , bringing VDC to a whole new level of coordination. 

The Technology Excellence Awards, presented by Singapore Business Review, was held via studio award presentations and video conferencing sessions throughout the second and third week of April.

This year’s nominations were judged by a panel consisting of Daryl Pereira, Head of Cyber at KPMG; Cheang Wai Keat, Partner, Consulting at Ernst & Young Advisory Pte. Ltd.; Henry Tan, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Nexia TS; Sivakumar Saravan, Senior Partner at Crowe Singapore; Cecil Su, Director, Head of Cybersecurity of BDO Singapore.

If you would like to join the 2022 awards and be acclaimed for your company’s exceptional technological innovations, please email Jane Patiag at [email protected].