Best 3 red zone monitoring systems for offshore drilling rigs (2025)

Red zones are the part of offshore drilling rigs where critical drilling operations take place, and where crew members are most at risk. Luckily, there are solutions that help drilling rig operators to increase the safety of their red zones by providing real-time visibility and insights. 

Some solutions even enable real-time monitoring of crew members in the red zone, without the need for wearable sensors or trackers. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of the top 3 red zone monitoring solutions for offshore drilling rigs: 

1. Helin Red Zone Manager
2. Salunda Crew Hawk 
3. viAct Red Zone Management

But first, it’s important to understand what is meant by red zone monitoring systems.  

What is a red zone monitoring system?  

A red zone monitoring system provides real-time visibility of activities occurring within the red zone at offshore drilling rigs. This keeps crew members safe and minimizes drilling rig downtime. 

Some red zone monitoring systems may require crew members to wear sensors to accurately track their movements, while others use advanced video analytics to detect movements without wearables. 

Top 3 red zone monitoring systems 

Here’s a list of 3 red zone monitoring systems for offshore drilling rigs. 

1. Helin Red Zone Manager

Helin Red Zone Manager is designed to optimize drilling operations at offshore rigs, while increasing the safety of crew members. It uses advanced video analytics to monitor crew members’ locations—without requiring wearable sensors or trackers—so that drilling operators always have real-time situational awareness. 

What’s more, the intuitive user interface automatically notifies the operator when someone enters the red zone. Crew members are also alerted when they’re in an unsafe area via special status lights. 

To support continuous improvement in safety metrics, Helin Red Zone Manager offers reporting capabilities so that drilling rig owners can monitor and report on their performance over time and identify areas for improvement. 

Helin Red Zone Manager is a fully supported service that can be easily integrated with existing systems. Helin trains crews to configure and maintain the systems, so they can adjust it over time e.g. if the location of the red zone on the rig changes. 

Thanks to its flexible, scalable architecture, Helin Red Zone Manager can be easily rolled out across multiple rigs, even when the equipment is from different OEMs. That makes it perfect for large offshore drilling contractors like Noble, Stena drilling, and Valaris who use it and Helin’s other safety solution, Remote CCTV Manager, to improve safety at their rigs.

Website: https://www.helindata.com/ 

HQ location: Rijswijk, The Netherlands

Key features: 

• Fully supported red zone monitoring service
• Accurate people detection using video analytics 
• Intuitive alerts and interface 
• Advanced reporting capabilities
• High reliability with low latency 
• Dedicated team of remote support engineers 

2. Salunda Crew Hawk

Salunda's Crew Hawk provides real-time monitoring of red zones and anonymized feedback that helps operators to identify safety improvements. Crew members are actively tracked using wearable personal locators. 

Drilling rig operators select exclusion zones around dangerous areas and the alarms are automatically triggered for both the individual and the operator if unauthorized entry occurs. Crew Hawk integrates with certain control systems, including NOV Control System, ACS (Cyberbase) and ZMS (Amphion) to ensure the operator has visibility of red zone activities.  

It also offers performance dashboards, playback features for incident analysis, and heatmaps to optimize workspace layouts. However, there is always a risk that crew members will incorrectly or forget to use the personal locators which are essential to Crew Hawk’s operation. 

Website: https://www.salunda.com/

HQ location: Bicester, United Kingdom

Key features: 

• Red zone monitoring with wearable personal locators
• Real-time tracking with entry alerts and individual alarms
• Anonymized incident playback and heatmaps for analysis
• Integration with NOV Control System, ACS, and ZMS
• Safety dashboards with live and historical data

3. viAct Red Zone Management

viAct's Red Zone Management uses AI and computer vision to enhance safety on drilling rigs. Its IoT sensors and AI-powered cameras detect movement patterns and behaviors to identify potential hazards, unsafe acts, or equipment malfunctions, and provide real-time alerts to crew members and drilling operators.  

The system is designed to easily integrate with existing CCTV infrastructure, and includes a digital Permit-to-Work integration that ensures only personnel with appropriate training and permits can enter high-risk areas. Authorized users can access a dashboard to analyze past performance, incident patterns, and get proactive recommendations for improving safety. 

However, viAct serves many industries so may lack specific expertise in offshore drilling. The Red Zone Management solution also has limited integrations with other drilling operating systems. 

Website: https://www.viact.ai/ 

HQ location: Hong Kong

Key features: 

• AI-powered red zone monitoring system
• Work area heat maps
• Red zone intrusion alerts 
• Integration with existing CCTV systems
• Digital Permit-to-Work processes  
• User-friendly reporting tool 
• Remote access and support 
• Smart dashboards for data visualization and reporting 

How to choose the best red zone monitoring system for your offshore rigs

So now you understand each of these red zone monitoring systems, but how do you decide which one is the best option for you? Here are some factors to consider: 

• User interface: request a demo of the system to see whether the interface is user-friendly for your operators, and whether the alerts are clear for your crews. 
• Flexibility of the system: check if the system can adapt to changing red zone layouts and whether it can be easily scaled across multiple rigs. 
• Latency and accuracy: prioritize systems that have low latency and high accuracy to ensure you always have access to real-time data streams, even on remote sites. 
• Cost: check the pricing structures and consider add-on or hidden costs of each system e.g. the cost of purchasing wearable sensors. 
• Wearable sensors: determine whether wearing sensors or tags is feasible for your offshore crews, or whether technology that automatically detects people without wearables will work better for your needs. 
• Proven track record: choose a vendor that has offshore drilling expertise and designs solutions specifically for this industry. 
• Ease of integration: check whether the red zone monitoring system integrates with your existing tech stack and physical equipment, and whether support is provided. 

By considering each of these factors, you can thoroughly evaluate each red zone monitoring system and make the best decision for your drilling operations.

Why Helin Red Zone Manager is the best tool for improving safety in your red zones

For offshore drilling companies looking for a flexible red zone monitoring system that has an intuitive user interface, supports continuous improvement of safety metrics like LTI (lost time incident), and is highly accurate without requiring wearable sensors, Helin Red Zone Manager is the perfect solution.  

Helin Red Zone Manager uses advanced video analytics to monitor crew locations in real-time, offering real-time situational awareness and helping to reduce equipment downtime by avoiding safety incidents. It outperforms 99% of all other analytics solutions with an end-to-end latency of only 150 milliseconds.

Unlike others on this list, Helin Red Zone Manager has advanced analysis and reporting capabilities, enabling drilling companies to review performance over time and identify areas to improve critical safety metrics like Lost Time Incident Rate (LTIR), Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR), and Near Miss Rate (NMR). 

Helin Red Zone Manager is a fully supported service, meaning that Helin trains your crew to configure and maintain the systems and stay on standby as your 2nd and 3rd line of support. Thanks to its open, modular architecture, Helin Red Zone Manager can be easily rolled out across multiple rigs, making it perfect for large drilling contractors like Noble. 

With this robust red zone monitoring system in place, offshore drilling companies can maintain high safety standards, optimize operations, and ensure compliance with industry regulations.

Ready to improve the safety of red zones at your offshore drilling rigs? Book a demo with our experts to explore the Helin Red Zone Manager platform and see how it can help keep your offshore crews safe.