  Deep learning applications are drastically progressing in seismic processing
and interpretation tasks. However, the majority of approaches subsample data
volumes and restrict model sizes to minimise computational requirements.
Subsampling the data risks losing vital spatio-temporal information which could
aid training whilst restricting model sizes can impact model performance, or in
some extreme cases, renders more complicated tasks such as segmentation
impossible. This paper illustrates how to tackle the two main issues of
training of large neural networks: memory limitations and impracticably large
training times. Typically, training data is preloaded into memory prior to
training, a particular challenge for seismic applications where data is
typically four times larger than that used for standard image processing tasks
(float32 vs. uint8). Using a microseismic use case, we illustrate how over
750GB of data can be used to train a model by using a data generator approach
which only stores in memory the data required for that training batch.
Furthermore, efficient training over large models is illustrated through the
training of a 7-layer UNet with input data dimensions of 4096X4096. Through a
batch-splitting distributed training approach, training times are reduced by a
factor of four. The combination of data generators and distributed training
removes any necessity of data 1 subsampling or restriction of neural network
sizes, offering the opportunity of utilisation of larger networks,
higher-resolution input data or moving from 2D to 3D problem spaces.
