While 2020 meant a year of inactivity for many, this certainly wasn’t the case for KOREC’s Professional Services division.

As a key service provider based out of our Huntingdon offices, the division carried on throughout lockdown providing vital survey, scanning and mapping services to help keep the nation’s infrastructure networks open and operating.

Throughout the year the team have travelled the length and breadth of the UK, undertaking high density 3D laser scanning and image capture with the vehicle mounted MX9 scanning system – generating vast amounts of data and imagery along the way.

To celebrate the culmination of this work, over Christmas we held a mini 3-part quiz on our KOREC LinkedIn page, and we are delighted to share the answers with you now.

 

Question 1 – KOREC’s Professional Services team travelled the length and breadth of the UK throughout 2020 – but exactly how much data did they collect?

Answer – the team captured and processing a whopping 1411km of data – the equivalent of surveying the length of Britain’s roads from Lands’ End to John o’Groats!

 

Question 2 – The vehicle mounted MX9 has a total of nine 5MP cameras to capture high quality imagery whilst driving. But how many individual images did our team collect in 2020?

Answer – the team collected just over 3 million individual images over the course of the year – enough to build 760,000 panoramas!

 

Question 3 – A small team based out of our Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire offices, the Professional Services team really do get around. But how many counties did they have active projects in throughout 2020?

Answer – the team have captured data or supported projects in 31 English counties, 2 Scottish, 2 Irish and 1 Welsh – for a total of 36 different counties altogether.

And for the bonus…The team have delivered pointcloud data to clients measuring over 14TB in size – that’s 14 million MB of data!

Find out more about our Professional Services team – click here.

 

 

*Terms & Conditions of the Competition

Data collection location must be in England

Data collection area is limited to a maximum of 20km

Data collection date to be agreed and arranged in coordination with the Professional Services division

Data capture only, no registration included no data processing included

 

KOREC scanning expert Melvin Penwill has a keen eye for a great scanning subject when he’s out and about with his Trimble X7.

Usually found scanning buildings, infrastructure and highways, Melvin took time out to capture this character from their statue. The question is, can you identify who the famous figure is?

Guess correctly, and tell us what you’d use the X7 for, and you’ll be in with a shot to win the X7 for free, for a whole week!

Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram and put your guess in the comments – don’t forget, tell us what you’d do with your week’s free scan time.

For more details about our equipment hire services, click here.

View terms and conditions.

Total Station. It’s not likely to be the most exciting piece of kit in your toolbox – but as these happy customers attest, your Trimble total station might just be your most faithful survey sidekick.

The name may not set your pulse racing, but when everything else seems so uncertain at the moment, isn’t it reassuring to just have a piece of kit that performs, day in, day out, in all weathers?

“We’ve put our Trimble S7 through a lot, from surveying to scanning to setting out, and it’s always lived up to our expectations even in torrential rain, to put things into a better perspective, we would be broken by the cold and rain but the S7 would still be going!”

Ionut Pascuta, Civil Engineer, Lay of Land

Lay of Land put their Trimble total station to the test on a daily basis, in all weathers

The Reliability you Need – projects large & small

“Our Trimble S5 is used for surveying and setting out on both small and large scale projects. It has yet to let us down yet even in the unpredictable Irish weather”

Gary O’Hare, Mourne Air Surveys

“Robust, reliable and consistent, hail or shine, our Trimble S8 brings the reliability we need for reducing risk for our clients on complex engineering projects”

John McGoey, CEO, ECC Group

Total Security with Locate 2 Protect

As well as delivering robust & reliable performance on the daily, all Trimble S-Series total stations are available with Locate to Protect (L2P) tracking technology – so in the worst case scenario, if your kit is lost or stolen, you can track and locate it, in real time, to aid a speedy recovery – sometimes as fast as 30 minutes.

PBH Surveys utilise their S-Series in all weathers – day & night!

And this month, we’re including L2P cover, alongside a ream of other benefits, for 3 years, when you buy your own Trimble total station from us.

That’s 3 years peace of mind, including no calibration fees, no repair or update costs*, no support costs, and 5% off total station hire costs if you need a replacement unit – until 2023.

We call it, the Peace of Mind package.

Find out More

Give us a call;

UK 0345 603 1214

Ireland +353 (0) 1 456 4702

or download our PDF with the offer details?

Download the Offer

*refers to non-damage related repairs

Here’s a question. How do you continue to motivate, inspire, inform, or even just get your teams together during a national lockdown?

Whilst 2020 has been unusual (to say the least), for KOREC, we were already quite used to remote working & collaboration. Serving two nations, and with staff the width and breadth of the country, regular communication via phone, email, virtual chat or even Whatsapp was already the norm for many.

But for those used to office working or field working, now confined to the kitchen table at home, we realised that it was more important than ever to ensure everyone felt connected & informed.

That’s why we launched our virtual lunch ‘n’ learn series in October. The objective was simple – every 2 weeks, we invite everyone in the organisation to a brief overview of a product, solution or application. The vibe is informal – questions and interruptions are very much welcomed, prizes are awarded, and of course, lunch is munched.

It’s the perfect opportunity for a refresher on a particular product, an introduction to the latest piece of kit on the market, all presented by one of our in-house experts. For our people, it’s a reminder of the sheer variety & versatility of the solutions that KOREC offers, be it land survey, drone, rail, highways, mobile mapping…the list goes on.

It’s an excellent way for many of us to take 30 minutes out of our day, to get together, have a chat, and even learn something new.

So far, we’ve held 3 sessions;

An overview of our in-house, K-Matic software suite, presented by Darrell Theobalds

Introduction to the R12 & R12i GNSS systems & ProPoint, hosted by Leigh Rowell

Laser scanning made simple, with the X7, presented by Melvin Penwill

And we have many more up our sleeves going into 2021.

Furloughs. Lockdowns. Travel Restrictions. We’re well aware that 2020 has been rather…unpredictable.

And while your business doesn’t like uncertainty, we also know that in order to remain competitive and productive, you want access to the best survey equipment there is.

That’s why we decided to build a total station package that gives you reassurance and certainly for the coming years, whilst providing you with the most reliable & rugged total stations on the market today.

We call it, the Total Peace of Mind package.

What’s the deal?

Here’s our offer;

Purchase any of the Trimble S-Series total stations (that’s the S5, S7, or S9) before the end of November, and we’ll give you a 3-year subscription to the KOREC Total Care Package, at no extra cost.

KOREC Total Care Package

All included, for 3 years.

Just a little something from us, to make the future a little less uncertain.

To find out more, why not Contact Us today?

Or find out more about the kit, by visiting our Total Station page.

Our national ‘Bouncing Back’ event series continues, as we now set our sights on the South West.

We’re bringing the very latest geospatial solutions, such as the R12i GNSS, X7 laser scanner, and SiteVision mobile model viewer, to 2 new venues.

Our demo days take place in Bristol on the 2nd & Exeter on the 4th November.

Both events are designed with your and our safety in mind – with 1-on-1 personal demo slots, socially distanced, taking place outdoors.

With this in mind, places are strictly limited, to make sure you sign up fast to secure your spot!

Book Bristol

Book Exeter

Meet the South West team

Our upcoming events are also the ideal chance for you to meet our growing South Western team;

Tom Chivers

Tom has been with KOREC for over a year, and covers the M4 corridor in England. Having originally worked as a Land Surveyor, Tom’s background enables him to understand the requirements of surveyors and engineers on site and is adept at finding solutions to drive productivity.

Alex Taylor

Alex recently joined KOREC after spending several years in the tools sector of the construction industry. He has rapidly transitioned into his new survey sales role, is now responsible for the territory which includes Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset and Hampshire. When not out visiting customers, you are likely to find him on a local golf course.

Phil McCarten

Phil is the most recent member of the South West team and joins KOREC in the role of Field Technical Support covering both sales regions. With over 30 years of survey experience, having served in the British Army and more recently as senior surveyor for a large UK company, Phil brings a wealth of knowledge to the role. He is available for on site support and training but can also provide advice on how best to tackle a new project.

This October we wanted to recognise Black History Month in our own, unique KOREC way. So we put it to our people – we asked our colleagues to tell us who inspires them, or has made a positive impact on their life.

These people could be world-famous faces, or a close personal friend. They could have shaped the course of history, or simply made a grey day a little brighter. We were delighted with the response from our colleagues, and we are pleased to share them with you.

Rachael Whelan is inspired by…Phil Lynott

Phil Lynott is an inspiration of mine as he was born in the late 1940s and grew up as practically the only Black person in Ireland. He was picked on because of his race but it instilled in him a fantastic confidence in himself that you could see on stage when he performed.  He formed the band Thin Lizzy in 1969 after being fired from the band Skid Row for not being a good singer!  The main line up for the band changed from time to time but Thin Lizzy was essentially Phil Lynott.  Best songs where ‘Boys Are Back in Town’ (featured in Toy Story 1) and the rock version of the Irish Trad song, ‘Whiskey in the Jar’ (also covered by Metallica).  He died of pneumonia on 4th January 1986, he was 36 years old.  In 2005 a statue of Phil was unveiled on Dublin’s Grafton street to commemorate him.

Rachael is an office administrator in our Dublin office

Debbie Vincent is inspired by…the children of South Africa

Mine would have to be the children that my son met out in South Africa in November 2016 – he went there with the Mellon Educate Mellon Charity completing a school building project.  Such happy bright individuals suffering hardship every day!

Debbie is Operations Manager of our Huntingdon office

   

Sarah Rodney is inspired by….Lincoln Noel

I would like to nominate my friend Lincoln Noel.  He’s a talented pianist and church organist and a very dear friend of mine.  He has supported me personally through good times and bad.  During lockdown, he would put on a little concert on Facebook on a Sunday afternoon and my daughter and I would sing along and dance round the kitchen like a pair of loons.  This was a wonderful way to boost morale during a very dark time and was often the highlight of my week.

Sarah is Hire & Workshop controller at our Huntingdon office

Julian Gray is inspired by…Nelson Mandela

How do I sum this man up in a few sentences? As a white African man growing up in South Africa, the background and context is vitally important to understanding this, something the rest of the world will find hard to grasp but let me try…

In the mid-1980s, my country was divided along racial lines with a division that was deep, cruel and affected every person, black and white living in our beautiful land. Hatred across the board was a passion all experienced at some level or other. And then one day, FW de Klerk announced that enough was enough and the laws supporting this system were abolished, and the one person we had come to believe epitomised everything we as white Africans fought against and black Africans defended, was released. For the first time we saw and heard Nelson Mandela –and heard his first speech calling for Peace and Reconciliation. Peace? Reconciliation? Huh? Where was the battle cry? Where was the call to arms?

This man started to perform a miracle. He spoke of Peace. He acted out Peace, He exuded Peace. He brought together enemies who hated the very ground each other walked on, made us all sit around a table, share a meal, talk together, work together. He taught us the meaning of the word Forgiveness. He was not alone – next to him was another great man Bishop Desmond Tutu – and they calmed the land, and brought Peace. They enabled us to start to heal. To realise that our enemy was not our enemy, but a fellow African, with dreams, aspirations, fears, joys just like us. He changed the whole country to the Rainbow Nation it is today. He changed me. We called him Madiba – Father of the Nation. And he truly was.

My deep regret is that he was part of our lives for such a short time. If only he had been there in the 1970s, if only he had shown us earlier that what we were doing, what we were defending was so unbelievably wrong…

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, father of the Nation, Madiba – without any doubt in my mind the greatest man to walk this Planet in the last 200 years.

Julian is a structural monitoring specialist

Florentin Toplicianu is inspired by…Barack Obama

I am inspired by this man, of course well known as the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold the office.

As President, he slowly ended US participation in the Iraq War, having prepared the country to defend itself. He signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often called “Obamacare”) which changed many health care laws and made affordable healthcare a reality for many millions of people.He also enacted many acts to create public works jobs to help the economy.

He became the first President to openly express support for gay marriage, proposed gun control and opened diplomatic relations with Cuba.

In 2009, he won the Peace Nobel Prize for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people”

In November 2015, he attended the Paris Climate Conference held in Paris, France. The United States committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Florentin works in our geospatial technical support team, in our Liverpool office

Black History month (UK) is marked every October, and the theme for 2020 is ‘Dig Deeper, Look Closer, Think Bigger’. Find out more about BHM on the official website;

https://www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk/

We are delighted to be bringing the latest & greatest geospatial solutions to you, with 2 exclusive events in Leeds & Yarm.

We’ll have the brand new R12i GNSS, X7 laser scanner and SiteVision all on hand for you to demo.

Spaces are strictly limited to comply with social distancing, so sign up fast to avoid disappointment.

Choose your preferred date from the options below, and reserve your demo slot with our friendly team.

Book Leeds – 14th October

Book Yarm – 15th October

Come try out the R12i – if it doesn’t exceed your existing GNSS, we’ll give it to you for free for a week!

Having used Trimble GNSS for many years, the team at Terravision Ltd were used to high accuracy, high performance kit.

But even they were surprised by the results being achieved with Pro Point technology, as Survey Systems Engineer Digby Milnes explains;

Several years ago when we moved from R6 and R8 receivers to the R10 series we found the upgrade a worthwhile investment, albeit our working procedures remained, for the most part, the same.

The R12’s Pro Point technology is however, a different story. The situations in which it can coordinate accurate positioning are absolutely staggering. With leaves still on the trees, we have been measuring points that would previously have been a headache to get with total station, and out of the question for GNSS.

Digby takes the R12i for a spin atop a GPR unit

The purchase of the R12i last week has again taken things up a level. As with the R12’s Pro Point, we have spent a lot of time checking the new tilt functionality for accuracy and repeatability in the field – really pushing the limits of what it will do – like measuring a fuel sub-hydrant located bang underneath the belly of a Hercules Transport; the pole at about 30 degrees off horizontal and underneath the wing…..not a problem! (We returned after the aircraft had moved to check results, which turned out well within tolerance for the project!)

After week one with the R12i we are now thinking in terms of ‘should we get the point’, rather than ‘can we get the point’. After all it is still RTK GNSS with RTK accuracy. We need to remember that if we need to achieve accuracy that RTK GNSS cannot guarantee; we should be measuring with total station or another appropriate technology.

Top marks to Trimble for developing the R12 & R12i and keeping us a step ahead!

Terravision Ltd provide mapping & surveying services across the UK – find out more

Find out more about the R12i, or book a demo

What is ProPoint technology?

Trimble utilises flexible signal management in the R12 and R12i to access all available GNSS constellations and signals, resulting in higher satellite availability.

The outcome? At least 30% improved performance in challenging GNSS environments* (such as thick tree canopies, hedgerows and urban canyons), allowing you to push the boundaries of the kit.

Benefits include;

*Challenging GNSS environments are locations where the receiver has sufficient satellite availability to achieve minimum accuracy requirements, but where the signal may be partly obstructed by and/or reflected off of trees, buildings, and other objects. Actual results may vary based on user’s geographic location and atmospheric activity, scintillation levels, GNSS constellation health and availability, and level of multipath and signal occlusion.

This September marks something of a milestone for Debbie Vincent, our Operations Manager (Huntingdon branch) – 10 years at KOREC.

Many UK KOREC customers may be familiar with Debbie and her team, but to mark her decade with the company, we asked Debbie to look back over her years working with us. Here’s what she had to say;

So, it’s been a journey, let me begin,

Back in July 2010 I was made redundant from a position I had held for almost 15 years, sadly the company was no longer and I found myself in the big wide world along with many others looking for work.  I just happened to bump in to a friend who said ‘they are looking for admin staff where I work I am sure you would fit in’ – this was the start of my journey.  I started with KOREC on the 8th September 2010.

Covering maternity leave for the admin team working for the Machine Control side of the business – I loved this as it was similar to what I had come from, the majority of machine control kit had to be installed so you had a number of factors to consider on every sale.  At that time we covered the three operational roles which included sales, workshop and hire for the product area you were working in.

Debbie with some of her team in Huntingdon

After a couple of years a role became available in the hire department which I was fortunate enough to manage.  This role gave me a huge insight into the products, which has stood me in good stead throughout my career here.  Hire is extremely reactive so you have to be able to juggle a number of balls without letting any drop to the ground!

From the hire role I was promoted to Operations Manager at the Huntingdon depot something I continue to do to this day – this role allows me to oversee the day to day running of the depot whilst ensuring our clients get the best possible service.

How time changes things, I have seen the TSC2 now replaced by the TSC7, R4 GPS units now replaced with R12’s, and now a unit that calibrates itself, nothing stays the same for long in this fast paced working environment!

But, I can honestly say I have truly enjoyed my time at KOREC, the people I work with and have met along the way have been truly wonderful 😊

From all of us at KOREC, thank you Debbie for your decade of dedication!

Find out more about our world-class workshops & facilities on our Service page.