Solihull Council is stepping up its roll out of electric vehicle charging points in a bid to ensure that residents in all types of accommodation, and especially those with no private driveway, are able to charge their electric vehicle locally and efficiently. Locations have also been selected based on whether there is a current demand or expected future demand for vehicles in that area.
Of course it’s vital for electric vehicle owners to know exactly where each of the fifty-six charging bays are located and the Highways Infrastructure department of the council used a KOREC supplied Trimble TDC150 data logger with KOREC Capture field data capture software on-board to locate each of the ‘as-built’ charging-points around the Borough.
Ryan Wilson, Apprentice GIS Mapping Technician for Solihull Council, customised a form in the KOREC Capture software to collect attributes alongside positional information. Fields included locality name, a photograph, whether the bays at that site were legally restricted by Traffic Regulation Orders and the number of satellites tracked.
Achieving 1-2cm in the field
Using Trimble’s VRS real-time data correction service, Ryan was achieving 1-2cm accuracy with the TDC150 Trimble logger, well over what he required. Even in heavily built-up areas still achieved 20-30 cms.
Ryan also put the TDC150 to good use to locate the nail on which his total station stood to place it within the BNG CRS (Ordnance Survey National Grid reference system) when he needed to measure the layout at one particular site where the road layout was modified slightly.
Our thanks to Ryan Wilson, Apprentice GIS Mapping Technician for Solihull Council for providing the information and images.
Visit here for more information on our range of Trimble GNSS enabled data collectors
Find out about KOREC’s in-house field data capture software here.
Who needs low cost, on-demand, cm precision data collection?
“A cm accurate GNSS solution at the right price point.” Christopher Cooke of 3LM on Trimble Catalyst
We’ve just launched ‘A Grand Deal’ and it’s our offer of the summer! Mobile, on-demand data collection with centimetre-precision, our KOREC Capture data collection app and the KOREC Portal for review, analysis and reporting of data, all for under £1,000.
Key to this very grand offer and the exceptionally low-priced cm precision is Trimble Catalyst, our on-demand subscription based GNSS. Easy to set up and use, with a range of accuracy subscriptions available, the only hardware you need to purchase is the low-priced antenna.
But who can benefit from this offer? We took a look through our list of Catalyst users and the range is vast! Here are just some of the examples of KOREC customers who have selected Catalyst for their projects (full stories below):
V.T.O.L Media – establishing ground control points for aerial surveys
Operating out of Shropshire, V.T.O.L Media is a company that specialises in aerial photography, video and survey and in particular, construction monitoring. The company is owned by CAA Approved drone pilot, Neil Pepper, who has a mixed drone fleet and takes great pride in using only the latest in high-tech equipment.
The company has recently experienced an increase in demand for survey work with many clients requesting high accuracy aerial surveys. Aware that the use of ground control points would greatly improve the accuracy of any aerial surveys he undertook, and with many of the projects he was working on having little or no established GCP’s, he decided that the ability to establish his own would ensure total confidence in the accuracy of any aerial surveys he carried out.
Having researched various options for the precise positioning of chequer boards in wide open spaces or drains, road markings etc in urban areas, he found a perfect match for his requirements in Trimble Catalyst. Light, easy to use, compatible with his Android smartphone and by far the most cost-effective cm accurate system he could find, Neil says that he can place his GCP’s in under and hour and the cost of his Catalyst cm on-demand subscription is just £10!
3LM – a holistic approach to agriculture and the land
Yorkshire based 3LM is a member of the Savory Network, a global group that advocates, trains and supports land managers around the world to regenerate land through Holistic Management. 3LM specialises in the provision of educational and advisory services to agriculture and works with farmers who know that something needs to change, but are unsure what. Assisting this approach to change is the precise measurement and data capture of the four eco system processes fundamental to all life – water, minerals, solar energy and community dynamics.
3LM Company Director, Christopher Cooke has a strong background in both GNSS and water management and therefore turned to KOREC in his search for a cm accurate GNSS solution at the right price point. Finding the suggested Trimble Catalyst solution exceptionally easy to use and subscribe to, the company now has two systems comprising Trimble Catalyst, TDC600 logger and KOREC Capture field data capture software.
“The Trimble Catalyst system couldn’t be easier to use. It’s reliable, easy to subscribe to, and most importantly I know that our data is secure with zero chance of it being lost due to storage in both the cloud and on the TDC600. Having cm accuracy on demand allows us to accurately position any areas that we sample from and then navigate back to them at a later date for progress reporting. Additionally, the data management side of the system, developed by KOREC, really is world class.
“We have now achieved our aim of being paper free in the field and have particularly enjoyed how this technology has captured the imagination of the younger generation of farmers and land managers that we work with.”
TP Knotweed – rapid response identification and removal of knotweed
Aggressive, destructive, relentless, Japanese Knotweed is the most invasive plant in the UK and remains a major problem for the construction industry. One company specialising in its removal is Oxfordshire based TP Knotweed, a company that is prepared to invest in technology in order to increase efficiency, whether that be CRM, van trackers or new apps, or in this case Trimble Catalyst.
When TP Knotweed takes on a project, it’s vital that they have very accurate measurements as to the area of an infected site if they are to prepare an exact quote for their clients, along with a map of the project including the position of any boundaries, stockpiles trees etc.
For smaller sites, their solution was a Trimble Catalyst subscription for cm accuracy along with KOREC Capture software which could run on one of their existing Android smartphones or tablets.
TP Knotweed found the Catalyst system quick to set up and easy to use making it ideal for fast turnarounds on these sites. The company also reports that the systems are in use every day and that the quality and quantity of information they are collecting is proving vital for another of the company’s aims, to build a UK wide shareable database of knotweed contamination.
A14 Integrated Delivery Team – fast one-off positions and augmented reality in the field
The £1.5bn A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme was one of Highways England’s largest recent projects and the 34km site provided the contractors involved with a perfect testing ground on which to share new ideas and balance tried and tested technologies alongside new ways of working.
For Skanska’s Mark Lawton, Chief Engineering Surveyor, A14 Integrated Deliver Team, Trimble Catalyst provided two useful areas of investigation for potential use on future projects:
1. Contractors on the A14 scheme often required accurate positioning in ‘one off’ situations. For example, those carrying out borehole testing or soil sampling needed accurate positions either to map a new point or navigate back to a previously recorded one. However, it would not be cost-effective to send a fully trained engineer with survey grade GNSS to carry out these tasks. An obvious alternative was Trimble Catalyst, in this case using its on-demand subscription model with KOREC Capture data collection software running on the contractor’s smartphone. KOREC Capture could offer the contractors fully customisable lists, drop down boxes, mandatory fields etc which again would bring consistency of data, to the attribute information collected as well as cm positioning.
2. Mark also successfully trialled Trimble SiteVision, a system that fuses cutting-edge augmented reality technology with Trimble Catalyst centimetre-precision GPS. The end result is a system that allows you to take your models, drawings and data off the screen and onto your site. Key application areas included utility records, design information, future information and 3D models. In particular, Mark mentioned that on the A14, following the capture of hundreds of km of cable, they needed to know exactly where that cable was for a Permit to Dig. Having the information available visually through SiteVision was hugely helpful in determining where they could excavate.
Additionally, he says that SiteVision provides an easy to understand visual explanation to third parties, such as householders, as to why they are digging in a certain place.
What’s Next?
Take a look at the Trimble Catalyst product page
Watch the official Trimble Catalyst video on our YouTube channel
Make sure you follow KOREC Mapping for all the latest news, info and events
“KOREC is firmly behind all the success I’ve achieved in the last 20 years at the Northern Ireland Forest Service. The right hardware, smart data capture software development and a great working relationship enabled us to revolutionise our data collection and management capabilities.”
At the end of 2020, former Information Systems Manager with the Northern Ireland Forest Service, Jim McEwan, joined the KOREC Mapping team as Customer Success Manager. In short, he liked the product so much, he joined the company!
Over the years, Jim has clocked up extensive experience in the forestry sector spending many of them working closely with KOREC and in particular, with our KOREC Mapping Lead, Paul Brodin. Jim tells us that an old dog can certainly bring some new tricks and here at KOREC we’re delighted to have him and his extensive experience as a high calibre resource for KOREC customers.
Experience counts
As Information Systems Manager with the Northern Ireland Forest Service (an Agency of the Department of Agriculture) Jim certainly has a wealth of experience to draw on, managing and implementing many projects from the development of his own real time data reporting systems using Trimble hardware and KOREC mapping software to introducing the first senseFly drones in the UK. Working in a sector as challenging as forestry, Jim has a clear idea of what really worked for him, as a customer, from the KOREC portfolio:
- Trimble data collectors – rugged and with a strong history of achieving a good signal even under tree canopies. Having the right hardware, that works first time, every time, in challenging forestry conditions was the initial step in building web-based reporting systems that put real time data, captured with KOREC software, directly into the hands of the forest manager.
- KOREC Capture software (that became Canopy) – the seamless integration of data from the field to the database and then to the GIS, allowed me to develop my own customised applications and for the first time, managers didn’t have to spend days pouring over data collected on paper forms.
- A good working relationship with KOREC that enabled me to talk directly to developers and turn my ideas into workable solutions that revolutionised the way we collected and managed our data.
…but it’s all about the end result
During his time at the Northern Ireland Forest Service, Jim developed a suite of bespoke forestry management systems, with the KOREC Capture portal at the centre. He looked at areas such as forest inventory, asset inspection, tree safety and a wide range of other forestry management issues and produced apps that gave users the data they needed with all calculations performed and maps added as required.
But it’s all about the end result and Jim was rightly pleased with what was achieved. “The results were amazing. In one example, pre-harvesting assessment plots, the data from forest plots was collected on paper and brought into the local office at the end of the week. Previously, the forester would spend two days a week inputting this data into excel to produce the stocking, volume and timber availability reports required. Now, the data is collected in the forest using Trimble’s Geo 7X ruggedised handheld and KOREC Canopy software. Once the data is sent back, the forester has the full pre-sales breakdown available immediately on a phone, tablet or laptop. The Forest Service has gone from 6 data loggers in 2009 to 120 today revolutionising surveying and data collection across the Agency.”
Jim’s success took him further afield within the Department. He worked with the Plant Health Inspection Branch and the Veterinary Service to produce real time reporting systems for Horticulture Marketing and Plant Health Inspections and developed the reporting system for a five-year project to monitor TB in badgers.
Talking Canopy
Now, Jim brings this experience to the latest KOREC Canopy software. “In terms of British Standard Tree Inspections and Tree Safety Management, we now have the solutions to allow you to collect, record and manage data quickly and easily. Combine that, with a full suite of reporting facilities and KOREC Canopy becomes the leading solution to the collection, management and reporting of tree data.”
Make no mistake, Jim understands the job from both sides of the fence!
If you’d like to learn more about KOREC Canopy from someone who knows the industry and the software inside out, please contact Jim at: jim.mcewan@korecgroup.com or call him on 07435 986865.
Jim McEwan at the Trimble Dimensions event in Las Vegas where he presented with KOREC’s Paul Brodin
KOREC is delighted to announce the launch of KOREC Mapping in a move to consolidate and expand the KOREC offering of field to office data collection and handling solutions available across the UK and Ireland.
This development will see new partnerships announced as well as an expanded team of KOREC development, technical and consultancy professionals. This team will be on hand to deliver and support a full range of AgEagle and Parrot drones, mobile mapping systems and services, Trimble hardware and software and KOREC’s own in-house KOREC Capture range of field-based solutions.
KOREC is unique in offering all of these services as a one stop shop.
Bringing together over 50 years of combined mapping experience, backed up by specialist industry sector knowledge, this larger team will operate countrywide via a local network and will have strong links to both new partners (to be announced) and existing partners such as The Drone Pilot Academy, Ordnance Survey and Trimble.
KOREC Business Area Manager – Mapping & GIS, Richard Gauchwin said, “KOREC Mapping is offering a unique combination of hardware, software, industry specific knowledge and nationwide support, all from a one stop source. Our aim is to provide KOREC customers with a simple, easy to implement way in which to achieve their data capture and handling aims whether they be the digitisation of paper forms and automation of processes for greater efficiency, assistance with a new productive workflow or just a simple field data capture exercise.”
Find Out More
- Visit the KOREC Mapping homepage
- Watch our Video
ENDS
Stay tuned to find out more or for information on any of our products, please contact us.
