Europe’s largest maize maze is back and it’s even better than last year, all set out with some special assistance from a KOREC supplied Trimble TDC650 handheld GNSS.
If there’s one thing that we can rely on from Tom Pearcy, Maze Master at York Maze, it’s a fantastic theme for this annual attraction. Over the years, we’ve been delighted to help him out with the loan of various high-accuracy Trimble GPS systems for setting out the intricated designs. Our favourite? Well, it’s a toss-up between ‘40 years of Star Wars’ and ‘90 years of Lego play’.
So, what have we got for this year? Here’s a clue:
I’m the scariest creature in the deep dark wood, with my terrible tusks and my terrible claws!
Yes, the theme for 2024 is 25 years of The Gruffalo, and as ever it covers over 5km of pathways cut into the 15-acre field. Tom chose the theme because “…I used to love reading The Gruffalo to my children, it is something that appeals to grown-ups too. My design celebrating 25 Years of The Gruffalo has been cut out using Trimble GPS technology supplied by KOREC to plot the pathways. It is nerve-wracking because I can’t tell if I’ve made a mistake and put a path in the wrong place until July when the maize plants are fully grown and the final image is revealed.”
A couple of years ago, Tom revealed exactly how the maize magic happens and why the Trimble TDC650 is helpful.
“We’ve come a long way since our first creation in 2002. Back then our mazes were based on just lines and circles drawn onto graph paper and in the field, we used sticks and strings to set out the design, a time-consuming exercise which could take two weeks or more.
Today the process is much more straightforward. Our theme is designed in a basic drawing package and then uploaded onto our Trimble handheld GNSS. We then go out into the maize field and effectively create the biggest dot to dot in the world!
Using the map on the handheld, I plot out the design amongst the 6” high maize plants, marking the points as I go, whilst a cultivator follows on behind.
The TDC650 has been great for mapping out the maze, it holds its accuracy all day long, and it didn’t lose its connection for the whole time we used it, something the previous models could be prone to. The accuracy allows us to create ever more complex mazes, that look truly amazing from the sky!”
York Maze is open for visitors to explore from Saturday 15 July to Monday 2 September 2024 when the crop will be harvested. Book tickets here.
If you’d like to learn more about the Trimble mapping systems, call our KOREC Mapping Team on UK: +44 (0) 345 603 1214 or Ireland +353 (0) 1456 4702
We’re delighted to announce that KOREC’s new Mapping and GIS Business Manager is one of the best-known names in the industry, and with over 30 years of experience, he most definitely lives and breathes all things geospatial!
The KOREC Mapping team from left to right: Darrell Theobalds (Geospatial Technical Support – MGIS), Rob Partridge (MGIS Customer Success Manager), Nadia Oliveira (MGIS Account Manager) and John Cartledge (Mapping and GIS Business Manager).
Starting his careers with a degree in civil engineering, most people will know John Cartledge from his two decades at Ordnance Survey where he undertook a number of positions that saw him working in consultancy, commercial sales, operations, project management and development roles. He therefore has an extremely strong understanding of the unique business challenges that KOREC’s mapping customers face whether they be geospatial professionals introducing new workflows or those working in other industries with a requirement for high accuracy positioning.
Based on his 30 years within the industry, John brings with him four core beliefs, all of which align seamlessly with KOREC’s capabilities:
- Problems are there to be solved: The KOREC mapping team boasts extensive experience across diverse markets and is adept at understanding the different needs of all stakeholders involved in a project. In particular, KOREC and John have been in the mapping GPS business for the same length of time – since the beginning!
- A new workflow isn’t about wholesale change: We understand that whilst it’s all about the end data, organisations seek this result with the least disruption to their business. Just one of KOREC’s specialist areas is digitising existing workflows, another one is working with what you’ve got whether that be existing software or hardware. Compatibility is key!
- Value for money is a key customer requirement: The business case is the first step in any new project and the numbers have to add up – Trimble’s Catalyst system, a subscription GNSS with cm accuracy is one of KOREC’s most workable solutions.
- You’re never just buying a product, you’re also buying into the company’s ethos: When you work with KOREC, you can rest assured that you’re in good hands because every day, we strive to meet our five principles of TRUST; Transparent, Reliable, Understanding, Supportive and Timely. We also have a Technical Support team that’s consistently mentioned for its performance in going ‘above and beyond’
John can be contacted at john.cartledge@korecgroup.com or on +44 (0) 7870 894151
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.
Maps – they’re made to show us where we are, where we’re going, and how to get there. Right? Well, partly. Here at KOREC, we’re self-confessed mapping addicts, and we know that maps are so much more than this.
So, to celebrate the arrival of KOREC Mapping in May, we asked our colleagues to send us their absolute favourite map, and to tell us why they love it so.
From the sheer range of entries received, we see that maps can educate, inform, inspire – make us laugh, make us nostalgic, and yes, even occasionally let us lose ourselves.
Journeys through Space…
An ‘absolutely mad’ 115ha area of Russia was the choice of Harriet Brewitt. Known locally as ‘Saatse Boot’, the small area of Russia cuts a boot shape into Estonian territory, meaning the Estonian road 178 crosses the border twice and passes through Russian territory for around 1km. Whilst driving the road is allowed, stopping is not, and neither are pedestrians – as the signs on Google streetview attest!
Speaking of driving, Jim McEwan’s map shows us that in just 9 minutes he can be in his favourite pub, the White Horse! But don’t worry – his wife is very kindly doing the driving, or in Jim’s words – “she literally drives me to drink…and then home again”
And speaking of pub crawls, how’s this? Philip McCarten’s favourite map combines his passions of map-making, GIS data and a cheeky tipple to highlight all 24,727 pubs in the UK – and the shortest route between them! And before you ask – if you travelled on foot, it would take you 3 years to visit every single one of them.
…And Time
For Rob Judge, a classic map from the medieval world was his choice. The Mappa Mundi, made in around 1300, shows the world as it was understood by Christian Europe – with Jerusalem at its heart. Why is it such a marvel? For Rob, it’s the achievement of “producing a map with very limited technology, communications and the ability to travel long distances. A wonderful bit of history”.
Going further back, Simon Evans’ map shows a time when the United Kingdom was intimately connected to mainland Europe. No, not 2016, rather 16,000BC, when sea levels were much lower and a vast area of land known as ‘Doggerland’ occupied much of the present-day North Sea.
Coming back into the near-present, Lloyd Wilkinson submitted not 1 but 3 maps from the excellent collection at the National Library of Scotland of the same area – his hometown of Northampton. The series of maps from 1900 to 1935 show the rate of change and growth as the town experienced rapid industrialisation, a cause close to Lloyd’s heart as he studied urban industrial growth at university.
Up High….
Satellite imagery and remote sensing has transformed our understanding of the world and our sense of place. For Tracy Critcher, a Google satellite map of her childhood home of Chiswick brings back many happy memories of her Dad rowing down the ‘mighty river Thames’, summer days outside the pub, and of course, the biggest ice cream shop EVER. Couldn’t be put better than Tracy herself ‘ “the map looks busy because it is filled with life”
And down low…
From London to the remote north-west Highlands of Scotland, Laura Harper has chosen this geological map of Loch Assynt. Laura spent a happy six weeks mapping the shore of the loch for her Geology dissertation – despite almost constant rain and the dreaded Scottish flesh-eating midges!
This map combines the geological data of some of the oldest rock formations in the UK, whilst also being a work of art in its’ own right.
Maps as works of Art
And speaking of art, Karen Wentworth has chosen Stephen Walter’s Map of Liverpool (2008-09), a vast, beautiful hand-drawn and insanely detailed map of the city. As a proud Scouser, Karen loves this map due to the sheer amount of local history, knowledge, and local scouse lingo featured – not to mention the two famous football clubs, and of course Crosby, home of KOREC’s Liverpool office!
Literary Maps
Another Liverpool colleague, Richard Selby has chosen the map from the novel ‘Secret Water’ – from the Swallows and Amazons series of books by Arthur Ransome. In the story, the Swallows’ father maroons the children on the island with just the outline map of the area – leaving the gang to survey the land and fill in the gaps! Perhaps reading the novel as a 10-year old inspired Richard for a career in surveying?!
Maps as Nostalgia
To complete our tour through this world of maps, we look at three maps that create or inspire happy memories.
Graham Sharp’s map of Walt Disney World reminds him of the many smiles that this place has brought him and his family, young and old, over the years.
For Kirsten Moss, this jigsaw map of France, purchased when her daughter was 3 years old, brings back many happy memories of French family holidays over the years. Daughter Ruby would love pointing out all the places she’d been, as well as all the different regional birds, animals and foods! So much so, the jigsaw map still hangs on her bedroom wall to this day.
Our final map, another bedroom wall classic, comes from Melvin Penwill. Melvin has unashamedly passed his love of maps onto his son Jacob – who loves to point out all the places his Daddy has visited, as well as discovering the animals and where in the world they live. Jacob’s favourite place on the map? The UK, because this is home.
Thank you to all our map contributors, we had such a great time poring over all your entries.
- Find out more about KOREC Mapping
- Watch the Mad about Maps video on our YouTube channel
“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 that following extensive behind the scenes work demonstrating our ongoing commitment to support the Esri user community, we have been recognised officially as an Esri Silver Tier Business Partner.
This new status will further strengthen the KOREC/Esri relationship allowing KOREC to offer Esri’s ArcGIS software as part of its mapping portfolio to new and existing KOREC customers.
Silver Tier status will also provide Esri UK’s customers with access to KOREC’s in-house software development team and its specialist knowledge on the integration of Trimble GNSS into Esri mobile data capture software.
Potential development for Esri clients will include everything from small tweaks to bespoke workflows based on the ArcGIS system, bringing all the power of their existing software but with customisation options for specific data capture workflows.
The Trimble Catalyst solution with a TDC600
The KOREC mapping team will also be available to assist Esri users with the integration of GNSS into their workflows with up to centimetre positional accuracy. Esri users will now have access to the most cost-effective method possible for cm accuracy by means of Trimble’s subscription based, low cost Catalyst solution.
To discuss all development requirements please contact KOREC Business Area Manager – Mapping & GIS, Richard Gauchwin on 07786 118436 or at richard.gauchwin@korecgroup.com
Or visit www.korecgroup.com/mapping
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.
Customised reporting for different sectors, simplifying your workflows without compromising on detail
New partnerships with the biggest names in mapping, to help you discover #morethanamap
Stay tuned to find out more or contact us.
