Imagine you were an owner of a facility that was under construction and you were able to see high-quality images taken of the job site with just a click of a button. And, these images would be regularly updated and readily available so that you could stay up-to-date on your project from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Clark/Sullivan uses its own customized time-lapse cameras technologies on construction projects and we believe it makes a world of difference for project owners and stakeholders. You can see what I’m talking about by visiting http://clarksullivan.com/cams.
Technology (Part 1)
Being able to quickly see high quality images of a project with a few clicks of a mouse helps involved stakeholders understand the project’s progress. Our cameras, or cams, snap 18 Megapixel shots on a custom schedule, say every 15 minutes, and then send that image to us where we do a lot of processing work to showcase it to the world. More on this later.
Schedules
For an owner or stakeholder, it’s important to see progress through schedule milestones. Sticking to a schedule is important for all parties involved and something that Clark/Sullivan takes very seriously. Take for instance the Northstar Administration & Engineering building project, which has a base elevation above 6000 ft. and is nestled in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, this means the job site has snow in the winter and snow means it takes more time to get everything done. We strive to be “Dried-In” on a building which is the idea of having the exterior of a building completed enough to be dry on the inside despite the weather on the outside. This means a lot of construction progress needs to be completed before snow starts to fall to be dried in from the concrete slab, framing, roofing, M.E.P. interconnects, to the insulation, windows, and of course roof! As you can see below in an image taken by our job site time-lapse camera, we were able to complete all exterior work before the snow started to fall and were able to continue work inside once it did.
Multiple Sets of Eyes
Sometimes there isn’t just one building to have eyes on, though. Some projects have multiple buildings and increments which adds complexity and increases the area needing eyes on it. With our time-lapse cameras we utilize a wide angle lens to be able to capture as much of a project as we can. A perfect example of this is the Sylvan Middle School project in Citrus Heights, CA which is taking an existing elementary school and creating a middle school with several new buildings!
Maintenance
These time-lapse cameras aren’t perfect and do require some maintenance in the form of a power reset or an angle adjustment to get a better view. The camera’s sit at a fixed position and snap photos throughout most of the working day. The weather plays a role and might create Van-Gogh-Esque images for our viewers because of rain and moisture on the lens. Take for example our New Gymnasium Project in Half Moon Bay, CA which is only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Rain is a constant, therefore so is maintenance.
