Brian Cury, CEO, Earthcam, discusses how companies can make use of new technology to manage and market their projects.What is Earthcam?
Earthcam is a company that I started in 1996. We have grown to become a leading provider of construction camera technology to the industry.
It’s a combination of construction cameras, which range from high-resolution streaming cameras and timeframe photography. We combine that with our control centre software.
The whole idea is to bring in a tool set that allows project managers, owners, architects and engineers to be able to monitor job sites remotely.
How is it used in the construction industry?
There are three ways that people utilise these camera systems.
Firstly, is to monitor the job site remotely. You can connect any web browser so you don’t need any special computers on the job site.
By doing so, you can manage the job site on the internet in real time and zoom in on details.
You can also find out certain time frames from the archives. It’s a great tool to settle disputes, to find out if a certain amount of workers did a certain thing at various times.
It’s basically recording and documenting the whole project.
So for constriction management, it’s really an important project management tool.
It’s very affective. You can have an architectural firm in New York, a contractor in Dubai and a client in another part of the world; you can log on and see the project live.
Are there any other ways it can aid the industry?
There is the other element in saving money. You don’t have to travel to the job site, especially if you’re managing numerous job sites.
You can just come into your office and manage numerous jobs on your computer.
It also helps the documentation process. By taking super-high resolution time-lapse photography you can document your project in wallpaper size imagery.
At the end of your project, you can watch the whole thing in 30 seconds, from the start to the beginning.
It is a great thing to show at the opening party of the project and this leads to the third use, which is a promotional tool.
Do you think projects are properly marketed in Dubai?
Some are, but there are so many massive projects we are seeing a big need for the developers to get the word out and get through the clutter.
When I as last in there, it seemed a lot of developers seem to be asking how they can show their project in a unique way. So much of the interest in new projects is coming via the internet, so you can put your project on the website.
Some of these projects are of such a large scope it’s unbelievable, but the word has maybe not been as spread as far as it could.
On some projects in Dubai they spend a lot of money getting a helicopter to fly over it, but all the shots are from different angles.
I think it would be more effective to have a simple shot from the same angle, every day and then be able to go to it to see the differences.
It will be an amazing historical record for the industry.
If you are a developer who has spent the last four or five years producing a masterpiece, wouldn’t you like to have your work available in a time-lapse movie?
How has Earthcam been used in other construction projects?
A typical situation is where a crane operator could say his crane was on the job, and you know it wasn’t but you couldn’t prove it.
This would lead to a dispute and a legal bill because no one really remembered exactly when it arrived.
All you have to do with Earthcam is go into the archives, pull a time and date stamp and then find out if it was there. It’s all settled and done without a lengthy lawsuit.
Or there are occasions when you pay for a crew to work on a weekend or on a holiday and they don’t turn up at all.
In the past someone would have to get in their car and drive to check on it. In places like California or Dubai, where there’s a tremendous amount of traffic, time is money so it’s a real expense.
Isn’t Earthcam an intrusion into your workforce’s privacy?
It is not about spying on the staff. It’s really about getting the bigger picture. It’s no more intrusive than having the project manager on the job site.
It’s not like these cameras are hidden or anything, it’s just about monitoring the site.
It gives a picture idea. It’s a great idea to get your head around but I really think this will be the future of project managing.
What projects has Earthcam been used on, both in this region and across the world?
Over here we have been used on Dubai Mall project, Bahrain Bay project and many petrochemical projects in other parts of the Middle East.
We have also had cameras set up at Ground Zero, on the former site of the World Trade Centre since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As well as ground zero, it has been used on the New York Yankees new baseball stadium and other new stadiums across the country.
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