February 2012, Vol. 67 No. 2
Features
SDT’s Enhanced GIS Overlay System Offers Telecom Opportunities, Benefits
Southern Diversified Technologies (SDT), a multi-disciplined telecommunications infrastructure services company based in Brookhaven, MS, has developed a method for using GIS (geographic information system) technology to design and build telecommunications projects.
GIS technology integrates hardware, software and data for capturing, managing, analyzing and displaying all forms of geographically referenced information, explains James Ezell, SDT president.
“The telecommunications industry has lagged behind other industries for employing GIS technology in outside plant engineering and construction,” says Ezell. “However, in the past few years this technology has significantly advanced, especially for mapping using GPS hardware and software which offer many benefits for telecommunications projects that include significant segments of underground construction.”
Ezell says that SDT, in conjunction with partners, Clearion Software and Esri, has developed proprietary GIS field data collection capabilities that enable fast, precise, wireless uploads of field verified construction data to the web, based on information collected as the project is being constructed. This is accomplished in the field via a hand-held device being used by the construction supervisor or inspector.
SDT’s GIS process integrates orthophotography, global positioning system (GPS) overlays, real estate data and other information with project management software, and with a mobile GIS application built by Clearion Software and ArcGIS technology from Esri. Using the system, SDT personnel can engineer and construct a project using absolutely accurate information taken in the field with tablet computers and, when appropriate, aerial photography.
“Real-time as-builds are made as the project is constructed,” he continues. “Reports can be seen on an iPhone, iPad, or Android device showing route construction and as-builds as the field engineer syncs daily to the server. Actual up-to-date invoicing is automatically checked for errors.”
Unique approach
Ezell says the technology is being used with great success on turnkey design/build projects for Long Term Evolution (LTE) backhaul and large engineering projects that include installation of underground fiber to connect towers. SDT has developed its own leading-edge approach for combining the latest GIS, aerial and remote data capture, and mobile computing technologies. Ezell sites key benefits as:
• Significant reduction in project timelines and cost management at a cost commensurate with conventional approaches;
• Creates transparency in project progress;
• Improves quality of deliverables without increasing costs; and
• Can lower long-term maintenance costs for owner/operators if the final GIS data is leveraged.
“SDT is not the first or only contractor to apply GIS-based technology to the telecom industry,” says Ezell. “But we are unique in using many applications of several technology layers and weaving them together, specifically applying LIDAR [optical remote sensing technology that can measure the distance to a target or other properties by illuminating the target with light] and high resolution orthophotography [geometrically corrected, ‘orthorectified’ photography so the scale is uniform — the photo has the same lack of distortion as a map].”
This, he explains, enhances desktop engineering capabilities through greater detail and resolution with tighter survey data tolerance. SDT also continues to tweak various capabilities to meet the needs of specific customers and projects with the ultimate goals of providing value and speed to market for clients always at the forefront.
To test the process and prove its capabilities, SDT initiated a trial project at its own expense with one of the company’s largest customers.
“We wanted to prove to ourselves and our customer that GIS technology as we applied it is the wave of the future,” says Ezell.
Following the successful test, the new applications and processes were used on a large engineering project that was completed in record time and at budgeted targets.
“With success under our wings and fear of the unknown behind us and our customers, the attitudes began to change,” said Ezell. “Now we have customers requiring many of the components we brought to market as part of their design specification packages.”
What is the future for GIS technology applied to telecommunications construction and other markets?
Actually, answers Ezell, the power industry has been using some form of GIS technology in infrastructure designs for many years.
“We have simply taken a proven technology and process used successfully in other industry sectors and applied those same processes to the telecom sector,” he continues. “SDT has morphed and applied several different technologies from military, motion picture and other industry applications such as transmission and pipeline mapping.”
Other market opportunities
As well as communications, Ezell believes there are great opportunities for SDT to utilize its experience and capabilities in all industries and sectors, including oil and gas transmission and distribution pipelines, water, gas and sewer construction.
“With the multiple layer capabilities in a geographic information based system, the various sectors of an industry can benefit — from right-of-way acquisition and legal issues, through operations and network management,” he says. “This process then enables the digitization of all engineering and construction drawings, network documents and so on. We feel this is the way of the future with more and more processes being pushed out to the field level and the end results being available to all process stake holders via the digitization of the information in real or close-to-real time.
“The processes we’ve developed, and continue to develop, will eventually allow a project manager, his subordinates as well as the executives above him, to watch their project in real time as it’s being designed, engineered and constructed and then to have the end results saved in a digital environment which they can access from anywhere a network connection can be found.”
Will higher planning and engineering costs slow the application of GIS technologies in construction?
“I would not describe the process as ‘costly’,” answers Ezell. “Pricing is very competitive with traditional mapping and design, regardless of project size. The big difference between GIS and conventional methods is the amount of detailed data that can be provided by GIS. And the speed to market and overall quality of service is exponentially greater than traditional methods with costs in line with traditional methods.”
The greatest advantage for any scale project is speed to market and quality of the deliverables, Ezell believes.
“While it may take weeks or months — depending on project size — to gather all the field data using traditional methods,” he explains, “we are able to greatly improve most schedules and get permit applications and construction ready prints much earlier than ever before possible. To repeat, we can do this at the same price points as traditional methods.”
GIS requirements vary with each job. Ezell says SDT evaluates the needs of each client and project to determine the best scenario for cost and productivity efficiency to determine what technologies need to be brought into the project. Not every job requires the low level aerial data capture. Some may require a mobile, truck-mounted data capture. A project may or may not require LIDAR and/or orthophotography. Once the project is reviewed, the options and pricing can be established for the client to make the final choice.
“We are excited about opportunities to partner with our competitors in a design-build scenario where we can be the design partner on the project utilizing the GIS processes and capabilities we’ve developed in conjunction with our business partners,” Ezell concludes.
FOR MORE INFO:
Southern Diversified Technologies, (770) 554-4011, www.sdt-1.com
Building SDT’s GIS System
To develop its GIS design/build system and the process for executing it, Southern Diversified Technologies drew from its widely diverse capabilities in construction, disaster readiness and restoration to engineering, aerial surveillance and web based data support.
“In the past,” said SDT President James Ezell, “we had utilized various aerial data capture technologies for disaster surveillance and web-based reporting in order to develop route feasibility and detailed design services for large scale construction projects. SDT was asked to provide a quick field analysis of a large scale network build and began exploring ways to do this more efficiently than using past processes. Utilizing all of the pieces from our past experience and deploying technology used in various other industries, we came up with a plan. The plan entailed the use of many elements ultimately incorporated in our GIS system: helicopters, LIDAR, orthophotography, GIS and existing data overlays and thus Aerial Data Capture was born for the application of telecommunications mapping to a more detailed level than offered before.”
The presentation was impressive and its cost was comparable to convention methods, said Ezell, but the out-of-the-box, new way of doing things was not one that this client was comfortable with at that time. GIS processes are now a fixture in SDT’s turnkey and stand-alone engineering service offerings. SDT currently is utilizing these new processes and technologies on large scale turn-key fiber-to-the-cell site deployments.
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