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Leading Mining Company Praises New Optech Services Product

One of the largest mining corporations in the world recently expressed satisfaction with repair and turnaround times for its Optech Cavity Monitoring Systems (CMS).  When they purchased multiple CMS-V400 units in 2011 for their Sudbury, Ontario-area operations, dependability and up-time were among their highest priorities. After examining the marketplace, the client decided that Optech was best suited to provide a customized support regime aimed at maximizing the up-time of its systems. Possibly the most important element was the need for such a support system to accommodate the real possibility of simultaneous occurrences at different mines. Commenting favorably on Optech's 24/7 response, rapid turn-around time and dedicated customer support, a company official recently thanked Optech for having met this client's expectations. Optech Services was pleased to receive confirmation of their efforts, and looks forward to providing other customers with industry-leading support in the years to come.

Applications, Tradeshows and More on New Optech Website

We launched

Turbid water, muddy seafloors, and shallow depths have historically been a challenge for lidar bathymeters, greatly restricting their potential target areas. Now, Optech has released the CZMIL HydroFusion Turbid Water Module, a powerful new tool that has successfully extracted valid bottom returns from previously impossible conditions, including very shallow waters (depth <1-2 m) with high turbidity (K_d > 0.5 m^-1) and dark, muddy bottoms (reflectance = 3-5%). With the Turbid Water Module, users of the  Optech CZMIL can venture into large new areas inaccessible to other lidar bathymeters and even survey right up to the edge of the shoreline for a seamless bathymetry/topography transition.

Visitors to SPAR International 2014 got the first chance to see the new, compact installation design for the   Lynx MG1 Mobile Mapper™. The mapping-grade Lynx MG1 was designed for users wanting the best-in-class laser data quality of the survey-grade Lynx SG1, while only needing mapping-grade accuracy and a lower price point. Optech has now refined the design to improve installation speed and flexibility. The new design fits a lidar sensor, IMU, GNSS antenna and optional Ladybug® camera together on a single platform, that minimizes the footprint and installs on a vehicle's in minutes. Click on the link to learn more today.

Marc Cheves, editor of The American Surveyor, recently stopped by Optech to talk with CEO Don Carswell, and the results of his visit are detailed in a company profile titled 3D Pioneers-A Visit to Optech. Marc got the inside story of how Optech's acquisition by Teledyne Technologies has tripled the company's R&D budget, why Optech is focusing so strongly on the automated rectification capabilities of Optech Lidar Mapping Suite, and what causes Optech's oscillating scanner technology to provide superior results to competing polygonal scanners. The article also covers some of Optech's early history, describing how it grew from an offshoot of founder Allan Carswell's scientific research into the worldwide high-tech company that it is today.

Promoting Standards Through Use Cases

In his latest article in LiDAR News, Optech Development Manager Chris Siebern explores issues related to the adoption of standards and related barriers to growth in the mobile lidar mapping segment. He presents the issues first from the point of view of someone outside the lidar mapping industry. He then clearly demonstrates a solution by applying mapping guidelines and documenting results from an actual Optech Lynx mobile mapping survey. He makes the point that performance-based specifications benefit both owners and service providers: Owners can contract for mobile mapping services without an expensive investigation of the technology, while service providers, thanks to some forethought in their tools and equipment, can prove to their clients that the project meets specifications without a lot of extra work. Chris Siebern is a seasoned geospatial technologist, professional engineer and land surveyor specializing in integrating emerging data collection technologies with infrastructure and industrial design and operations services.

Accurate but Fast Surveys with ILRIS and Aerial Triangulation

 

Towill Finishes Surveying Bay Bridge with Orion ALTM

Towill, Inc. recently completed a decade of surveying the construction of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, finishing their work in style with an as-built survey of the new eastern span using the Optech Orion ALTM. As described in a recent article for Professional Surveyor magazine, the challenge was to fit the survey in a very short window before the bridge was opened to traffic, so operators used the real-time data display and on-the-fly plan adjustments of Optech FMS NAV to make sure they caught the entire span in a single flight. The new span, built for improved seismic resistance in light of the damage caused by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, holds world records as the longest self-anchored suspension bridge, and as the widest bridge, with 10 lanes of traffic plus a bike path.

Optech is committed to manufacturing a superior product and providing timely, value-added assistance to our customers. A knowledgeable and helpful group of instrument professionals we call Optech Services remains on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you get the best from your product. Every new system carries a 12-month manufacturer's warranty, and for continued support of customer systems, Optech is committed to offering a service plan to meet your needs for 7 years (5 years camera) post-production. Service plans may continue to be offered beyond this period, subject to parts availability. To protect your investment beyond the manufacturer's warranty, Optech offers Service and Support Plans that are renewable annually, maintaining your investment over the long term.