Insights on Construction Technology and Site Visibility

The Sun

This isn't such a big issue in Ireland, but it still needs consideration. A vantage point which has the camera facing north will produce much clearer and better images than one facing south. The effect of this can be minimised by using cameras with a Wide Dynamic Range and by various colour settings, but it needs to be thought of in advance, just in case the sun does come out.

Privacy

Quite often you will find that your vantage point unavoidably overlooks someone else's property. We've had cases where this might be a school playground or a private balcony. In both cases, it's essential that you don't capture private information that would be in breach of data protection. On most IP Cameras (including models used by Evercam) there is an option for a privacy filter which blanks out specified regions at source. This means that the private information is never captured in the first place, an essential requirement for compliance.

How high will the building be?

Duh. By seriously. Consider the vantage points suitability for the building throughout the lifecycle of the construction process. If you're going to need to change the location during the build then it's better to know that up front.

The Wind

This is particularly important when mounting onto a crane or a pole. Even if it may seem stable, small vibrations will disturb the quality of the time-lapse. In general, anything up to 2 -3 degrees can be compensated for in post production by various :anti-shake" filters which will align images that are roughly the same. If the shake is much more than that you will end up having a very cropped image.

Licences etc.

The list is long. CCTV installation in Ireland requires a PSA Licence. Drone photography requires a drone licence. Building sites will require at minimum a safe pass and most will require a method statement and possibly a site specific induction process. Fines can be imposed after the fact, so be sure that you're covered.

First, let�s ask Google, is it Timelapse, Time-lapse or Time lapse ?

Google Trends for Timelapse Time-lapse or time lapse

This article has been cross-posted on the Construction Industry Federation website.

Over the last few years, it has become standard practice to add a timelapse camera to any medium to large construction project. These cameras provide not just a fascinating collage of how a building comes together, but also a valuable record of the building process itself.

Evercam has built a solution for the construction industry that takes this a step further with the addition of a live & recorded view, available in real time to any mobile phone. Suddenly, the timelapse camera becomes an invaluable collaboration tool for everyone involved in a project.

The beauty of a timelapse camera is that it is positioned with the best overview of a building site, often from a neighbouring tall structure from where one can capture all of the activity at a single glance.

The familiar adage, a picture tells a thousand words, has never been more true.

With this information in their pocket, project managers, subcontractors, head office, health & safety officers, quantity surveyors and multiple other key stakeholders have detailed timesaving information at their fingertips. Misunderstandings are avoided, trust is increased and disputes can be resolved faster and more effectively.

Evercam has taken the best of traditional timelapse photography skills and married it with the needs of the modern building site. Our system captures, in high resolution, the entire history of the building project from breaking ground to handover.

We've built unique tools for the construction industry such as Snapmail that capture key stages in a project and send them directly by email to those who need it most. This is a great way of keeping the people in head office and those on site on the same page, directly in their inbox.

While Evercam has worked to perfect the software and technology platform for effective construction cameras, we've partnered with the best and most established construction photographers and videographers in the industry, Susan Kennedy from Lensmen & the Irish Photo Archive .  Susan's team take the raw footage and create professionally produced, marketing ready material. We can also provide on-site videography, photography and drone-videography, such as used in this video made for the Boland's Mills development.

Evercam currently has over 50 live construction cameras recording projects around Ireland and have plans to more than double that in 2017. This time, the revolution surely will be televised.

‍

Construction Time Lapse Video

In today�s world of winning bids, it�s not just about having the lowest price although it does help. It�s also about having a high quality score. Find out how time lapse video can make a difference.

Winning More Bids

The quality score shows how your business has the capacity and capability to deliver the client�s project on time, to the budget, to the performance specification and safely.

Time lapse video can show this visually. Having a library of projects that demonstrate to your client how you manage and control:

• Safety
• Time
• The environment
• Neighbour�s buildings
• Social responsibility

Clients are looking for proof that you do what you say you do. Time lapse video does this for you.

You can also tell your client that they can have an app on their phone or a daily/weekly image of the site to show progress. This gives them confidence that you have their best interest in mind.

Your clients are want more for less especially Government departments and projects. Using time lapse video you can look for waste. Reducing waste allows greater efficiency, greater efficiency means a competitive advantage higher margins and lower costs. Clients want to see high productivity, they also want you to make a profit, a failing business is no good for anyone, including your client. Highly effective businesses making a healthy profit is good business. this is what you should be promoting.

Time Lapse Video Demo

To learn more about how we can help you win more projects call Vinnie on 087 9871869 and we can give you a live presentation of the system.

The investment in your time and the system will deliver dividends for years to come. Why make life difficult when you can make it simple.

Learn more about the benefits & features that an Evercam timelapse offers.[fusion_tagline_box backgroundcolor=�� shadow=�no� shadowopacity=�0.1? border=�1px� bordercolor=�� highlightposition=�top� content_alignment=�center� link=�https://evercam.com/contact/� linktarget=�_self� modal=�� button_size=�� button_shape=�� button_type=�� buttoncolor=�� button=�Contact Vinnie� title=�Contact Vinnie for an online demo and a quote for your site.� description=�� margin_top=�� margin_bottom=�� animation_type=�0? animation_direction=�down� animation_speed=�0.1? animation_offset=�� class=�� id=�� /]

And there was us thinking we were clever with our 4k PTZ roof-mounted cameras.

Google has gone one better, watch Dubai take shape over 30 years

KatsConf 2015 is on tomorrow in Dublin and at 11:30 there�ll be a talk from Jose Garcia-Sacristan with insights into how he made it possible using the Phoenix Framework.

Nicely implemented on the dashboard by Azhar:

PTZ on Evercam Dashboard showing Pan Tilt Zoom and Presets

And on mobile by Liuting:

Good work � let�s explore.

Project: Dorset Point, Student Accommodation
Developer: 360 Developments

Contractor: Bennett�Construction

Project: Binary Hub, Bonham St
Developer: 360 Developments

Contractor: Bennett Construction
Architect: O�Mahony Pike

Project:�National Indoor Arena
Developer: Buckingham Group & Heron Brothers JV

Architect: Cooney Architects

Project: Bolands Mills
Developer: Savills

Architect: BKD.ie

Evercam�for Construction Project Management offers:

Live View | Timelapse�| Archives

Archive Your Entire Project � Online
Reduce�Site Travel CostsVisual Audit TrailDispute Resolution
Engage�StakeholdersMarketing & Social Media Collateral

Today�s release 1.0.8, of our iOS app is out today.

The major new feature is streaming video using HLS

Beautiful.

It�s been a busy few months, here are some highlights �.

We�ve moved offices � to The Waxie Dargle Pub ��(currently being refurbished)

We�ve installed a new security guard:

Charlie the cat

and some backup monitoring:

Shamoa�the �. dog?

For extra information, please contact us at evercam.com/contact

The Objective

Improve the on-boarding process and user experience by�enabling potential and current Evercam users to explore,�preview and add public cameras to their account.

Overview

Any camera added to Evercam by our users can be made public. If a user makes their camera public, it will automatically be added to our map of public cameras that�users can explore to find cameras and add them to their account.

The problems

Our current Public Camera area fails to deal with a few key issues we have identified from a development and user point of view.

#1 Camera density
We have�a large and growing number of cameras in the Evercam system. New cameras are constantly being added to the map and�particular areas have a high concentration�of cameras�resulting in a clutter of pins in a small area.

#2�Relevancy of camera to the user (by location & content
Allowing users to�explore all of our�cameras in locations relevant to them and being able to see what content the camera contains involves a lot of click and drag. The map is not searchable so the user needs to click and drag to get to a location.

Then the user needs to click on a pin to see a preview of a camera. It is not easy to get to a particular location and finding a camera with content that a user may be interested in involved a game of click and reveal. It�s certainly not fun and it�s only barely usable.

Insights

So the actionable insights which have arisen are�

a)�users need to be able to get to where they want to go to on the map quicker. ,�

b)�we need to find a better way to organise pins or cameras at different zoom levels where a large number of cameras exist and�

c)�the user needs to be able to preview cameras more easily

Inspiration

I looked around at various sites on the web that�offer a similar service.�Each of them try to deal with at least one of the above problems in some way.

wunderground.com�show a preview of the camera but don�t deal with the issue of camera clutter or search.

webcams.travel�deal with the issue of clutter from a developers perspective but give the user no indication of camera density in an area. Their solution for search leaves room for improvement.

webcamsinnorway.com�and�geocam.tv�respectively, deal with the issue of clutter nicely but still have the�issue where the user needs to click each camera pin to get a preview of the camera. So the experience from far away is good but when a user zooms in closer the click to reveal game begins.

The Solution

Having looked at various sources of inspiration from around the web and having identified the main pain points for a user when trying to find cameras, I proposed�the following design solutions.

a)�The user can either search on the map by a specific location, or search for cameras near their current location.�

b)�Where a large number of cameras exist in close proximity relative to the zoom level of the map, the number of cameras in a location is indicated by a number on top of the camera preview.

c)�a preview of the cameras currently on display in the map are shown in the�left�sidebar and a preview is put in place of the pin on the map.�Hovering over any of the in the left sidebar will reveal it�s location on the map to the user. This allows the user to search by a location they are interested in and also to browse cameras�and find cameras where purely the content of the camera is what is of interest.

Summation

All of the above references deal with at least one of the issues�that arise�for developers when trying to place a large number of cameras on the map and for users when trying to find relevant�cameras by location and content in a cluttered areas.

The proposed design is solution attempts to tackle all of the problems identified and to make it easier for potential users to discover cameras that are relevant to them either geographically or by the content they provide and ultimately to improve the overall user experience for our current and potential users.

For extra information, please contact us at evercam.com/contact

I had the good fortune of sharing a hotel with�Hans Robeers�who is working on a very cool Surf Fin Modelling tool, whose webservice is written�in Elixir. Over a few beers we decided to model the Elixir Logo

using his software:�http://hrobeers.github.io/finFoil/

Job nicely done � the logo now existed as a beautiful 3D STL model.�Download it here.

Obviously we had to find a 3D printer and get it done before Hans� lightning talk at 5pm the next day.

A bit of a search on Google, knocking on the wrong doors, some helpful strangers, nice wall art:

� �and finally I got to meet Kamil and his team at�Summer Agency

Kamil did the importing:

Loaded some suspicious white powder into his new machine:

Gave it a pat on the head:

� and Bingo !

With still time for a coffee:

Before presenting to�Jose Valim�and�Jim Freeze. :)

Here�s the presentation in full.�http://hrobeers.github.io/finfoil-elixirconfeu2015/

Our iOS app � Evercam Play is now ready for downloading on the App Store, it�s available on iPhone 4/4s/5/5s/6/6s and iPad:

Features:

• Supports a huge range of different camera types � business & residential CCTV, home & business WiFi security cameras, public webcams
• Add, edit and remove cameras from your account
• Pre-populates camera details based on vendor
• Portrait and Landscape viewing
• Save snapshots from any camera and share them with your friends & family

This version works for JPG view only, we will add RTSP support in the next release.

Evercam Play for iOS is an open source project, the source code is available on Github. If you have experience developing with iOS and IP cameras, we are happy to see your pull requests!

All functionalities are using the Evercam REST API and the Objective-C wrapper.

Suggestions and/ or bug reports welcome.