Webinar: How Can IoT Support Geotechnical Monitoring?
Adroit’s general manager Guy Macpherson joined Tonkin & Taylor senior engineering geologist Benjamin Westgate, EWS global business development manager Liam Jeffares and host Monique Strawbridge for a webinar discussing new IoT Environmental Monitoring technology and its application for industry, construction, and infrastructure.
The panel represented three of the most experienced practitioners working at the coal face of IoT Environmental Monitoring. Participants from a wide range of organisations tuned in to the discussion asked questions and spent an hour immersing themselves in the topic.
Benjamin Westgate spoke with knowledge gleaned from 17 years’ experience across 20 countries ranging from Europe to Eurasia, Russia, and now Australasia. From working underground stabilising 800 houses in Bath, southwest of England, to Australasia’s wide-open spaces, Ben has continued to innovate, seeking ways to improve data quality and enhance performance. His current focus is on optimizing remote data captured through IoT devices in sectors ranging from water, energy, transport, ecology, wasteland, coastal industry, and natural hazards.
Liam Jeffares is in a unique role at EWS, seeing geotech monitoring technology in action firsthand, in Australia’s massive mining sector. Liam’s 12 years of experience in remote environmental and geotechnical monitoring started in New Zealand, initially on the Waterview Tunnel project in Auckland, before moving to Australia, where he eventually found his way to EWS. Now he assists in growing the presence of their unique product range internationally and was proud to open the EWS office in Sydney in 2019.
Adroit’s own general manager Guy Macpherson has expert IoT solution knowledge gained from his on-the-ground experience implementing successful environmental solutions across a range of industries, from aquaculture and construction to catchment groups, utility providers, as well as primary industry clients.
Guy says key points of discussion in the webinar and questions from viewers, centered around: “What do you use the data for, and how does that help business?” he says?”
Rather than just getting a huge amount of data from environmental sensors, businesses are wanting to understand what insights that data can provide in terms of process and risk management and ROI
Guy says that Adroit, working with EWS and Tonkin Taylor bring unique capability in the IoT marketplace, giving customers access to real learned experience in the field.
“EWS is a company that set out to solve a problem within the geotechnical space. So, you’ve got a very targeted technology for a specific problem. And I think that they bring a unique perspective on the collection of the data, the utilisation of the data, and the technology involved,” he says
And it’s really exciting seeing companies like Tonkin + Taylor, industry leaders within the consulting space looking at how they can use IOT solutions to do more for their clients
Another key point of discussion is monitoring by satellite versus Cat-M1, arising from the kind of weather incidents we’ve had recently in New Zealand.
“If a cell tower goes down, suddenly you can lose connectivity two or three days. When you have a key infrastructure being monitored on satellite and being each by individual points, you’ve got a real redundancy there to make sure that you’re going to get that important data throughout any scenario.”
If you’re monitoring a slip, where there’s potential for road closure or potential loss of life, that’s really important data.
So, it’s about looking at: “What are the requirements? What are we doing? What are the outcomes if we don’t have that data? And that will drive the type of solution that you have.
For more information about the broad capabilities of the Adroit