This is a multimodal problem to solve; even though we had suppliers, manufacturers, laboratories, regulators, waste management, academia and design engineers in the room, we accepted not everybody was represented who needs to be.
Lamont feels we need to slow down to go faster here, deploying simple, smart construction technology solutions to unlock sites.Afterall, construction sites are temporary in nature, and contain vast amounts of data which isn’t currently being tracked, but easily could be with existing tech.
In reality, there’s no need for 5G technology in order to obtain the data we’re looking to gather onsite, Lamont says.Still, that’s primarily what we’re hearing about these days.In actual fact, what we really need are low-power devices to gather information about simple things.
We need to know where a particular machine is located, whether it’s vibrating, how noisy it is, and what the light and temperature readings are.. All of this information can be done on devices that are already in plentiful supply.All that’s needed is something like a LoRaWAN network to connect to.
LoRaWAN is a long-range, wide-area network on a different frequency band to WiFi.
As a result, it doesn’t compete with cell phones and other devices connected via WiFi on construction sites.Testing out some different business models on live construction projects would be risky, she says, but also a magnificent opportunity.. Bryden Wood has previously discussed the fact that the issues currently holding back the construction industry aren’t the technical aspects, but rather the cultural issues, insurances, warranties etc.
In essence, we need someone to take the brakes off, overcoming the friction and constraints.COVID-19 facilitated that to a certain extent, with companies forced to transition to digital very quickly and managing to do so successfully.
However, while every other sector has experienced disruption to their business model creating major changes, construction is very risk averse and the implications are long-term.To get a digital thing slightly wrong has, in a sense, a transience that doesn’t matter.