New digitally-enabled CCTV vans will ‘transform’ service

Drainage and wastewater specialist Lanes Group plc is introducing new CCTV drainage survey vans with advanced digital data processing for faster and more effective reporting of survey data.

The next generation vehicles also have improved systems for safer equipment handling and a range of features for improving the welfare of drainage engineers.

The first CCTV survey vans have been delivered to the Lanes Manchester HQ centre, ready to be deployed to depots across the UK.

One will be on show at the Lanes stand at the National Drainage Show at ExCel in London on the 9^th and 10^th November.

The vans support Lanes’ drive to introduce centralised processing of survey data that is making survey reporting faster, more comprehensive, and more sustainable.

Lanes CCTV Systems Manager Chris Wilde said: “Lanes has always been at the forefront of CCTV drainage survey technology and these new vans take our capability to a new level.

“They combine the most up-to-date WinCan drainage survey software, including elements that are bespoke to Lanes, and computer systems with the latest Cloud-based data management capability.

“This means we can more easily send data remotely between the vans and out CCTV processing centre in Manchester to provide clients with a faster and more responsive survey reporting system.

“We can accelerate our response times to survey requests and greatly shorten, in most cases, the timescales for providing clients with survey reports. They’ll help us transform our survey services.”

Lanes technicians and senior manager, as well as customers, will be able to remotely view data and CCTV video footage as it is being recorded to guide field teams and speed up decision-making.

The CCTV survey vans carry a remote reel CCTV camera system as well as two robotic crawler cameras, one for narrow and standard pipes, the other for surveying pipes and culverts with diameters up to 1200mm.

The crawler camera reel carries an extended 300m cable, which can be detached and mounted on a trolley for carrying out crawler camera surveys in locations the vans cannot reach.

The robotic cameras are mounted on pull-out trays to make it easier and safer to load and unload them with the least amount of manual handling.

Each van has improved welfare facilities, including the latest hand sanitation and washing equipment, an electric drinks heater and a microwave oven.

Chris Wilde said he is already collaborating with colleagues in the Lanes utilities division, working for Thames Water, on further upgrades to take advantage of rapid advances in data and sewer investigation technologies.

He added: “Our CCTV camera units are central to every service we delivery, including drain unblocking, culvert cleaning and pipe lining and we want Lanes customers to always get the best service.

“The enhanced digital communication capabilities of these vans is helping us break down barriers between our field, technical and management teams, and between us and our customers.

“They’ll open up a world of possibilities in terms of better decision-making, for example carrying out more first-time fixes, that will help us to reduce our customers’ costs and their carbon footprints.”