In the current state of mankind, telecoms dominate the way we live our lives. From cell communication, internet, and even radios, humans rely on towers to relay information. In this article, we will take a look at how point clouds in telecommunications work. By the end, you should have a clear idea of its benefits, uses, as well as possible maintenance improvements.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications, or simply telecom, refers to digital data transfer between distant places. It’s an umbrella term that covers calls, messages, chats, and even video.

In the past, the most common use of telecom was radio. However, through advancements in technology; mankind has harnessed it to give internet access.

Most modern telecom projects tackle mobile data (LTE, 5G) as well as SMS and Calling. In recent surveys, estimates show that around 63% of human population use the internet or other types of telecom. That is around 4.9 billion people!

As we lean more towards digitization and connectivity, this number will only increase. Thus, taking proper care of networks in an efficient manner is a must.

Tower Survey

For such systems to operate properly, tower inspections are necessary. These refer to activities that help maintain integrity of telecom infrastructure. Tower surveys are time-consuming activities that require lots of manpower. This is due to the numerous antennas and equipment attached to a single unit.

There is a great need to check their positioning and efficiency one-by-one, so one survey might take days to finish. Due to this, a call for a better system must be duly implemented to answer the growing needs of the people.

Benefits of Point Clouds in Telecommunications

The use of point clouds in telecommunications is a solution to this problem. These are exact measurements used to provide a digital copy of the site in the 3D space. Using laser scanning through drone footages, a 3D twin of the site is produced. Here are some benefits of Point Clouds.

Speed

The total time spent in the survey is a big concern for telco engineers. One activity can last up to a couple of days, and it reduces overall workflow efficiency.

The use of LiDAR Scanners for point cloud in tower surveys takes only a couple of hours to finish. With this, relevant personnel can tackle multiple sites in a day, and this increases turnaround ratio. Not only that, but no human error occurs as a drone scanner is precisely utilized.

Return of Investment

While one might argue that 3D scanning towers is not economical, I beg to differ. In the long run, the accumulated expenses of manual survey will surpass drone surveying. Thus, LiDAR scanning is the way to go in this field.

Also, one should take note that productivity is greatly increased with point clouds. Instead of tackling only one site per day, multiple surveys can be implemented.

Collaboration

The greatest benefit of point clouds lies in the fact that the data are transferrable. This means that one can instantly send site survey from the field to the office. Also, viewing the project is fairly easy across different engineers and inspectors. This is due to the different software that are capable of viewing the point cloud data for presentation purposes.

ScanX: Point Clouds in Telecommunications

Searching for a point cloud viewer and editor to take your surveys to a whole new level? ScanX is the way to go! Our online software has many features such as automatic classification and noise removal. Here are some other advantages that we bring to tower surveys.

Suitable File Types

ScanX enables the use of different file types for your convenience. Thus, it does not matter whether you want to use drafting or modeling software; we are ready for it.

Powerline Surveys

Curious how connected wires to the tower or transmission site affect operations? ScanX is able to conduct powerline surveys! With this, your business will have the advantage of uninterrupted operations for years to come.