Lee, principal of Richard Lee & Associates, a Newport Beach-based commercial real estate consulting firm, has investors for whom he wanted to provide real-time access to the construction sites. Through RemoteVideo, based in Irvine, he was able to purchase CyberMux, a CCTV video surveillance system that has been used primarily for security purposes at retail establishments, but has applications for many other industries, including construction.
"Real estate is an old economy industry where the talent pool hasn't regenerated itself well in the past few years," Lee says. "Development and construction managers are stretched thin with geographically dispersed projects. Tools like on-site Web cams help minimize unnecessary site visits, enhance subcontractor scheduling and coordination, allow for more timely disbursals of construction loan draws and provide additional site security. CyberMux provides us with a very simple but powerful tool to compress the construction cycle and gain incremental efficiencies in what is basically a very inefficient business."
Kirk Gray, account manager for RemoteVideo, says that utilizing DSL or T1 lines and a Web browser allows clients to directly control a camera with panning, tilting and zooming capabilities, making it easy for anyone to use from a laptop or desktop computer anywhere in the world via the Internet.
"It really depends on the needs of the end users," Gray says. "They have the capability of maneuvering cameras in California from their desktop in New York using the mouse on their computer. You can look at four, nine or sixteen cameras at a time, or at a single frame or picture in a picture."
Earlier this year RemoteVideo provided similar technology for San Marcos-based contractor Lusardi Construction Co., which found that, with more than $250 million in construction revenues per year, using Internet-based video monitoring for clients reduced administrative time associated with answering progress inquiries on projects and arranging for on-site visits.
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