OpenSpace Adds Drone Camera Support

This OpenSpace partnership takes the photogrammetry leader further toward a single version of the truth for progress tracking and visibility.

OpenSpace adds support for drone photogrammetry, following a broad market trend.
OpenSpace adds support for drone photogrammetry, following a broad market trend.
@ angkhan -- stock.adobe.com

Reality capture and AI-powered analytics leader OpenSpace has announced it will support the Insta360 Sphere, an easy-to-install dual 360° camera that can be attached to DJI Mavic Air 2 and Air 2S drones. Paired with OpenSpace's technology, drone capture with Sphere flows aerial construction views into what is becoming the industry standard platform for photogrammetry progress tracking.

READ THE IRONPROS OPENSPACE PRODUCT DEEP DIVE

This is in keeping with a trend called out by IronPros in 2022 in our analysis of the photogrammetry space and in a predictions article, both pointing out the convergence of various reality capture methodologies into shared platforms to consume the data in a single pane of glass, yielding greater transparency of project activity. In recent months, other construction technology vendors have achieved similar combinations of terrestrial and drone photogrammetry, LIDAR and other data capture through acquisitions. Hexagon AB in October acquired drone technology provider Avvir, 3D data capture leader Faro in 2021 acquired Holobuilder, for 360-degree captures and n 2022 acquired GeoSlam, a provider of mobile scanning solutions with proprietary high-productivity simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) software to create 3D models for use in Digital Twin applications. Drone software vendor DroneDeploy in October of 2022 acquired Structionsite, which similarly has a partnership to unite internet of things (IoT) data from Latium with their photogrammetry-centric project view. Propeller Aero meanwhile is augmenting its drone photogrammetry solution with its DirtBuddy offering, which captures elevation data from terrestrial equipment.

The Insta360 Sphere integration harnesses two cameras, one upward facing and one downward facing, for a 360° view where the camera is rendered invisible so drone pilots can capture all angles of a jobsite without any reflights. Sphere makes installation and flight simple with an easy locking mechanism and FlowState stabilization to ensure footage is smooth. OpenSpace is currently beta testing captures with the Insta360 Sphere to further improve capture processing, calibrations, battery life, image quality, ease of installation, elevated captures, and the multitude of angle selections. This capability will be released broadly to market later in Q1 of 2023. The Sphere joins multiple other cameras currently supported by OpenSpace including:

  • Ricoh Theta Z1
  • Insta360 One R
  • Insta360 One X
  • Insta360 One X2
  • Ricoh Theta V
  • Garmin VIRB 360 (discontinued by manufacturer)

According to an IronPros Product Deep Dive, OpenSpace employs more than 250, with a large enough salesforce at about 70 to continue its growth trajectory, and a customer success and support team of more than 50 to ensure existing customers feel the love and can grow in the solution. Recurring revenue from software subscriptions and more than $200 million in external funding provide a solid platform for growth. The company continued to receive Series D late stage venture funding as recently as August of 2022, through Taronga Group and GreenPoint Partners, proving that expert investors performing heavy analysis continue to see potential and strong position with OpenSpace. The company has raised a total of $111 million in Series D funding alone.

At the time of our latest briefing with OpenSpace, the company had 7 billion square feet of construction captured on 10,000 job sites. Their customer base includes some free version users, but the majority are paid according to company sources, and the company claims to be converting free to paid users at a rapid clip. While they enjoy a dominant position in North America, they are also launching distribution in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) through value added resellers (VARs) Sektor and in India through Enhance.

With OpenSpace Capture, users attach cameras to their hard hat, drone, robot, or other apparatus, and walk the site as they normally would. Regardless of where the camera is mounted, once the video is uploaded to the cloud, OpenSpace's computer vision technology stitches images together and pins them to the floor plan, creating a trusted visual record of site status. Powered by the company’s Vision Engine, the site image map is typically ready to view about 15 minutes after upload.

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