NOTE: various details of the following Case Study have been removed, due to commercial sensitivities. Upon request, further details may be provided upon approval by the client, and the signing of an NDA.
Spirit Telecom – Line-of-Sight verification. Spirit Telecom (now re-named to Spirit Technology Solutions) are the largest provider of Fixed Wireless internet services to businesses in Australia, and also one of the largest publicly-listed IT companies. Spirit Telecom have been using Commercial Drone Services exclusively in Melbourne since 2017 for pre-installation scopes, in order to verify Line-of-Sight for Fixed Wireless internet services, and to map out how installations will be done.
Line-of-Sight verification usually involves launching a drone from the customer’s rooftop, and looking for one of several target buildings, at various heights. The lower that the target can be spotted, the better, as that implies a lower mast for the radio. Customer buildings include multi-storey towers, office blocks, warehouses, industrial sites, construction sites, and other commercial and industrial buildings, including the occasional upmarket home office!
The target building could be up to 15km away, so in these cases, I use my H20 zoom camera on my DJI M300 drone, sometimes at up to maximum zoom. Watching my CrystalSky Ultrabright monitor to ensure that the camera stays trained on the horizon line, I manually take a sweep of overlapping photos across the predicted arc of where the target should be, at various heights. These photos are then examined on a laptop, magnified and compared to how the target should look using Google Earth, or photos of the target taken previously, to identify the target.
Photos taken are then annotated to show the target, proposed mast location, and height of mast required, along with other required info, such as the proposed path for the cable run. All photos for that site are stored in a unique folder on my Google Drive, along with a JSA, and a link to that folder is then sent to Spirit.
Operating from the customer’s rooftop usually allows me to easily obtain CASA’s mandatory 30m separation from people. This applies even if the site has lots of pedestrian traffic on the ground, and/or no outdoor area to operate from. It also makes it possible to operate the drone at low altitudes above the roof (simulating a low mast), whilst still easily maintaining CASA’s mandatory visual Line-of-Sight with the drone (impossible, if operating from the ground). Both these things are mandatory CASA safety requirements, unless an exemption has been granted. A Working at Heights certification, Boom Lift license, White Card, PPE, etc, are other mandatory safety requirements that are also frequently required for this job.
Client Testimonial:
“Peter has been flying drones for Spirit Telecom for years, whilst completing comprehensive pre-installation site assessment surveys for us.
He is punctual and diligent, with an exceptional attention to detail. This clearly shows in his notes, annotated photos, and JSAs that make up his reports to Spirit, and whilst discussing jobs with him.
This level of detail, combined with his high level of accuracy and reliability, gives Spirit’s management team great confidence that they will make the right decisions, when planning new installation works that are based largely on his surveys. Getting it right first time has huge benefits to Spirit, providing substantial cost savings and efficiencies, by avoiding failed installations and reworks.
I am confident when sending Peter to site, his work is completed with the safety of himself and the general public as his main priority. With hundreds of surveys completed for us, we have not had a single safety incident reported to us.
I’m happy to continue to highly recommend his services”.
Mathew McGrath,
Telecommunications Engineer,
Spirit Telecom P/L.
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