quad-view dashboard DeVELOPMET
for The construction activities

about client

Suffolk came to us to manage a quad-view dashboard for their construction activities.
The video feeds would be displayed at their Corporate HQ and allow executives to see all active construction sites.

Located in the vibrant SOMA district, Suffolk’s new San Francisco headquarters is a workplace and showpiece that represents the national construction company’s vision to “transform the construction industry by building smart”. Thoughtful programming and space planning are coupled with a bright white and light wood palette punctuated by Suffolk’s signature red color
to create an environment that encourages collaboration, communication, and the use of cutting-edge technology.

In trying to predict the potential impact of the early warning system, a conservative assumption is useful:

If only 1 in 4 predicted incidents are avoided, a company with 50 projects/ year can avoid 40-100 incidents/year.
At an estimated cost of roughly $36,000/incident (in 2018 dollars,) that’s somewhere between $1.4M and $3.6M in safety related savings per year.
If we assume that 50% of the alerts from the “early warning system” result in preventing an incident (a more likely assumption), the financial benefits are double this amount.

challenge

The cameras were positioned near the on-going construction and fed to a local computer.

The computer had access to Wi-Fi so we knew the possibilities of connecting the feed but were unaware of the latency issues that might be caused.

Also, some of the cameras were taking pictures rather then providing a constant video feed posing an additional challenge.

solution

Our team worked to diagnose the the latency issues and quickly provided a solution to receive four consistent video feeds into one browser window. From there adding overlays, refresh buttons, and company branding rounded out the deliverables.

The result was a browser window displaying four live feeds and adaptable to any monitor including televisions.

Before launching we studied statustics over a 3 year period where the predictions could
be compared to what was known to have happened:

Over the 3 year period, 20% of all incidents at an 80% accuracy rate were predicted, when the manager elected to receive 4 alerts/year, with one of the 4 being a “false alarm.”
If the manager was open to more alerts, they could be warned of a full 40% of incidents, with 66% accuracy (2/3 of predicted incidents occurred, or roughly 12 alerts/year, with 4 being “false alarms”).

impact

The team was unaware of the location in which the video feeds would be utilized or viewed from.

After a few months after delivery, one of our team members found the images listed on this page and we were in awe of the results!