New Role Needed for Reality Data: Producer

There is a huge wave of 3D reality, conceptual, and design data being created by skilled practitioners. Yet what may be needed to orchestrate these into rich experiential productions is a "producer".

On a half dozen occasions this past year, at conferences and exhibitions, I heard people from medium-to-large geospatial services firms lament that while they had associates that were greatly skilled at reality capture, 3D conceptualization and design, what they really lacked was a “producer”.  They said they needed a new kind of project manager. There are design and construction project managers, but who could deftly oversee the production of marketing, design collaboration, stakeholder and public engagement multi-faceted and visually rich 3D “products”?

The infrastructure sector, architecture-engineering-construction (AEC), virtual design and construction (VDC), has amazing tools and software for reality capture: terrestrial and drone-based laser scanners and photogrammetry, mobile mapping systems, hand-held and backpack SLAM scanners and camera systems. The prevalence of these systems has spawned a new career sector: “reality capture specialists”. It is so popular that many newer surveyors and geomatics specialists prefer to use that as a title. A tsunami of reality data is being produced daily and will only increase.

Likewise, digitization and automation in engineering design software is leading to an eventual dominance of 3D design models, with subsequent construction and operational phases of infrastructure life cycles benefiting from this new “digital twin” world. Geospatial sector conferences, where folks had talked about needing new “producer” roles, like the Year In Infrastructure – Going Digital Awards, GeoWeek, and the GoGeomatics Expo were dominated by reality capture, digital twins, and 3D modeling themes.

However, the 3D reality and design data are not always leveraged to their full potential. The skilled practitioners how create the data do not always have the skills to put it all together for lateral uses. And sometimes those can be crucial to the success of a project, especially in how it is conveyed to investors, owners, stakeholders, regulators, and thew public.  All too often we still see tired PowerPoint presentations that static images of 3D elements, embedded clips of “fly-throughs”, or links to 3D share sites (that often seem to fail during presentations). Instead, the relevant information could be added to 3D environments with pre-designed, well-produced, access pathways for the various needs. More akin to a film or video production than an engineering PowerPoint presentation.

The gaming industry already has professional producer roles, orchestrating and synchronizing the visuals, 3D models, sounds, music, and overall tone with the game rules and spatial constraints. The same kind of symphonic harmony should (and eventually will) be achievable for the infrastructure and AEC industries.

Imagine your geospatial firm is being tasked with the reality capture for a proposed large scale transportation project. You employ your reality capture specialists with their scanners and drones, produce a precise and complete 3D reality model of the existing site, Your “reality data producer” confers with the design firm, the general contractor, and the project owners to map you the enhanced 3D products that they will need for exploring design alternatives, collaborative design and construction, public engagement, and impressing the funding entities. The design software and collaborative space platforms they plan to use are considered, and a dynamic “production” is developed, adaptable to anticipated needs (and adapt to any that might pop up along the way).

There are some amazing solutions for immersive 3D experiences, even in the infrastructure and AEC space (where gaming engines are being integrated into design software). Bentley Systems has the iTwin Experience, for conceptualization, but also design and construction phases. Trimble has SiteVision, that can be used for a variety of phases including AR design alternatives checking and construction layout. There is also their Virtual World platform that can be used for immersive VR training and safety planning. Hexagon has various 3D environment tools for their many industry sectors, like manufacturing, process and plant. Likewise, with Esri’s tools for presenting GIS data and storytelling. There are many others.

While projects that can work completely within a single software provider ecosystem can leverage the 3D data visualization and presentation tools provided, large infrastructure projects and certainly city-wide digital twins are an amalgam of sources and desired outputs and end-user constituencies.  A dedicated reality data producer could conduct the convergence of sources, outputs, and orchestrations.

And with all of the talk of “metaverses”, there will need to be even more reality capture, 3D modelling, and refining of these spaces. A “metaverse” could hold so much potential beyond just social media and marketing platforms. Lofty (and likely impractical) visions of a global digital twins aside, substantive uses for infrastructure design, construction and management would be an example prime of a “useful-verse”. Again, skilled hands are needed to bring this to fruition.

Millions might be sunk into a project before the first shovel hits the ground. Don’t let legacy communications tools hobble the future of the project with unforeseen design changes, rework, nervous funders, or shock surprises for the public and stakeholders. If you want a blockbuster, you’ll need a great “producer”.