Stream C – a game changer in the detection industry

Author: Anna Serangeli Zelingerova

Surveying companies require compact solutions that increase productivity and workflow efficiency. Stream C Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) detects underground utilities in real time and quickly produces subsurface GIS-based digital maps. Due to the system’s flexibility and size, Stream C can be used in urban environments and for a wide range of applications, from pipe mapping, civil engineering, archaeology to tunnel and bridge detection.

The system set up is simple – just bring it on site, unload, plug in the GPS and you’re ready to work.

The vertically and horizontally polarised antennas deliver high-quality results while scanning in just one direction. The user-friendly GPR allows real-time monitoring also for non-experienced GPR users. Geostudi Astier from Italy, Site Vision Surveys from the United Kingdom and ScanPlus Locating from Canada agreed to share their productivity and efficiency gains with the Stream C.

Using Stream C in multiple environments

Geostudi Astier has been collaborating with IDS GeoRadar since many years and contributed to the development of the Stream systems. The company uses Stream C since 2017 for a wide range of applications, from shallow pipe mapping to civil engineering. Recently, Geostudi Astier experts tested its usage for bridge and tunnel analysis in Southern Italy.

Gianfranco Morelli, president of Geostudi Astier, describes how Stream C boosts their workflow and in which applications the company tested the radar. “We use Stream C because it provides a compact way to deploy both vertically and horizontally polarised antennas and the spacing in the array is very good. The density of the horizontally polarised antenna gives the possibility to obtain 3D images of two different polarisations very quick,” said Morelli.

The radar is frequently used by Geostudi Astier in pre-installation surveys of fibre optic networks. There has been an increasing interest in scanning bridges and tunnels, therefore, the company carried out an experimental survey using Stream C on the deck of a bridge and its sides, as well as inside a tunnel. In both cases, the results were promising.

Monitoring, checking the data in real time, and post-processing saves plenty of time for Geostudi Astier. This efficiency allowed the team to scan more than 10,000 square metres of complex urban soil at the Grand Plaz in Brussels within a single work day. This exemplifies how Stream C GPR technology can be used not only for rectilinear pathways, but to create maps of the top 100 to 150 centimetres soil in urban environments useful in many fields, including:

• Maintenance of urban environments
• Archaeology
• Analysis of pavements.

From 25 to five days

Site Vision Surveys, a multidiscipline professional surveying company based in the heart of the United Kingdom, provides services for all aspects of the built, transport and civil engineering environments. Recognised as a market leader, Site Vision Survey continues to develop and innovate the field of utility detection and mapping, therefore, they acquired Stream C. The company uses the GPR system in multiple environments – hand towed in urban conditions or running off the back of vehicles.

Simon Bailey, managing director of Site Vision Surveys, explains why Stream C is a game changer in the industry and how their performance improved.

The time and cost efficiency of Site Vision Surveys has significantly improved. “With Stream C a project which would take 25 days to complete with traditional GPR can now be performed in only 5 days,” explains Bailey.

Speeding up and simplifying workflows

ScanPlus Locating has chosen Stream C to improve their efficiency in mapping utilities, bedrocks and cemeteries across British Columbia, Canada. The company provides GPR and locate services for Vancouver Island with units dispatched to Greater Victoria and Nanaimo areas.

Kelby Wittich, utility locator specialist at ScanPlus Locating, explains how Stream C improved data collection and processing efficiency for mapping utilities, bedrocks and cemeteries. For ScanPlus Locating experts, Stream C is an ideal tool to interpret radar data in the field. GPR first-time users, as well as experts, can read and understand the data provided and interpret data for customers.

“Stream C has improved our workflow by taking large projects that have taken us three to four weeks to collect the data down to a couple of days as well. Processing time, as well, has decreased from a couple of weeks or months down to days,” said Wittich.