Covid compliant markouts

[Jivemaster]

Just seen this; https://eventmarking.co.uk/what-we-do/ No connection with me but seems like an idea for anyone wanting to mark out arenas for covid era events.

[ImagineerTom]

This seems like a technology looking for a use to me?

 

Any school caretaker can mark out a football / rounders pitch with some string, I've yet to meet a festival site manager who couldn't map out a site himself; who exactly is happy to rent a multi-thousand-pounds service to do this?

[Junior8]

Domain registered 05/08/20. 1 job done? Specialists?

[Ynot]

Domain registered 05/08/20. 1 job done? Specialists?

"Part of MLE Pyrotechnics" so my guess is a company looking to branch out as a lot of their previous work (like many others') has dried up...

[kerry davies]

Not so sure it is a non-starter, Tom. I help my mate mark out his small private campsite for Hay Festival and look on in frustration as the commercial camping companies who rent other fields try in vain to stop their clients "creep" across parts they are not supposed to use. Our little 10 acres wouldn't make it economic but if Covid is still with us next year sending out one of these behind a GPS automated mower could be the only way to get 10,000 cars safely parked up.

 

Unmanned tractors ploughing or seeding are becoming unremarkable and automated picking is going to be essential after Brexit so I expect lots more of this kind off thing ...... until we get slung out of Galileo and our own failure kicks in.

[ImagineerTom]

I just don't see how it works financially. The machine itself is clearly a significant capital investment so part of the cost will be the rental of the kit itself, but also having to have your site officially surveyed (website says they have to do a site visit AND get accurate GPS / aerial survey of the location) and then an official CAD plan of your layout created and overlayed to the GPS survey, THEN they turn up with the robot and paint it. It seems to be adding a lot of computerisation and expense to the marking out process that produces a result that's no different to what could be achieved by a vaguely competent groundsman on £100/day?

 

Almost by definition the companies / events that can't afford or care about proper marking out now are the ones who would need this the most but who are the least likely to want to spend £1000+ on buying in the service.

[Ynot]

Hmmm...

I don't know - there's no (obvious) pricing on there but I'm not sure that one man painting solo could do the 900+ boxes in their sample event anywhere near as quickly or accurately as that. As you say, it would need to be marked out first for a human but all this box needs is a starting point.

 

Maybe it'll play out, maybe it won't but IF I were organising an outdoor event I'd likely at least get a quote I reckon.

[Shez]

Here's the beastie that does it. No pricing, sadly.

[ImagineerTom]

I can mark out the 150 or so points for a bigtop (position of stakes, walls, guylines all to within an inch accuracy) in about an hour by myself. I agree repetitively drawing out 900 identical boxes would be a dull job but looking at the speed the thing moves and rolling in all the pre-planning time and work involved it still seems like a slower and more expensive method. Surely its only real selling point is that /you/ don't have to do the dull job and if you can choose between getting someone else to do it for you or getting bragging rights to your boss that you got a machine with GPS and lasers and satellites and radar to do it you'd be inclined to choose the latter?

 

ETA

Looking at the size of the wheels on it it really is only suitable for pitches. That thing on your average farmers field or festival site would be getting stuck constantly

Edited August 18, 2020 by ImagineerTom

[Bryson]

The robot is pretty cute if you watch the video. You could sell tickets to the line markout. ;)

[kerry davies]

Marking out 5 football pitches in 100 minutes is damned impressive. It would be useless for your work Tom but then when you mark out a BigTop the points and lines are not meant to be seen or used by anyone but your crew. For camping and car parking it could be superb though again it needs large scale to make it cost-efffective.

 

Just imagine an event like Hay Festival with 30 different marquees from half a dozen different companies all marked out ready for them all. No more putting up a tent only to find the site manager had read the plan upside down and if that has happened to me (Guards Polo Ground) in my brief tenting experience I'm sure you have had your moments of superrant.

[James Remo]

Not the same company, but the same type of robot line painter was used for the hexagons at the Gisburne Park Popup. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDYgTt4HCvP/?igshid=5t3250l7u6wi

[GR1]

If they can generate proper RAMS and Insurance events will use them to get the risk of their books. They will have been seen to 'do something' to mitigate Covid risks. I doubt that a groundsman could give that confidence. If they have a few operatives with hard hats, face masks and clip boards on site telling people what they can and can't do that could be quite useful too.

[Jivemaster]

If the process and company have a positive effect in getting outdoor events running again this year then it's good. Waiting for covid to be "over" will be a long time, and with NZ getting 60 ish cases from apparently nowhere after a long infection free period, no-one want's to be the one who decided that "it's now over" and was proved wrong.

[dbuckley]

Be pretty handy next year though, because all the mapping got done this year. Just turn up with robot, unload, and watch.