Drainage and wastewater specialist Lanes Group has passed a major milestone in its development of a national CCTV processing centre – to create what is believed to be the largest service of its kind in Europe.
All 20 commercial depots operated by the company, plus its specialist sewer rehabilitation division, now have all CCTV surveys processed at the centre in Eccles, Greater Manchester.
Data for other CCTV drainage surveys carried out for water companies is also beginning to be processed by the central team, which is setting new standards in the quality of survey reporting.
Remarkable customer service
Lanes Group Managing Director Kevin Moon said: “We wanted to create a step change in CCTV reporting performance to support our strategic business plans, and deliver exceptional value for customers.
“It’s clear that we’re achieving that. Getting asset investigations right is at the core of any drainage service. In these terms, the impact made by establishing this national CCTV processing centre has been phenomenal, and our customers are the main beneficiaries.
“The improvement in the quality of our survey data, in terms of its accuracy, richness, and accessibility, and the speed of our reporting, has been truly remarkable.
“The new CCTV centre is a strong and scalable technology-led service platform that has greatly improved productivity and will be a key asset as we drive future growth of the business.”
Bespoke quality standards
The new CCTV centre takes advantage of advances in cloud technology that allow data to be transferred directly from worksites to the growing team of CCTV technical specialists in Eccles.
Plymouth, Bristol and Cardiff were the first depots to have their survey reports processed centrally, with more added over the last five years.
In 2019, the CCTV centre processed data for 221,000 metres of pipework. In 2023, that figure had increased six-fold to 1,282,760 metres. In 2019, 1,302 survey reports were processed. In 2023, 6,971 were completed.
Since 2019, 3,200 km – 2,000 miles – of pipes have been surveyed centrally, equivalent to single pipeline from London to Cairo, in Egypt.
Development of the CCTV centre has been led by Lanes’ Head of CCTV Services, Chris Wilde, who has devised new in-house quality standards.
Lanes team ‘biggest in Europe’
He has also worked with CCTV survey software provider WINCAN to develop an updated survey template, unique to Lanes Group, which is easier for customers to interpret.
All CCTV technical specialists working at the CCTV centre have the OS19X CCTV data processing qualification. A team of specialists also procures and maintains all CCTV equipment and trains CCTV drainage engineers.
Chris Wilde said: “We now have nine OX19-qualified CCTV technical specialists, which is certainly the biggest single team of its kind in the UK, and I firmly believe it’s the biggest such team in Europe.”
100% quality checking
The centre is now carrying out increasing volumes of work for water utility customers, including Thames Water and Yorkshire Water, because they see the efficiency and quality advantages, said Chris Wilde.
He added: “We now have a culture of excellence in CCTV data gathering and processing at Lanes, which is recognised and valued by customers. Every report is 100% quality checked to a standard not achieved by our competitors.
“We can also set up programme teams working to bespoke procedures and KPIs for specific projects and have technicians with specialist expertise, for example in highways and water utility reporting.”
Find out more
Talk to Lanes Group today about our industry-leading CCTV drainage survey service – driving up standards for organisations of all sizes types across the UK.