In the rapidly evolving world of construction projects, the use of advanced technologies is becoming increasingly crucial, both to improve efficiency and to create engagement and transparency. At the request of Heylen Warehouses, C-Site built a customized photo show, embedded in the C-Site platform. Through this photo show, the different sites of Heylen Warehouses are shown simultaneously and in real time in a split screen at their office. This creates involvement with the ongoing projects among all employees and visitors. Together with Sarah Dierick - Marketing & Communication Manager - and Anthony Impens - CEO of C-Site - let's dive into this beautiful application of the C-Site images.
How did the collaboration between C-Site and Heylen Warehouses develop, and what were Heylen's specific needs that C-Site was able to fulfill?
Anthony Impens: In 2019, at the request of Arne Delvaux, then Project Manager at Heylen Warehouses, we created this "custom dashboard," as we christened the photo show at the time, to follow up on a first yard in Ghent. Gradually more and more projects were added.
Originally our cooperation was focused purely on site monitoring; the marketing and commercial aspect only came in later. Since then we have already followed up some 17 logistics construction projects with our cameras for Heylen Warehouses.
Sarah Dierick: I myself will soon be working for 3 years as a marketing and communications manager at Heylen Warehouses. I sometimes use timelapses for publications on LinkedIn. Moving images appeal more than a photo. The C-Site platform is very user-friendly, you can choose how long the timelapse is. Here in the office, the big screen with the photo show is on every day. That way the colleagues get a nice overview of all the projects. When employees get coffee, they also often stop by the big screen.
Do you also share the timelapse videos in other ways? For example, through a mailing to prospective tenants?
Sarah Dierick: No, not at the moment, but that's definitely a possibility for the future. We could actually use it a lot more.
Anthony Impens: We can certainly think about that. For example, if you want to keep a list of contacts informed on a regular basis, without giving them access to all the images on the platform, we can provide an automatic mailing from the platform. We are also currently launching quite a few updates to the platform: one of them is the ability to assign different permissions to the users with access to your projects.
Was it technically challenging to develop the custom photo show?
Anthony Impens: Technically, it was not that difficult to develop this application. Our own developers were able to make it happen quite easily. For us, it comes down to getting input from our customers so that we know how they want to use our images. On that front, Heylen Warehouses' idea was very valuable. Because it allowed us not only to meet their needs, but also to offer this application to our other clients.
In what ways does live display of construction images contribute to your company's mission?
Sarah Dierick: We always have a lot of simultaneous ongoing projects, across diverse locations in Belgium and across the country's borders. All departments are involved: land development, finance & legal department, business development, property management and project management. We find it important that everyone is aware of the status of the project, even if they are not yet or no longer directly involved. In total, we are talking about some 35 people. So the live images contribute to the involvement of the team and ensure that everyone has the same information.
In addition, we often receive visitors in our headquarters, so the big screen is a really nice tool even then.
We still see many opportunities to use the images more widely in the future: with branding of our clients, in the site chain on the sites, in combination with drone images and renders,...
Anthony Impens: We can definitely support you in that. The technical possibilities are already there and some clients already use the timelapses that way, it's mainly a matter of making choices as to what best suits your needs, style and communication story. We now also offer drone footage, which in combination with the timelapses creates a beautiful project film.
How do you see the future of monitoring construction projects evolving, and what role do real-time images play in it?
Anthony Impens: We believe Artificial Intelligence will play an increasingly prominent role in the construction industry, as it does in many other industries. At C-Site, we have developed an advanced AI application that makes our image processing smart. This innovation allows us to collect huge amounts of data through object recognition. By combining this data with information provided by the customer themselves, we can automatically generate reports on site activities, productivity, safety and sustainability. With AI, the possibilities are virtually limitless, but our main goal is to develop tools that allow our customers to effectively use the extracted data, both for project management and, for example, BREEAM certification.
We can also make the photo show and timelapses much more dynamic, with branding of the client, combined with logos, drone images, additional information, static images, rendering,...
Sarah Dierick: That sounds fun. The images we have now are a good foundation, but in the future we can go further, and AI is indeed undoubtedly part of that.
Thanksfor your insights, Sarah and Anthony!
Together with Heylen Warehouses, we demonstrate that the combination of technological innovation and strategic application is the key to creating transparency and engagement in construction projects. This dialogue illustrates how close collaboration leads to new perspectives and applications. Together, C-Site and Heylen Warehouses are forging a path to a future where construction projects are not only managed more efficiently, but are also more connected to all stakeholders. If you would also like to have a conversation with us about how we can help you with innovative ways of site monitoring, be sure to give us a call via the contact page.
