July 23, 2014 — Optech is pleased to announce that NM Group has acquired their fourth airborne lidar system from Optech, a state-of-the-art Orion C300 that will greatly support the expansion of the company’s operations. Based in North America, Europe and Australasia, NM Group (formerly Network Mapping) provides high-quality surveying, asset management and engineering to a wide variety of industry sectors by leveraging the latest remote sensing technologies from Optech.

With clients in the electricity transmission and distribution, railways, highways, oil and gas, mining and other sectors keen to obtain the most value from a lidar-based program, NM Group decided the Orion C300 was the perfect tool to support the asset management and engineering services provided by the company. Specifically designed for corridor surveying, the Orion C300 has proven its ability to comprehensively map vegetation, the ground and multiple layers of powerlines, all from a single lidar pulse without the need for waveform digitization. In addition, the Orion C300 has a compact form factor and is lightweight to help reduce fuel burn on helicopters, includes real-time data visualization for in-air quality checks, and uses a Class 1 eye-safe laser for safe low-altitude operation in populated areas.

“NM Group has a long-standing history of delivering vegetation and engineering services to electrical utilities in the United States and Canada,” said Paul Richardson, Engineering Director and utilities sector lead. “The competence of NM Group in providing these services will be further augmented by the Orion C300, which will support our combined vegetation and thermal ratings service for NERC FAC-003 and FAC-008 compliance, NM-ARROW™.”

“Optech has a long history of supplying cutting-edge remote sensing technology to NM Group, with three other Optech lidar systems delivered and successfully used over the last several years,” said Optech International Sales Manager Wayne Szameitat, “and we are happy to continue this great relationship with a fourth lidar system. The Orion C300 represents Optech’s latest technological advances in the same compact form of previous Orion models, and will enable NM Group to provide their customers with asset management and engineering services that are built upon datasets featuring Optech’s industry-leading density and precision.”

About NM Group

NM Group is a leading provider of turnkey technological solutions in mapping and surveying, asset modelling and management and engineering. The company provides innovative services to sectors that include electricity transmission and distribution, rail, road and others, and their services have been delivered across the world in countries including the USA, Canada, Australia, and UK.

About Optech

Optech is the world leader in high-accuracy lidar 3D survey systems, integrated cameras, and productivity-enhancing workflows. With operations and staff worldwide, Optech offers both standalone and fully integrated lidar and camera solutions in airborne mapping, airborne lidar bathymetry, mobile mapping, terrestrial laser scanning, mine cavity monitoring, and industrial process control, as well as space-proven sensors. Optech is your best source for advanced sensing systems—because accuracy and productivity matter!

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