Case Study: Underwater asset inspection with a 360 live streaming camera
Equirectangular view of debris at the bottom of a well.
One of the main advantages of a live-streaming 360 camera like the Mantis Sub is that operators can immediately asses the situation remotely and action items without delay. That makes it ideal for asset inspection.
When plumber Robert Airlie was tasked with replacing a pump in a flooded 40m deep well, his first step was to try and to assess the condition of the well, and identify any hazards his team would face.
The standard drop cam he deployed first wasn’t much help. It was hard to manoeuvre around debris inside the well and didn’t provide a comprehensive view. It also failed to fully illuminate the space adequately which was about 2m by 2m.
But the images from the drop cam was enough to assess that it would be too dangerous to simply drop a diver down due to the large amount of debris and partially collapsed structures.
“We initially deployed a drop cam, but the well was so full of debris that it was hard to manoeuvre and we quickly lost any sense of where it was pointed. It also failed to illuminate enough of the well for us to fully understand what was at the bottom.”
Having seen the 3D reconstruction of an underwater cave, Robert turned to the Mantis Sub underwater 360 housing. With live-streaming ethernet cable and powerful lights attached, the housing was lowered past the dry section of the well into the inaccessible submerged area.
From there, the camera streamed pre-stitched 360 live video to a laptop, allowing the team to immediately see what was inside the well. This provided the necessary insight to understand the scale of the job and make decisions on the spot.
“Our wish list was to simply record what was down there, but what we got was truly mind blowing. My client and I were able to watch a live stream of the entire well on the laptop screen as the camera was being lowered into the well. This was enough for us to know the scale of the job, and make decisions on the spot. ”
Mantis Sub with lighting rig and 200ft of ethernet tether on a spool.
The Mantis Sub with Insta360 Pro2 is able to record 8K 360 video from six cameras at the same time as streaming it. This allows for later detailed analysis, or adding high-resolution photos and videos to the inspection report.