- Michael Baker Jr., Inc. has purchased a Lynx Mobile Mapper from Optech.
- This is a vote of confidence in the technology and Optech.
- It may not be such good news for the service providers.
To many it may seem like a rather insignificant press release, namely that Michael Baker Jr., Inc. purchased an Optech Lynx Mobile LiDAR system. Perhaps I am reading too much into this, but when I see a company like Baker make an investment in a new technology like this it tells me that this is starting to go mainstream.
This is of course good news for the industry and for Optech, but it also sends a message to the service providers. Baker is a large and very well established firm. They do not make decisions to purchase technology like this without a lot of investigation and internal approvals. Not only have they decided that mobile scanning technology is important, but what I think is more significant is that they want to own their own system.
Perhaps there is going to be enough demand for service providers and consulting firms to compete for work and thrive, but if this is the start of a trend, then it would be wise to take notes. Not every consulting engineering firm will have the resources to make this kind of purchase, but in the past this kind of specialized mapping technology was usually contracted out. It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Your thoughts.
