Christophe Benard, Regional Sales Manager for France

 For you, what are the main evolutions to come in your sector of activity/market?

FARO has been a pioneer in 3D measurement since 1981 and a leader in laser scanning technology since 2000. Today, we continue to see an explosion of growth in massive data that brings the physical to the virtual information world. This enables an efficiency boost when the physical world can be analyzed better and faster—independent of location—and shared with practically any stakeholder. This moves organizations and economies to higher performance through less waste and cost. The insights gained are increasingly being supported with AI, AR and VR, where the interoperability of devices and data relies on the information provided by scanning and sensors.

What is your long term vision of BIM in your activity?

Digital realities are increasingly being applied for whole buildings and job sites. And digital twins are used throughout the building or infrastructure lifecycle, from the planning phase, throughout the construction phase until the operations and maintenance phase, and even back to the planning phase of an extension or renewal of assets, buildings, and infrastructure. Different environments or applications have different requirements when it comes to accuracy of measured data and detail of captured data (both in 3D space and as a visual image). The significant advantages of digitalization create profound opportunities for industry and society. Already today, more and more companies utilize a spatial digital twin, meaning that relevant areas of their infrastructures or projects are regularly updated to ensure an always up-to-date digital representation of the reality. Next steps are to utilize these digital twins for more disciplines by adding non-spatial data and information to the 3D model to digitally support the operation and maintenance of a business, project and even community. We are rapidly addressing these areas to enable both capturing solutions and data processing workflows that will deliver increased value relative to the investment.

What would you like to see move forward faster in your industry?

The global construction industry will reap significant benefits as it accelerates digitalization across all operations.  AI will play an important role in supporting users to gain insights faster at lower cost and to automate complete workflows that are mostly manual today. Cloud technology already allows immediate and low-cost distribution to all stakeholders. We support technologies that guide the world to broader data gathering in less time and at lower cost. It is all about unlocking the power of data and then using that information effectively.