A Lanes Group team has carried out its deepest ever survey of a sewer ventilation shaft using the company's revolutionary Panoramo SI camera. It took less than an hour to complete a full inspection survey of the shaft on Brighton seafront which was 21.5m deep and 900mm wide.

Generated 3600 high resolution image and pinpoint accurate three-dimensional scan of inside of shaft

The IBAK Panoramo SI camera, thought to be the only one of its kind in the UK, generated a 3600 high resolution image and a pinpoint accurate three-dimensional scan of the inside of the shaft. It was the deepest shaft that Lanes Group, the UK drainage and asset maintenance solutions provider, has surveyed using the equipment to date. The brick-lined shaft ventilated a 2.1m diameter combined sewer under the A259 Marine Parade close to the centre of Brighton, in East Sussex. Paul Purton, surveying and technical manager for Cappagh Browne Utilities, which commissioned the work, said: "The survey went very well. Lanes Group's Panoramo SI camera did an impressive job, and solved a lot of problems for us.aaalane2 "It allowed the survey to be carried out safely and quickly, and it provided us with excellent images and data to assess the condition of the shaft. "Carrying out a confined-space entry was not feasible, because of health and safety considerations, and because the shaft was too deep and too narrow. As such, the Panoramo SI represented the optimum solution, both in terms of the results achieved and cost-effectiveness." The Panoramo SI survey was carried out by Lanes Group CCTV drainage survey engineer Phil Wild and his assistant Kevin Hughes. Phil Wild said: "The Panoramo SI has 100m of cable which allows us to use the equipment on manholes where access is difficult. Therefore, though this is the deepest shaft we have surveyed to date, the Panoramo SI could be used on even deeper ones. "We can complete a survey in less than an hour. Most of that time is taken up configuring the software. For this project we were on site for just 90 minutes.

Shaft in the middle of a dual carriageway, but work completed with no disruption to traffic

"The shaft was in the middle of a dual carriageway, but we were able to complete the work with no disruption to traffic. The only alternative for deep shafts like this would be a confined space entry, which takes significantly longer with a larger team." Lanes Group's Panoramo SI can be used for surveying vertical chambers and shafts of 300mm diameter and above. It has two high-definition, digital cameras fitted with distortion-free, wide-angle lenses which complete a 3600 scan of structure interiors in seconds, with all data captured in one pass.