How the FARO Blink Imaging Laser Scanner and FARO Sphere XG Digital Reality Platform can assist
In the annals of building maintenance, facility management is often an underappreciated aspect of the construction industry. This is especially true when dealing with water treatment plants.
With water storage and treatment solutions cultivated across centuries, augmented with modern BIM schematics and vivid 3D maps, architectural design gets top billing. Construction, too, is where what’s on paper or on screen becomes reality.
Facility management is a beast of a different order. Defined as the practice of keeping buildings and workplaces running smoothly, safely and efficiently, facility management involves managing everything from physical spaces and equipment to the people and processes that use them.
A facility manager makes sure the as-built environment supports employees, visitors and the overall goals of an organisation. While less glamorous, it is no less important and where reality capture hardware and software solutions like the FARO Blink and Sphere XG digital reality platform can help.
UK water woes
Facility management covers many responsibilities. Operationally, it includes maintaining HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical systems, cleaning and security. In terms of strategy, it can involve space planning, energy efficiency, sustainability, health and safety compliance, and preparing buildings for future growth or new technologies.
In the UK, water treatment facilities up and down the country are in something of a crisis. According to the latest reports, the system is plagued by frequent sewerage discharges into rivers and seas – serious pollution incidents were up 60% in 2024 – aging infrastructure, under investment, fractured regulatory oversight and a combined sewer system burdened by population growth and, increasingly, extreme weather – a perhaps surprising recent development in the age of climate change.
These combined deficiencies have a trickle-down effect. Pollution leads to environmental damage. Threats to public health from bacteria and viruses increase. And water companies like Thames Water, the country’s largest serving 16m customers in southern England, face growing financial strains with a reported loss of £1.65bn year to date for March 2025, while its debt soared to £16.8bn. Worse than any red lines on a company ledger or risk of insolvency is the erosion of public trust.
Reality capture tech to help plug the leaks
Increasingly, 3D reality capture technology can help water companies like Thames Water and others improve their workflows, drive new efficiencies and reduce costs.
Combined with formidable cloud-based software platforms like Sphere XG and suddenly, facility management becomes a virtual experience, where project stakeholders can view and oversee water treatment facilities from afar, collaborating anywhere within country or beyond.
Blink is a reality capture 3D scanning solution designed for simplicity and accessibility. The lightweight-yet-rugged device delivers high-quality visualisation and automated workflows, helping teams capture, view and share data seamlessly, regardless of expertise.
With Blink, users can expect to perform the following key facility management tasks:
- Progress tracking: Blink provides high-quality visuals, empowering field teams to confidently capture every detail more often on more jobsites, without needing to bring in an external reality capture expert.
- On-site issue resolution: Resolve on-site issues faster with indisputable, transparent and easy to understand information about the task at hand.
- Comprehensive oversight: Maintain oversight with accurate, detailed 3D visual documentation annotated with supplementary materials.
• Quick and simple data capture: Speed up data capture and provide high-quality deliverables. Grant easy access and share data with project stakeholders via Sphere XG.
In addition to the above, the scanner also features guided scanning with real-time feedback. That means Blink can tell if a scan has moved out of position or if you’re about to scan in the wrong location. It’s a feature designed to make laser scanning easier for non-experts, or for teams just beginning to embrace the technology’s full potential.
“Increasingly, 3D reality capture technology can help water companies like Thames Water and others improve their workflows, drive new efficiencies and reduce costs.“
Cloud collaboration
As noted above, solutions like Blink also work well in tandem with Sphere XG, FARO’s cloud-based digital reality platform, as Sphere XG allows users to upload and manage their point cloud and 360° photo data in near-real time.
Shared in one place, this provides construction progress management teams the ability to compare elements over time, manage any challenges that arise and overall, better democratise data so that information isn’t siloed when identifying potential issues, clashes or deviations.
What’s more, PMs can, in effect “time travel” to earlier stages of a project built or retrofit as users can view and compare 360° photos and 3D point clouds with 3D models, enabling unprecedented 4D data management.
Bottom line: a consolidated platform for reality capture and design data that are always aligned reduces the risk of communication misfires, wasted materials and costly rework leading to enhanced organisation and project management.
Water woes to wow-worthy?
To be sure, overhauling the UK’s water treatment system, reducing sewage leaks and upgrading infrastructure is by no means easy. Even with the most efficient government oversight, progress will take time.
Ofwat, the water services regulation authority, is likely to be scrapped, replaced by another regulator, and there’s even some discussion (though nothing official) of renationalising the country’s water treatment plants, returning to pre-1989 norms.
In the near term, all this uncertainty will only complicate nationwide clean-up and infrastructure overhaul.
But, if ever there was a moment where cutting-edge hardware and cloud-based technology can shine, rising above the bureaucratic fray, it is now.
Blink and Sphere XG, working as companion solutions, represent an intuitive, cost effective and, most importantly, an easy-to use way to document necessary infrastructure upgrades over time and progress manage at a highly granular level – sharing that data with whatever future regulatory board comes next.
*Please note that this is a commercial profile.
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