Finding Renovation Issues Beforehand with Augmented Reality (AR) – BNBuilders using VisualLive

Using VisualLive’s Mixed Reality (XR) applications with a combination of the latest HoloLens 2 headset and MobilLive for iPads allows BNBuilder and their stakeholders to see and correct issues ahead of time while finding and fixing infrastructure constraints that would impact architectural design requirements. 

We recently visited them in Seattle, WA to find out how they like using the  latest innovative technologies on the job-site.

Megan Coffland – BNB, Project Manager

When VisualLive was explained to us, it was exciting because it’s one of the first uses of BIM Technology and Virtual Reality that seemed to directly apply to how we use construction.

Lee Richardson – Seattle Asian History Museum, Director of Facilities

With the ability to use VisualLive during construction, you can bring your engineering and operations teams in to see how the room is going to be laid out and how they are going to work in the room. This helps give them not only an idea of the space but also gives them the the ability to start thinking about storage, workspaces, tool storage how they will literally move around the building.   

I think on any new building construction site or any renovation or tenant improvement job, it is a valuable tool for any facilities to utilize.

Megan Coffland – BNB, Project Manager – We brought out this technology to show the stakeholders that what they wanted to do wasn’t going to work in the space that was half-constructed. To have that team who were invested in technology to say whoa!, why didn’t we know about this? They were immediately able to see why what they initially wanted wouldn’t work and (using the VisualLive’s application) it allowed us to problem-solve right on-site midway through construction and provide alternative solutions. Also, it allowed us to impress an owner who is difficult  to impress. It was one of those moments that immediately paid off with the costs associated with it. 

Mike Muth – BNB, Superintendent

I’m really excited about the new technology that our industry is starting to use. We started with Virtual Reality (VR) which helped customers make decisions ahead of time. But now with Augmented Reality (AR), it is super exciting. 

We’ll use it in our future projects as well but we initially used it for a renovation project. In this building, we had really tight spaces in our mechanical areas because it was a renovation of an existing art museum. We did our 3D modeling and we wanted to bring the actual engineering team assigned to the art museum into these spaces and get a look at what it was actually going to look like when it was finished ahead of time and see if they can see any issues with it. 

We brought everyone together and they looked at (VisualLive’s HoloLive™ and MobiLive™ ) and we’re really excited to use this technology as well because they’ve not worked with any contractors who have used this technology before. 

We were able to make a couple minor changes that they identified and built it out. It turned out really well for them. They’re really excited about how the space turned out and that they were able to see it ahead of time and make any minor changes… 

Melissa Gomez – BNB, Project Engineer
It allows you to take a snippet/snapshot of what we’re looking at so that anyone who wasn’t involved in the walk-through can be educated with a visual on what we were talking about. 

Before using (VisualLive) it’s definitely a longer process, you have to come back to the office and tell people to reinstall things which adds days to the project. In our first building (using VisualLive) we found a lot of the architectural wood being cut because of these MEP overhead obstructions. This was an eyesore for the architect because. aesthetically speaking, it was not acceptable. Now with VisualLive, we can see everything, we could see where the wood was going to stop and where the MEP was going to be to beforehand if there would be any interference that could impact the design finishes. Allowing us to see these potential issues ahead of time. I was able to walk the space and see where my problem areas were and have them moved to the right location.