The service
A digital observatory gathers the data of a territory and makes it available to everyone: the people who manage it, the people who visit it and the people who study it.
What gets installed
The exact equipment is adapted to each territory. These are the usual elements.
Early smoke detection
Where the observatory has cameras, their frames can also be run through a smoke-detection model. The model scores every frame and does not alert on a single one: it has to string together several minutes in a row seeing the same plume. Then an email goes out with the frame attached, because looking at it is the first thing anyone does, and with the picture in front of you a cloud is ruled out in two seconds.
It recognises plumes of smoke rising within the frame, and the alert arrives a few minutes after the first sign. Every alert is then judged by a person, and that judgement is the only thing published: a model only has suspicions, and publishing suspicions of fire is not informing anyone.
It does not see smoke that has already dispersed, nor haze, nor anything outside the frame, and it does not evaluate at night: all that stands out then are the village lights. Coverage is whatever the cameras give, and they are installed to show the landscape, not to blanket a territory.
It is a complement, not a substitute. It takes infrastructure already installed for something else and adds a second pair of eyes; it does not replace a dedicated wildfire-detection system, forest watch duty or the emergency services, and it must not be presented as such to whoever will rely on it.
Bespoke maps of the territory
The stations and cameras tell what is happening in a territory; the map tells what is in it. We make it to measure with Mapping: the places worth knowing —heritage, landscapes, routes, viewpoints— together with where to eat and where to stay, at an address of its own that opens on the phone of whoever visits the area.
It is quoted separately, because it depends on how many places are gathered and how much has to be documented on the ground. It can go with the observatory or without it.
Project design
If you already know where each station should go, we confirm the site is suitable, decide the exact position and follow up on land-use arrangements. If you do not know yet, we survey the territory and propose the layout.
Maintenance
The equipment lives outdoors and the platform has to keep running. Maintenance is billed annually and starts after installation, never before.