1. Give us a brief history of your organization.
Ecko360 CEO, Hunter Bankston, was working for a large midstream company as a Project Administrator who specialized in documentation and logistics. He was entering readings and measurements from a paper copy that had oil stains and footprints on it. Coming from a technology background, Hunter started looking into better options to digitally record information in a way that everyone would understand. Reality Capture was in its infancy but had a few options available at the time. He pitched the idea of creating digital twins of project locations and annotating information directly to a model. They asked how soon he could get started and ecko360 was established in 2016. Over the last 7 years ecko360 has become the leader of Aerial UAS Remote Sensing along the Gulf Coast. Providing services such as Aerial, Terrestrial and Mobile LiDAR, Thermal Inspections, TDLAS / OGI gas detection, Matterport, Photogrammetry and Orthomosaic.
2. What would you tell the rest of Acadiana makes you special?
Ecko360 is special because we process all of our data in house which gives us the advantage of accuracy, quality and extremely fast turnaround time. Our team has a ton of experience with various technologies in multiple industries. There isn’t really a situation or project we can’t handle.
3. What are you most proud of?
We are most proud of the work we have completed in disaster response. We helped introduce Reality Capture technologies in situations like the Silver City Tornados and Hard Rock Collapse in New Orleans.
4. Where do you see your organization in 10 years? What are your plans for the future?
Reality Capture is still relatively new, but I can see more businesses incorporating it to improve their operation efficiency and safety on projects over the next 10 years. Our plans for the future are to stay ahead of the curve and advocate these technologies to businesses who still don’t grasp all of the advantages.
5. 1A is making an impact as we take an active role in improving the community we live in. Our members are making an impact, too! – What does impact mean to you? How is your company making an impact?
For us, impact means educating the public on what we do. We do a lot of demonstrations at local high schools and universities. We also work with groups like United Cajun Navy in Natural Disasters to provide Aerial UAS Services for situational awareness.
