If the price is right

Trimble's S6 range is one of the most sought after globally.

Some of the region’s leading suppliers of land surveying equipment talk about the swing towards lower end products and the emerging cheaper brands of total stations entering the market

Total stations have almost become an essential piece of equipment on any modern day construction site, but with so many to choose from, and so many different add-on functions available, are you choosing the right one?

Regional sales manager for Hexagon’s Leica Geosystems Shiva Kumar says the approach to this question in previous years was to go for the best technology money could buy.

Total stations which measure precise angles to one or two arc-seconds were the most popular machines in the Middle East’s construction market, but they were also the most expensive, which dictated a significant market shift with the onset of the economic downturn.

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“In the last six months there has been a huge change in the trend and customers are now looking at the low- and middle-range technologies,” says Kumar.

“The market has now become very price sensitive. The cheaper five second or six second total stations are moving fast. Nowdays it’s a five second market.”

Kumar says this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as many in the construction industry were previously purchasing high-end technology when only a construction-grade total station was required.

“It all depends on the application of what they do, you should use a one second total station to build a big road or bridge but if you’re constructing a villa or low-rise building a five second or three second may be enough,” he says.

“The customer needs to understand their requirement so we can help find a product, which will best suit their needs.

“This is already happening and now most customers are keen to know what each system delivers rather than having a one second or two second system, which is over-specified for the job.”

Geomax, a new player in the surveying equipment market, has taken this philosophy one step further by offering customers budget total stations, which have been stripped back to the bare essential functions.

The company was formed by Swiss measurement equipment giant Hexagon as a separate entity to its aforementioned Leica Geosystems, which tends to specialise in higher grade equipment.