ListenProducts and Training in the Subsurface Locating Industry with Chris Green of GSSI
Enhanced Scanning owner Forrest Sim interviews Chris Green of Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. (GSSI) about some of the technology involved in the subsurface locating industry.
Executive Summary
- Core Theme: The complexities of product development, market positioning, branding, and regulatory compliance in the ground-penetrating radar (GPR) industry.
- Branding & The Power of Color: The iconic “orange box” has become GSSI’s ultimate calling card. Chris emphasizes that color is an incredibly strong branding element; field customers frequently identify and trust competitor equipment by its color rather than the official company name.
- The Trap of Feature Creep vs. Focus: Small-to-medium technology firms face constant pressure to expand into adjacent geophysical tools. While GSSI has experimented with other tools (like electromagnetic induction) in the past, they intentionally maintain a strict focus on GPR. Chris believes GPR has unlimited, untapped applications across concrete cutting, utility location, and pavement inspection.
- The Difficulty of Innovation: Chris notes that copying existing products is easy, but innovating is incredibly risky and difficult. To avoid the trap of building a lowest-common-denominator product that satisfies no one, GSSI relies heavily on rigid user personas to separate their two highly disparate core markets: academic/scientific geophysicists who want complex data, and AEC/construction service providers who want a fast, simple user interface.
- The FCC & Global Regulations: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the number-one technology driver for GSSI in the US. Equipment must be engineered to stay strictly compliant with transmission caps (e.g., an FCC cap of “9” vs. unregulated global regions that “crank it to 12”), making cross-border market competitiveness a careful balancing act. Local regulations (like California’s) tend to shape workflow or user experience rather than fundamental technology choices.
- Industry Certification & Training: The GPR industry behaves like the “Wild West” because it lacks standardized licensing or certification structures required by other trades (like plumbing or electrical). To combat “overselling” (inexperienced operators promising physically impossible scan results), GSSI prioritizes comprehensive, free training with every equipment sale to maintain industry integrity and protect the brand’s long-term reputation.
- The Future: Hardware vs. Software: While an absolute baseline of top-tier hardware is required to get clean subsurface images, both Forrest and Chris agree that the most dramatic, exciting future advancements will occur in software. Modern computing power allows software to process data directly on the device, making hyperbola interpretation simple and opening the door to non-expert users who just need an actionable image.
About Enhanced Scanning
Enhanced Scanning is a subsurface locating company that serves professionals in the construction, engineering, and scientific communities. The company is committed to promoting safer locating practices through the use of advanced technology, comprehensive technician training, and accurate field information. Enhanced Scanning owner Forrest Sim is an industry leader who regularly speaks at industry events across the country, sharing his expertise on utility locating, concrete scanning, and other subsurface locating practices. Through his work both in the field and as an educator, Sim has helped promote greater awareness of the importance of understanding what lies beneath the surface before work begins.
Enhanced Scanning uses a variety of non-destructive locating technologies to investigate subsurface conditions without unnecessarily disturbing the area being examined. Its equipment includes ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic (EM) and electromagnetic induction (EMI) locators, magnetometers, push cameras, and pulse wave generators. Each technology provides different types of information, allowing technicians to select the appropriate tools based on the conditions and objectives of a particular project.
Using these technologies, Enhanced Scanning can help customers identify underground utility lines, locate post-tensioned cables and other features within concrete slabs, and detect changes in soil structure. This information gives contractors, engineers, and other professionals a clearer understanding of potential hazards before excavation, drilling, cutting, or other work begins. By knowing what is beneath the surface in advance, customers can make better-informed decisions, reduce the risk of damage or injury, and proceed with greater confidence.
