Secure Construction Photo Management Software
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What kind of hardware
will I need to run the Lynx application?
A: Lynx does not require
the purchase of a proprietary server. You provide your own server or
an already existing server…
See minimum requirements
Q: Can I use Lynx with
Sharepoint?
A: Sharepoint is a great
program. We agree that it’s ease of use & ability to “link” your
photos to your written documentation is a need & must. The problem?
Accessibility & broken links to images. Other customers have shared
the challenges they’ve had after using Sharepoint for years. Photos
are not easily accessible later on down the road when you need them
due to file based storage being moved around causing hyperlinks to
be eventually broken.
With Lynx you may link you photos to your daily field reports
through Oracle/Primavera/Office/Meridian or any third party software
program without having to worry about BROKEN LINKS! All of your
photos are stored in a one single secure database.
Lynx also works with Active Directory making it easy to import
“users” & take control over managing them. Administrators can give
end users/groups the rights they want them to have.
Q: Can I install Lynx PC
on more than one machine?
A: Lynx can be installed
on as many work stations as you would like and comes with one
Concurrent PC User license. If the license is already in use,
another user station will have to wait until the first user is
finished to be able to logon using their workstation. Additional
Concurrent PC Users licenses can be purchased upon request.
A:
No not at this time.
The best way to distribute/communicate images is to “link” to them.
The pdf file you are using would now have a simple hyperlink you
place within it using our program.
If you wanted to show 1 image or 1000 images, it still would
be no size in your pdf at all. Just plain text with a link to all
images. The person you
are sending the access link to will need no software on their end at
all to view, save or print the images...just an internet browser.
If you do have the need for a hard copy of the images, you
can print out the images with all the information on them right from
Lynx program. Even if you do need to embed the actual image/s into
the pdf, then you will still see a huge difference because with our
application you can control what size you want the images to be, and
even your original images will be only about 1/10 the size that they
are now, so it will still save you a ton of disk space, etc.
A: Some clients will
specify Lynx on the project & require subs to take many images of
each schedule’s activity that’s work in progress or should have
started work in progress.
LYNX is so easy to use that you may find the subs (if you
allow them access) will embrace the technology. Usually for the
field personnel as you know, it’s the path of least resistance &
easiest/quickest route, understandable...they’ve got fires to put
out & are busy people. With Lynx they can do in two mouse clicks & a
couple seconds what now takes them minutes or hours.
Instead of browsing to the camera to locate the image files to copy
them, create/browse to the folder they want to save to, move or
paste them, etc.-----anyone can now can just log in, start the
process and walk away!
Once they realize it’s just a couple of clicks & they can walk away
& forget about it, they tend to use it because it’s easier/ &
quicker than what they are probably doing now.
Q: We have recently purchased Lynx and my understanding is that LYNX
uses SQL replication to synchronize databases between the master are
remote servers. If this is correct,
have you had any customers that use SQL express on remote servers
and the full version of SQL on the master server? Where there any
replication issues for customers that did this?
A: Yes. You can use SQL
Express on the Remote server and then synch to the full version of
SQL (or vice versa) without any issues.
Q2: Since the databases from the remote servers are being replicated
to the master server, do you suggest a separate backup of the remote
servers as well as the master server? If we were to only backup the
master server, then how hard would it be to rebuild the remote
servers from the data on the master server?
A2:It is recommended to back up at all locations so that in the
event of data loss it can be recovered quickly.
However, since the Master License has all of the data from
the Remote, you could always create a data set from the Master and
send it to the Remote.
A: Some clients hire out third party companies to photo document the
project. It is very cool stuff & nice to have.
It’s also very, very, expensive & still never addresses what to do
with “all” your site photos. For example they may come out
once a week/month to take selected photos from selected spots, but
what about all your work in progress images, your staff images,
daily issues that come up that need to be documented, etc.?
We have clients that use these services on very select high profile
projects, but they still use Lynx &
would never strictly rely on just a third party company for
all their project documentation. These are great companies with
great products, but if you are already taking images then your site
personnel are going to be more qualified and have much more of a
“vested” interest in you and your company’s protection and
performance & will always do a better job than an outside third
party taking images from “X’s” every so often. Why pay someone to
photo document your projects if you already have qualified staff out
there doing the same thing? So nothing against any of these
companies, far from it, we believe in the same thing they do: It’s
crucial to have good reliable visual documentation on every project.
We just have different approaches as to how much it should cost, who
should be taking the images, and who has all the control of the
actual data. In our opinion it should be the you who controls the
data, owns the data & can use it for any purpose they need/want
without involving us in any way, unless they want to.
Q: Is there an IPAD or Android app for the Lynx program?
A: Not at this time but coming soon
for any mobile device. Keep in mind for now our web
application itself works great on the IPAD because of the size of
the screen. An iphone can be used also to view the web app and view
images/info. We are hoping to finalize our mobile app soon.
Q: Give me an example of storage space I would save…
A:If 1000 images were taken with a typical digital camera today it
would require 3.2 g of space
& take 8 hours to upload from a jobsite to the home office
using a solid T1 line with 1.5 m up and down. With Lynx these same
1000 images at the same resolution would only need 220 m of space &
take 24 minutes to transfer.
Q:
My images seem to be uploading slow using you Web Acquire tool, what
can I do to speed things up?
Q: I use SQL Server Express, what is my database limit?
Q: Concurrent User vs Authorized User, which is better?
A: if all people using Lynx will be uploading/editing photos,
concurrent is usually less expensive
Q: How many people will a concurrent license serve?
A: Concurrent (simultaneous license or per seat license) serves
typically 10 people using in different time zones, etc.
Q: How many people will a 5 user licenses serve
A: Typically 50 people
Q: Who owns the photos once they are uploaded to Lynx?
A: You own the photos stored on your server or on server hosted by
us
Q: Is there a backup system for Lynx?
A: All photos on SQL server
database should be part of a nightly back up in house system, if you
host own data on in-house server.
Q: Who uses Lynx?
A: Companies in construction, law enforcement/govt agencies, utility, heath care/hospitals, engineering