The Future of Survey: How Automation Moves Survey to the Centre

Nov 12, 2026 12:30 PM

AEST/AEDT

On demand

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Uber made rides cheap and easy to book. People didn't keep taking the same number of trips. They took far more, including trips they'd never have bothered with before.

Survey is heading the same way. Most departments on a mine site ask for the data they think they can get, not the data they'd actually use. Once capture is remote and automated, that hidden demand turns into real requests, and they all land on survey.

In this session, Sean Greenberg uses more than 8,000 flights across 13 customer operations running Sphere hub systems to show what happens to a survey team when field time stops being the limit. The short version: the work doesn't go away. It moves up the value chain, and survey becomes the site's authority on spatial data.

NSW surveyors earn CPD points with this webinar

CPD Eligible icon

This webinar is BOSSI-accredited. NSW surveyors earn CPD points while learning about the latest drone advancements and regulations. Join live or catch the replay, our expert team will cover everything you need to know.

Points earned:

What is covered?

What was covered?

  • Why cheaper, automated capture creates more demand for survey data instead of less
  • What hub operations across iron ore, coal, uranium, ports and energy show about how that demand grows and spreads to new departments
  • The fine print: daily processing, QA and version control when there are thirty surfaces of the same pit
  • How self-operated, co-operated and fully managed models compare, and why survey holds and validates the data in all of them
  • What automated capture means for statutory obligations and your control network
  • Live Q&A

Who should watch?

Who should watch?

This webinar suits mining professionals who produce or rely on spatial data, including:

  • Mine Surveyors and Survey Managers
  • Registered and Statutory Surveyors
  • Mine Planning and Geotechnical Engineers
  • Technical Services Managers
  • Innovation & Technology Leads

Meet the hosts

Sean Greenberg

Commercial Director

Sean Greenberg is Commercial Director at Sphere, where he leads enterprise sales and customer success for remote drone operations in mining and energy. Before joining Sphere in 2025, he spent more than four years selling drone-in-a-box automation to industrial sites in the US and Europe.

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