How RAM Companies Scanned Over 120 Buildings in the City of Columbus in a Single Night

 

In a single overnight operation, RAM Companies delivered portfolio‑wide facility intelligence for the City of Columbus at a speed and scale that drone‑based inspections cannot realistically achieve. Scanning more than 120 buildings in one night would require an entire fleet of drones, multiple crews, extended timelines, and significant cost, all while introducing inconsistent data conditions.

 

By capturing aerial infrared data simultaneously across the portfolio, RAM enabled Columbus to gain clarity faster, with less operational complexity, and at a dramatically lower cost per building.

The Challenge

The City of Columbus manages a diverse and operationally critical building portfolio that includes schools, data centers, and the Columbus Police Headquarters. Gaining accurate, portfolio‑wide visibility into roof conditions and moisture risk is traditionally slow, disruptive, and expensive. Walking surveys require access coordination and extended timelines. Drone inspections face airspace, line‑of‑sight, and batching limitations. For a portfolio of this size, conventional approaches make comprehensive, same‑condition assessment effectively impossible.

Columbus needed reliable data across a large number of facilities without impacting daily operations and without committing months of time and labor to fragmented inspections.

 

Key Details

• More than 120 City of Columbus facilities scanned
• All data captured in a single overnight flight
• Building types included schools, data centers, and the Columbus Police Headquarters
• Data collected simultaneously under consistent environmental conditions
• No on‑site disruption, access coordination, or facility downtime required

This scope and consistency are critical. Thermal conditions change daily, and collecting data over extended timelines introduces variability that reduces confidence at the portfolio level.

The Solution

RAM Companies deployed its fixed‑wing aerial infrared technology to capture high‑resolution thermal data over the entire Columbus portfolio in one night. This approach is fundamentally different from point‑by‑point inspections. Instead of evaluating buildings individually, the city received a unified dataset that allowed risk identification and comparison across all facilities at once.

The speed of collection dramatically reduced cost per building while increasing data quality. What would take weeks or months with drones or walking scans was completed overnight, creating immediate value for a large, complex municipal portfolio. This is scale working in the client’s favor. Faster collection reduces labor, minimizes logistical friction, and delivers a clearer picture of where attention and capital should be prioritized.

 

Next Steps

With portfolio‑wide data in place, the City of Columbus can use the results to prioritize follow‑up investigations, plan capital improvements, and focus resources where risk is highest. Instead of reacting to isolated issues, decision‑makers now have a baseline that supports proactive planning and long‑term budget alignment.

This project demonstrates how speed enables scale, and how scale transforms both cost effectiveness and decision‑making. For large facility owners, this is not just a faster inspection method. It is a more strategic way to understand and manage building assets across an entire portfolio.