Dean

Dean du Randt has been part of the RHDHV family for 15 years. In that time, he has moved from being in a typical draftsperson’s role to... well , what he currently does.

“It’s been an interesting path to where I am now, but there’s no real name for my job,” he laughs. “I guess if I had to put a name to it, I’d describe myself as an Immersive Technology Specialist.”

Clearly, Dean thrives on adrenaline as he says that the most exciting aspect of his role is that he never knows what’s around the corner. “We do these resource planners, saying what we’ll be working on for the next week or two, but I often find this difficult because I'm never quite sure what the next week will look like for me! I know I’ll be busy; I just don’t know with what exactly. And to me, that is quite exciting because I have something like an allergic reaction to the mundane,” he says with a chuckle

Dean’s job can only be described as ‘seriously cool’. He takes or makes a 3D model design and turns them into spaces where clients can fully immerse themselves in a project in augmented or virtual reality, or through visualisations with images and video. While that is his primary role, he also employs other exciting technologies that can be used in an engineering function. “For example,” he says, “I do point cloud scanning, which helps gather data around environments that can then be turned into 3D models. It is probably the best and quickest way to accurately get the existing situation of any kind of infrastructure, which then allows you to plan forward on that result.”

 When asked what the coolest thing he’s worked on is, Dean is visibly excited. When his ex-manager (you know who you are) came to him with the idea of turning 3D models or designs into a computer game where you could put on a VR headset and explore projects like driving around in a car, he was hooked.

“It took about three or four years of slowly developing the plan. Eventually, we were able to go to SANRAL, put a VR headset on them, and let them drive the design we had done. To put all the pieces of that together and get the technology we needed to pull it off was insane. We looked pretty cool, then,” he laughs.

However, what’s most important to Dean is RHDHV’s contribution to society. “Sometimes while working on projects, we lose track of their impact on people. Our slogan is to ‘Enhance Society Together.’ When you actually see the people living in those areas and the upliftment and opportunity these projects bring, suddenly, why you’re doing it all makes sense. While I’m happy to get to do what I want to do every day, it’s also great to know that it helps somebody down the line. The significance of some of these projects extends far beyond a pay cheque.”