Once a specialist application, remote sensing technology has grown in use throughout a wide range of industries. This growth means that the presentations, representation and consulting work that BARSC conducts on behalf of its members has become even more important. The Executive Committee of the Association recognised that communication between themselves, members, prospective members and third party remote sensing organisations will be vital if BARSC is to meet the challenges of the coming years.

BARSC has contracted specialist geo-Sales & Marketing agency; Quarry One Eleven to ensure that this crucial communication work is carried out. Quarry One Eleven will be tasked with improving all aspects of marketing communication for BARSC including online, direct and media channels.

Talking about the coming year, Chairman of the British Association of Remote Sensing Companies, David Hodgson said “Communicating the vital role and value of commercial remote sensing and the interests of our members is what BARSC is all about. It is important for us to work with an organisation such as Quarry One Eleven that has a deep understanding of our industry and the opportunities and challenges we face.”

Alistair Maclenan, Managing Director of Quarry One Eleven commented on the partnership; “Quarry One Eleven was (and continues to be) a member of BARSC before we started working for them. I was hugely impressed with what the organisation was doing and really wanted to help where we could. Our role is to be an effective communications link between their members and those who should be members. It is so refreshing to work with an organisation that understands communication is a key component of any successful organisation.”

Recently, Gray & Pape recognised that GeoPDF represented an ideal way of bridging the gap between their in-house GIS experts and their field workers, whose experience of using geodata can be limited. This case study outlines how the company used TerraGo Technology software to achieve huge improvments in field data collection and an increase in the value of their geographic information by making it accessible by the whole work force.

To read the case study click on the link below:

Company Bridges the GIS Expert – Field User Gap with GeoPDF

“After thoroughly evaluating several potential solutions, it is clear that LizardTech Express Server is the only choice for managing large volumes of imagery” said Les Sears, Spatial Engineering’s vice president of research and development. “Express Server’s delivery of compressed imagery, ease of integration and performance greatly enhance the functionality and usability of our geospatial applications.”

Express Server is LizardTech’s stable and easy-to-use solution for distributing imagery in standard geospatial formats and along with GeoExpress™ is the second product in LizardTech’s Express Suite line of geospatial software to receive certification. With Express Server, users on any device access imagery faster, even over low-bandwidth connections.

The Certificate of Networthiness signifies that Express Server is configured to the current Army Golden Master (AGM) baseline and complies with all U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DoD) standards for security, compatibility and sustainability. A CoN is required for all enterprise software products in the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network. Certification applies to the U.S. Army as well as all National Guard, Army Reserve and DoD organizations that use the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network.

“Receiving certification from the U.S. Army is a significant honor,” said Jon Skiffington, LizardTech’s director of marketing. “By demonstrating that our software meets the DoD’s strict security requirements, our customers within the US Army can now rapidly establish an Express Server installation to deliver imagery to their forward-deployed users, even over bandwidth-starved connections.”

More information about LizardTech’s Express Server software can be found at www.lizardtech.com/products/exp/.

TerraGo’s patented technology presents complex geospatial information as easy-to-use geo-referenced PDFs, extending the reach and application of geospatial information to any user, anywhere in a highly portable and interactive form. TerraGo software uniquely creates GeoPDF® maps and imagery, which are highly optimized geo-referenced PDF files that enable robust collaboration capabilities when used with the free TerraGo Toolbar™ for Adobe Reader and Acrobat, as well as TerraGo Mobile™ for handheld devices and smartphones.

“The authors of the patent, all of whom are also founders of TerraGo, created an innovation that has made a significant impact on the widespread use of geospatial information by millions of users around the world, ” said Rick Cobb, president and CEO of TerraGo. “Hundreds of organizations, including major U.S. government agencies, now create GeoPDF products and thousands of organizations use these assets to improve the productivity of mobile field personnel and increase returns on geospatial technology investments. The creation of GeoPDF technology by Michael Bufkin, George Demmy, and Alan Stewart of TerraGo marks a significant milestone in the pervasive use of geospatial technology throughout government and commercial enterprises.”

Over the past few years, TerraGo has worked with strategic customers, partners, and global standards organizations to open the methods for geo-encoding PDFs to the greater geospatial community.

“We remain committed to sharing this knowledge with the geospatial community while pursuing new software innovations that leverage GeoPDF technology to help our customers respond faster and make better decisions,” said George Demmy, a TerraGo founder and the company’s chief technology officer. “Through working closely with partners and customers, we are now delivering next-generation technology for advanced geospatial collaboration, including GeoPDF solutions such as Publisher for ArcGIS Server, 3D Composer, and Mobile applications.”

TerraGo GeoPDF files are created with TerraGo Publisher™ and TerraGo Composer™ software solutions. The TerraGo Toolbar and TerraGo Mobile can be used with any GeoPDF file to:

* Mark-up maps and images with GeoMarks such as comments, stamps, points, lines, and polygons.
* Collect and embed field-captured intelligence such as forms, photos, videos, and other multi-media information.
* Share GeoMarks as shapefiles, kml files, or as TerraGo collaboration payloads.

To listen to an exclusive got geoint podcast on the importance of this patent and GeoPDF solutions with CEO Richard Cobb, click here. For more information on TerraGo geospatial collaboration software and the unique value of TerraGo GeoPDF solutions, visit www.terragotech.com.

Team-GIS KBridge (www.exprodat.com/Software/TGK)  allows users to transfer their KINGDOM well, seismic and interpretation data to ArcMap™, and vice versa. It is designed to provide a low cost alternative to heavyweight data integration technologies, enabling end-users to take control of data connectivity rather than rely on enterprise level connections. With this streamlined data integration workflow users are able to deploy the powerful spatial analysis capabilities provided by ArcGIS on their KINGDOM project data.

Team-GIS Directory (www.exprodat.com/software/TGD) is an ArcMap extension combining an easy-to-use data catalogue with powerful search, preview and metadata visualization tools. It enables spatial data administrators to provide users with consistent, structured and intuitive access to spatial data, while providing users with powerful functionality that makes ArcMap much easier to use by ensuring that users can quickly locate data of interest to them and easily add it to their ArcMap project. 

Premier Oil’s Group IS Manager, Dave Edwards, said, “Using Exprodat’s Team-GIS tools makes ArcGIS Desktop easier for our users to use, which means that they can spend more time extracting value from the data by analyzing it within GIS. Team-GIS KBridge provides us with a simple way of integrating SMT KINGDOM data into the ArcGIS environment, while Team-GIS Directory enables our users to quickly and easily find the data they need, minimizing non-productive time.”

Exprodat’s Technical Director, Chris Jepps, said, “We’re delighted that Premier Oil has decided to roll-out Team-GIS KBridge and Team-GIS Directory. When oil and gas companies provide their geotechnical staff with these kind of usability tools it really helps them get the most out of ArcGIS Desktop, which in turn can leverage the often much greater investment they have made purchasing third party datasets.”

Exprodat’s Team-GIS product suite is made up of a number of extensions to ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop that provide ‘out-of-the-box’ functionality designed specifically for the needs of the petroleum sector. Team-GIS software is data independent and allows E&P companies to integrate vendor data with in-house datasets for use in GIS-based spatial analysis.

ArcGIS is a scalable family of software products comprising a complete geographic information system (GIS) built on industry standards. ArcGIS is used for the creation, management, integration, analysis, display, and dissemination of spatial data. Visualization, editing, and analysis, along with advanced data management, distinguish the ArcGIS software family as the leading GIS software. Much more than a specialized offering for a small niche of specialists, ArcGIS is designed as a scalable system that can be deployed in every organization, from an individual desktop to a globally distributed network of people.

For additional information on Exprodat’s software please www.exprodat.com/Software.

This year’s Imagery at UC conference track will focus on how imagery is core to GIS in management, dissemination, visualization and analysis. Attendees will learn how to manage their imagery within their GIS, network with peers to understand how others are using imagery, and see demonstrations of technical solutions. Imagery activities will be split between the Omni Hotel and the San Diego Convention Center.

“As a member of the ESRI Partner Network, this sponsorship is a great opportunity to support ESRI and our customers,” said Jon Skiffington, LizardTech’s director of marketing. “Customers will have multiple opportunities to engage with LizardTech representatives and to find out how our software can meet their most complex needs in imagery management, manipulation, storage and distribution. This year we’re particularly eager to share innovations with MrSID and raster imagery compression. Any questions from our presentations can be taken to our team in booth #810 where we’ll be providing additional demonstrations and information about all of our geospatial products.” LizardTech’s product line includes LiDAR Compressor software, GeoExpress software, Spatial Express software and Express Server software.

Jon Skiffington will present “Increase the Power of Your Raster Imagery Using MrSID” on Tuesday, July 13th from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. and on Thursday, July 15 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. in the Imagery Island Demo Theater inside the exhibition hall. In addition, LizardTech will take part in the Industry Panel Discussion in Salon A and B on the 4th floor at The Omni Hotel, Wednesday, July 14 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. They will have a table at the Imagery Social following the panel discussion in the East Foyer of the 4th floor of the Omni on Wednesday from 5:30-7:00 p.m. as well.

More information about LizardTech’s line of geospatial products can be found at www.lizardtech.com/products/. Also visit http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22ACS6LLQLZ before July 31 to take part in LizardTech’s annual customer survey.

Team-GIS KBridge is designed to provide a low cost alternative to heavyweight data integration technologies, enabling end-users to take control of data connectivity rather than rely on enterprise level connections. With this streamlined data integration workflow users are able to deploy the powerful spatial analysis capabilities provided by ArcGIS on their KINGDOM project data.

Exprodat’s Technical Director, Chris Jepps, says, “The great thing about Exprodat is that we can be very reactive to customer requirements. Over the last few months our customers have told us that being able to move planimeter polygon data between SMT’s KINGDOM and ArcGIS would be really useful – so we’ve responded rapidly and put out a release of KBridge that supports this unique data type. It’s amazing that integrating data between ArcGIS and the interpretation suites commonly seen within the E&P sector can still be a challenging, complex and time consuming task. With Team-GIS KBridge users can easily import KINGDOM data to their ArcMap session. Data can be imported to shapefile or File Geodatabase formats, and is automatically tagged with ArcGIS metadata.”

Exprodat’s Team-GIS product suite is made up of a number of extensions to ESRI’s ArcGIS Desktop that provide ‘out-of-the-box’ functionality designed specifically for the needs of the petroleum sector. Team-GIS software is data independent and allows E&P companies to integrate vendor data with in-house datasets for use in GIS-based spatial analysis.

ArcGIS is a scalable family of software products comprising a complete geographic information system (GIS) built on industry standards. ArcGIS is used for the creation, management, integration, analysis, display, and dissemination of spatial data. Visualization, editing, and analysis, along with advanced data management, distinguish the ArcGIS software family as the leading GIS software. Much more than a specialized offering for a small niche of specialists, ArcGIS is designed as a scalable system that can be deployed in every organization, from an individual desktop to a globally distributed network of people.

About Exprodat:
Exprodat Consulting Ltd. (www.exprodat.com) specializes in improving petroleum exploration and production activities within the Oil and Gas sector by creatively applying Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies. Exprodat’s information management and GIS consultancy experience spans the E&P lifecycle. Exprodat’s unique training program focuses on using ESRI’s ArcGIS platform to improve E&P workflows, while Exprodat’s innovative Team-GIS software helps companies make better data driven decisions to reduce technical uncertainly and improve exploration portfolio management.

About ESRI:
Founded in 1969, ESRI (www.esri.com) is the world leader in the GIS software industry. ESRI offers innovative solutions that help users create, manage, analyze, and display information to make timely decisions and solve problems they encounter every day. ESRI’s comprehensive product line ranges from desktop GIS to GIS for the enterprise.

About SMT:
Seismic Micro-Technology (www.seismicmicro.com) helps organizations find oil and gas faster. The company’s KINGDOM software allows geoscientists to focus on the analysis, not on managing the tools. SMT software enables intuitive interpretation, 3D modeling, analysis and data management, in one integrated executable. Customers can install and interpret data in the same day. With 2,700 customers in 95 nations, SMT has demonstrated performance proven to scale. SMT is headquartered in Houston, Texas with offices in Abu Dhabi, Calgary, Croydon (UK), Moscow and Singapore.

Exprodat, Team-GIS, and www.exprodat.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Exprodat Consulting Ltd. in the United States and the European Community.

ESRI, ArcView, ArcInfo, ArcEditor, ArcGIS, and www.esri.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of ESRI in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.

SMT, KINGDOM and www.seismicmicro.com are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Seismic Micro-Technology in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions.

GeoExpress, LizardTech’s flagship product, is the industry’s choice for manipulating geospatial imagery and encoding it to industry standard compression formats. The Certificate of Networthiness signifies that GeoExpress is configured to the current Army Golden Master (AGM) baseline and complies with all U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DoD) standards for security, compatibility and sustainability. A CoN is required for all enterprise software products in the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network. Certification applies to the U.S. Army as well as all National Guard, Army Reserve and DoD organizations that use the Army Enterprise Infrastructure Network.

“LizardTech is thrilled to receive this recognition and certification from the U.S. Army,” said Jon Skiffington, LizardTech’s director of marketing. “Meeting the DoD’s strictest standards for security is a testament to our dedication to our defense community customers. We strive to supply the GIS community with only the most secure software applications.”

More information about LizardTech’s GeoExpress software can be found at http://www.lizardtech.com/products/geo/.

Exprodat Consulting is pleased to announce that it has signed a partnership agreement with ESRI UK, the UK’s leading provider of GIS technology, to provide GIS training courses aimed specifically at the Exploration & Production (E&P) departments of oil and gas companies.

Exprodat Consulting blends a unique offering of oil and gas sector knowledge, geoscience experience and GIS expertise. The company’s staff are able to convey key information in a clear, concise and interesting manner that makes their courses fun to attend, as well as informative.

Starting in June 2010, ESRI (UK) will host a schedule of courses designed to teach E&P staff how to use ESRI ArcGIS software to meet the specific challenges they face during their working day.

Remarking on the collaboration Chris Jepps, Technical Director of Exprodat said “At Exprodat, we believe that using GIS technology can significantly lower costs and improve decision making. Our oil industry focussed training courses help E&P staff better understand the value of GIS as well as ‘work smarter’ with ArcGIS. We’re delighted to enter into a partnership agreement with ESRI UK to co-market our oil and gas ArcGIS courses as this will enable us to teach more of our industry about the benefits and applications of this unique technology.”

Sean Goodman, Training Manager for ESRI UK commented: “We listened to our customers and identified a gap for targeted, tailored training for people working in the exploration and petroleum market. Exprodat has been a valued Alliance partner for a number of years, so it was a natural step to further strengthen our partnership. This combination of our industry and technology expertise will ensure delegates get the most value out of their training experience.”

The new portfolio of ArcGIS and E&P training options range from introductory through to advanced 3D environments. To find out more about the ESRI UK / Exprodat oil & gas training courses visit:
http://www.esriuk.com/trainingevents/training/trainingPetroleum.asp

Broadland Environmental Services Ltd (BESL), a joint-venture between Halcrow and BAM Nuttall Ltd., was chosen by the Environment Agency to undertake this 20 year public private partners project.

As the defences protect 1700 properties and 30,000 hectares of land, the geospatial information is key to the success of this project and that geospatial information must be presented in a clear and easy to understand way.

Broadland Environmental Services Ltd, supported by Quarry One Eleven Ltd., has recently increased the number of Publisher for ArcGIS licences that it owns so that more geospatial information can be transferred and presented in the GeoPDF format. GeoPDF is a geographically aware PDF format that opens within the free Adobe Reader and enables anyone and everyone to use and interact with geospatial data.

Project Manager for Halcrow/BESL, Christian Hetmank said of his company’s use of the GeoPDF files; “On the Broadland Flood Alleviation Project, GeoPDF has found widespread application, for example in the visualisation of ecological and flood mapping data as well as in the planning of environmental surveys. We were amazed about the seamless integration of the Publisher for ArcGIS software with our existing GIS. The introduction of GeoPDF has provided new and exciting possibilities for sharing geospatial data within the company as well as for the presentation of our work to our clients and the general public.“