Intergraph has stood up an ERDAS ER Mapper Development Team in India in the city of
Hyderabad state of Andhra Pradesh. I visited the development team last week. The Hyderabad development development team is working with the Norcross, Georgia development teams to deliver remote sensing software products to the GIS community. I do believe good things will come from the Hyderabad
ERDAS ER Mapper Development Team in the ERDAS Desktop 2012 release, as well as into the future.
BTW, Intergraph was one of the first software groups to open an office in India, beginning way back in
1987. Now you see Amazon, ADP, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and more are in Hyderabad. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_industry_in_Andhra_Pradesh.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
Hexagon merges ERDAS into Intergraph
There seems to be a little confusion in the market-place concerning Intergraph and ERDAS. At the end of July 2011, Hexagon merged ERDAS into Intergraph. All ERDAS employees, products and services are now Intergraph Employees developing new products based on ERDAS products, as well as supporting ERDAS customers using those products.
Customers of ERDAS products will continue to communicate with ERDAS employees and use erdas.com. The transition should be transparent to customers, as legal and back-office changes have formed the majority of the changes.
You will still find Brad Skelton, Ian Anderson, Jeff Dooley, Mladen Stojic, myself, and many more Erdasians in the Norcross (metro Atlanta) office. You will find Laura Ramage, Michelle and Joe Mostowy, Andy Garratt, Dean McCormick, Mike Lane, and many other Erdasians scattered around the globe. As well, some of the old-time ER Mapper employees are still around, such as Mark Sheridan, Chris Ribble, and more. You will find Ionic employees such as Niko Vanraes, Dimitri Monie, and others still hard at work as well.
In my opinion, the change can be considered somewhat like Coca-Cola purchasing Dr. Pepper... there was no change in the wildly successful Dr. Pepper formula.
Where will this fusion take us, while I cannot say exactly what is happening on my blog, I can say that my earlier post of "Hexagon 2011; the razing of the wall" and what we started with in ERDAS IMAGINE 2011, V11.0.4 should be strong clues.
Customers of ERDAS products will continue to communicate with ERDAS employees and use erdas.com. The transition should be transparent to customers, as legal and back-office changes have formed the majority of the changes.
You will still find Brad Skelton, Ian Anderson, Jeff Dooley, Mladen Stojic, myself, and many more Erdasians in the Norcross (metro Atlanta) office. You will find Laura Ramage, Michelle and Joe Mostowy, Andy Garratt, Dean McCormick, Mike Lane, and many other Erdasians scattered around the globe. As well, some of the old-time ER Mapper employees are still around, such as Mark Sheridan, Chris Ribble, and more. You will find Ionic employees such as Niko Vanraes, Dimitri Monie, and others still hard at work as well.
In my opinion, the change can be considered somewhat like Coca-Cola purchasing Dr. Pepper... there was no change in the wildly successful Dr. Pepper formula.
Where will this fusion take us, while I cannot say exactly what is happening on my blog, I can say that my earlier post of "Hexagon 2011; the razing of the wall" and what we started with in ERDAS IMAGINE 2011, V11.0.4 should be strong clues.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
ERDAS Desktop 2011, Version 11.0.4 Released
Intergraph has released ERDAS Desktop 2011, Version 11.0.4. The new version is available for download from the ERDAS IMAGINE, ERDAS ER Mapper and LPS product download webpages.
This is more than a maintenance release. There are enhancements, as well as Intergraph has added new capabilities to strengthen the ties between the GeoMedia and ERDAS Desktop products. Expect more announcements by Intergraph later this year (2012) of tighter integration between the GeoMedia and ERDAS Desktop product lines.
The ERDAS Desktop 11.0.4 Version Description is located here: http://www.erdas.com/service/support/fixes_enhancements/ERDASIMAGINE2011.aspx
Until more announcements are made, please refer to Field Guide posts: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/05/erdas-imagine-and-geomedia-where-are.htmlhttp://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/06/hexagon-2011-razing-of-wall.html
This is more than a maintenance release. There are enhancements, as well as Intergraph has added new capabilities to strengthen the ties between the GeoMedia and ERDAS Desktop products. Expect more announcements by Intergraph later this year (2012) of tighter integration between the GeoMedia and ERDAS Desktop product lines.
The ERDAS Desktop 11.0.4 Version Description is located here: http://www.erdas.com/service/support/fixes_enhancements/ERDASIMAGINE2011.aspx
Until more announcements are made, please refer to Field Guide posts: http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/05/erdas-imagine-and-geomedia-where-are.htmlhttp://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/06/hexagon-2011-razing-of-wall.html
Monday, December 12, 2011
ERDAS 2011 ECW Plug-in for ArcGIS Desktop, Version 11.1 Released
The latest product based on the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK has been released. It can be found on the ECW Plug-in Download page, http://erdas.com/products/ecw/ECWPlugins/Downloads.aspx.
The free plug-in enables high performance display and opacity support for ECW data within ArcGIS Desktop. This version of the plug-in adds supports discovery, access and visualization of data via WMS or ECWP from ERDAS APOLLO Essentials – Image Web Server or ERDAS APOLLO Advantage within ArcGIS Desktop.
Algorithm support allows the user to perform image processing while streaming from the ERDAS APOLLO suite into ArcGIS Desktop.
The free plug-in enables high performance display and opacity support for ECW data within ArcGIS Desktop. This version of the plug-in adds supports discovery, access and visualization of data via WMS or ECWP from ERDAS APOLLO Essentials – Image Web Server or ERDAS APOLLO Advantage within ArcGIS Desktop.
Algorithm support allows the user to perform image processing while streaming from the ERDAS APOLLO suite into ArcGIS Desktop.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
LightSquared and GPS still in the news
Sanjiv Ahuja talked to C-SPAN on September 29, 2011 about LightSquared's work to build a $14 billion high-speed wireless network across the US, interfering with precision GPS use. It will be satellite based and will improve networking capacity across the USA, yet the network will interfere with some of the spectrum used by global positioning system (GPS) equipment.
LightSquared obtained the spectrum from their predecessor companies purchases, who purchased the spectrum decades ago. American Mobile Satellite Corporation, Mobile Satellite Ventures, and Skyterra preceded LightSquared.
I believe you can skip the first 5:29 to hear Sanjiv talk about the GPS conflict. Mr Ahuja has been well coached in presenting his case and staying on message. (I do not use the term 'coached' in a negative way. I believe all CEOs of large companies should be coached.)
Sanjiv is selling how LightSquared will help people, how LightSquared is the underdog, how LightSquared will bring new jobs, how LightSquared will save people money, how LightSquared will help the students. He even discusses how LightSquared will help the video gaming industry. Sounds like a political campaign strategy, get as many people to connect with your piont of view as possible. :)
Cecilia Kang (Washington Post, Technology Policy Reporter) starts QA at 13:30. She does a pretty good job. She asks him to discuss claims of competitors linking up with political powers to stop LightSquared starting at 47:00.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/301812-1/
http://www.saveourgps.org/
Additional Field Guide Post:
http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/04/potential-gps-signal-reception-problems.html
LightSquared obtained the spectrum from their predecessor companies purchases, who purchased the spectrum decades ago. American Mobile Satellite Corporation, Mobile Satellite Ventures, and Skyterra preceded LightSquared.
I believe you can skip the first 5:29 to hear Sanjiv talk about the GPS conflict. Mr Ahuja has been well coached in presenting his case and staying on message. (I do not use the term 'coached' in a negative way. I believe all CEOs of large companies should be coached.)
Sanjiv is selling how LightSquared will help people, how LightSquared is the underdog, how LightSquared will bring new jobs, how LightSquared will save people money, how LightSquared will help the students. He even discusses how LightSquared will help the video gaming industry. Sounds like a political campaign strategy, get as many people to connect with your piont of view as possible. :)
Cecilia Kang (Washington Post, Technology Policy Reporter) starts QA at 13:30. She does a pretty good job. She asks him to discuss claims of competitors linking up with political powers to stop LightSquared starting at 47:00.
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/301812-1/
http://www.saveourgps.org/
Additional Field Guide Post:
http://field-guide.blogspot.com/2011/04/potential-gps-signal-reception-problems.html
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
ECW for ArcGIS Server, Version 11.0.2, released
Here is the latest from marketing on one product I manage:
ERDAS Releases ECW for ArcGIS Server, Version 11.0.2
September 28, 2011
Norcross, GA, USA — ERDAS proudly announces the release of ECW for ArcGIS Server, version 11.0.2. This product provides a means for ArcGIS Server to deliver data in the ERDAS-patented Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) format to clients via OGC-compliant Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Map Service (WMS).
Based on technology originally provided in ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK version 4.2, ECW for ArcGIS Server enables ArcGIS Server to support ECW imagery, providing the fastest decompression available. Using minimal memory, ECW can quickly decompress and open massive files, in many cases faster than uncompressed imagery can be opened. Additionally, multi-resolution level of detail is built into the file, eliminating the need to generate or distribute pyramids or overviews. The ECW technique does not require the creation and storage of intermediate tiles (RRDs), as they are an inherent part of the ECW format. ECW also supports opacity channels, allowing images to overlay other imagery cleanly without showing compression artifacts around the edges.
Initially introduced in April 2011, ECW for ArcGIS Server was greeted enthusiastically by the market, prompting this new release which extends the original capabilities. A key enhancement in ECW for ArcGIS Server version 11.0.2 is backward compatibility with ArcGIS Server 9.3 and 9.3.1 in addition to the previously supported ArcGIS Server 10. ECW for ArcGIS Server version 11.0.2 also supports the use of European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) codes in ECWP.
ECW for ArcGIS Server expands the industry-wide level of support for the ECW format. ECW is already supported in traditional desktop GIS, CAD and remote sensing packages, including ERDAS’ portfolio of products, as well as Intergraph’s GeoMedia®. In addition, ECW is also supported in ArcGIS® for Desktop, AutoCAD®, Blue Marble Desktop®, ENVI®, Geomatica®, LizardTech®, GeoExpress®, FalconView™, Global Mapper, MapInfo®, Manifold® System, MicroStation®, and Smallworld™.
“ERDAS created ECW for ArcGIS Server in response to overwhelming user demand. For any geospatial organization requiring an accelerated workflow and reduction of hardware costs, ECW is the compression format of choice,” said Paul Beaty, Technical Product Manager, ERDAS. “Its popularity stems from the fact that it doesn’t merely compress files; it simplifies their handling by making them faster to decompress and transfer. ERDAS is committed to providing rapid geospatial data delivery for organizations using any software platform."
ECW Page
ECW for ARcGIS Server Page
ECW for ArcGIS Server Movie
ERDAS Releases ECW for ArcGIS Server, Version 11.0.2
September 28, 2011
Norcross, GA, USA — ERDAS proudly announces the release of ECW for ArcGIS Server, version 11.0.2. This product provides a means for ArcGIS Server to deliver data in the ERDAS-patented Enhanced Compression Wavelet (ECW) format to clients via OGC-compliant Web Coverage Service (WCS) and Web Map Service (WMS).
Based on technology originally provided in ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK version 4.2, ECW for ArcGIS Server enables ArcGIS Server to support ECW imagery, providing the fastest decompression available. Using minimal memory, ECW can quickly decompress and open massive files, in many cases faster than uncompressed imagery can be opened. Additionally, multi-resolution level of detail is built into the file, eliminating the need to generate or distribute pyramids or overviews. The ECW technique does not require the creation and storage of intermediate tiles (RRDs), as they are an inherent part of the ECW format. ECW also supports opacity channels, allowing images to overlay other imagery cleanly without showing compression artifacts around the edges.
Initially introduced in April 2011, ECW for ArcGIS Server was greeted enthusiastically by the market, prompting this new release which extends the original capabilities. A key enhancement in ECW for ArcGIS Server version 11.0.2 is backward compatibility with ArcGIS Server 9.3 and 9.3.1 in addition to the previously supported ArcGIS Server 10. ECW for ArcGIS Server version 11.0.2 also supports the use of European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) codes in ECWP.
ECW for ArcGIS Server expands the industry-wide level of support for the ECW format. ECW is already supported in traditional desktop GIS, CAD and remote sensing packages, including ERDAS’ portfolio of products, as well as Intergraph’s GeoMedia®. In addition, ECW is also supported in ArcGIS® for Desktop, AutoCAD®, Blue Marble Desktop®, ENVI®, Geomatica®, LizardTech®, GeoExpress®, FalconView™, Global Mapper, MapInfo®, Manifold® System, MicroStation®, and Smallworld™.
“ERDAS created ECW for ArcGIS Server in response to overwhelming user demand. For any geospatial organization requiring an accelerated workflow and reduction of hardware costs, ECW is the compression format of choice,” said Paul Beaty, Technical Product Manager, ERDAS. “Its popularity stems from the fact that it doesn’t merely compress files; it simplifies their handling by making them faster to decompress and transfer. ERDAS is committed to providing rapid geospatial data delivery for organizations using any software platform."
ECW Page
ECW for ARcGIS Server Page
ECW for ArcGIS Server Movie
Thursday, September 8, 2011
ECW for ArcGIS Server soon to add support for 9.3 and 9.3.1
Within the next few weeks, ERDAS will release an update to ECW for ArcGIS Server. The new version will add support for ArcGIS Server 9.3, and 9.3.1 to the present support for ArcGIS Server 10. The initial product offering has been very well received and customer demand for support of 9.3 and 9.3.1 will soon be addressed.
Keep a watchful eye for the official announcement.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
The True Storage Cost of Uncompressed Imagery
In the past, we have used 0-level (full resolution) image data and compared its file size to compressed files to determine disk space savings. This approach works when comparing uncompressed data to JPEG, LZW and other non-wavelet compressed images. This approach does not work when comparing 0-level image data to wavelet compression (e.g. ECW) formats.
To get display performance from your large images, reduced resolution datasets (i.e. RRDs, OVR, subsample images, pyramid layers) must be pre-calculated and stored with the 0-level data. There are several RRD storage methods, but the most popular is a progressive 4x reduction from the 0-level data down through each RRD layer. The 4x reduction scheme will deliver RRDs adding 33% to the overall disk storage requirement.
Wavelet based formats natively contain a full suite of internal RRDs within its file structure. The correct way to compare disk space savings between non-wavelet image formats and wavelet formats is to compare the non-wavelet image plus its required RRDs to the wavelet data.
Take 750GB of imagery and add 33% for its needed RRDs (assuming using a 4x scheme). The disk space needed for performance and daily use is 998GB. That’s a lot of space.
If I achieve a 25:1 ECW compression, my ECW file is 4% of the size of the 0-level data, and 3% of the total disk space needed (0-level image plus RRDs). Thus, the 750GB of image data occupying 998GB of disk space shrank down to 30GB.
If I achieve a 15:1 ECW compression, my ECW file is 6.7% of the size of the 0-level data, and 5% of the total disk space needed.
That's a lot of disk space recovered.
To get display performance from your large images, reduced resolution datasets (i.e. RRDs, OVR, subsample images, pyramid layers) must be pre-calculated and stored with the 0-level data. There are several RRD storage methods, but the most popular is a progressive 4x reduction from the 0-level data down through each RRD layer. The 4x reduction scheme will deliver RRDs adding 33% to the overall disk storage requirement.
Wavelet based formats natively contain a full suite of internal RRDs within its file structure. The correct way to compare disk space savings between non-wavelet image formats and wavelet formats is to compare the non-wavelet image plus its required RRDs to the wavelet data.
Take 750GB of imagery and add 33% for its needed RRDs (assuming using a 4x scheme). The disk space needed for performance and daily use is 998GB. That’s a lot of space.
If I achieve a 25:1 ECW compression, my ECW file is 4% of the size of the 0-level data, and 3% of the total disk space needed (0-level image plus RRDs). Thus, the 750GB of image data occupying 998GB of disk space shrank down to 30GB.
If I achieve a 15:1 ECW compression, my ECW file is 6.7% of the size of the 0-level data, and 5% of the total disk space needed.
That's a lot of disk space recovered.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK for Linux
The long awaited port of ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK to Linux is well underway. Indeed, we expect the Perth, Western Australia development team to reach the performance tuning stage of the port in the next few months. The Linux ECW SDK port must be tuned-up to match the Ferrari-like performance our customers expect and have on the Windows platforms. If we did not tune it up, it would not be an ECW SDK.
ERDAS will use the Linux ECW SDK internally in ERDAS 2012 server products. Once the ERDAS 2012 Linux products are ready to release, commercialization work (preparing for public release) on the Linux ECW SDK will begin. I cannot provide the time-frame for availability at this time.
Please expect more information on the Linux version of ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK before the northern hemisphere winter solstice.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Which image file formats do you use in your geospatial work?
Over a year ago I put out a poll on this blog to measure what image file format people who frequent this blog use. At that time, I put the following in the poll: GeoTIFF, IMG, ECW, MrSID, JPEG, NITF, TIFF World and JPEG2000. These are the order in which the poll defined their popularity.For this poll I combined TIFF World and GeoTIFF together and added PNG. I have noticed a dramatic down-tick in NITF votes. I believe this is likely to defense people not frequenting my blog as much as others more than what are really in the marketplace. Or, it could be the defense people voting against NITF as it is cumbersome and they want issues in the format addressed. Or... something else?
PNG is use in mobile devices and has a very solid showing.
JPEG2000 popularity has improved. You might think that JPEG2000 would hurt the ECW and MrSID formats, but the image format hurt appears to be IMG.
I did not post the final percentages from the last poll, but have posted the 2011 poll here.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
ERDAS Desktop 2011 Version 11.0.3 is Available
ERDAS has released ERDAS Desktop 2011 Version 11.0.3. This version is available to customers with current desktop software maintenance (SWM) and contains all issues from 11.0.1 and 11.0.2. There are quite a few customer requested enhancements as well as customer reported bugs addressed in this version.
A very brief list of what ERDAS IMAGINE customers can now expect:
Use Spectral Angle Mapper and Spectral Correlation Mapper classifiers in Supervised Classification
Distribute MosaicPro image tile creation to internal Cores or to external CPUs on their network
Rescale data from 16-bit down to 8-bit in MosaicPro and in LPS ortho processes
Expect higher performance from the Mosaicpro Preview
Improved performance on MosaicPro histogram matching
And more…
There are LPS and ERDAS ER Mapper issues addressed in Version 11.0.3 as well.
This version does not include any server enhancements and fixes. (Hence the use of the word Desktop).
See for yourself at http://www.erdas.com/service/support/fixes_enhancements/ERDASIMAGINE2011.aspx
After looking at what is in Version 11.0.3, if you want the version, you must log-in with your current SWM account to download the version. If you have current SWM, go here and log-in:
A very brief list of what ERDAS IMAGINE customers can now expect:
Use Spectral Angle Mapper and Spectral Correlation Mapper classifiers in Supervised Classification
Distribute MosaicPro image tile creation to internal Cores or to external CPUs on their network
Rescale data from 16-bit down to 8-bit in MosaicPro and in LPS ortho processes
Expect higher performance from the Mosaicpro Preview
Improved performance on MosaicPro histogram matching
And more…
There are LPS and ERDAS ER Mapper issues addressed in Version 11.0.3 as well.
This version does not include any server enhancements and fixes. (Hence the use of the word Desktop).
See for yourself at http://www.erdas.com/service/support/fixes_enhancements/ERDASIMAGINE2011.aspx
After looking at what is in Version 11.0.3, if you want the version, you must log-in with your current SWM account to download the version. If you have current SWM, go here and log-in:
http://www.erdas.com/service/support/fixes_enhancements/details/ERDAS_Desktop_2011_Version_11_0_3.aspx
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop Available
The latest release of the free ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop is now available on the ECW Plugin Download site, http://www.erdas.com/products/ECWPlugins/Downloads.aspx.
The ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011 is built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 Desktop SDK version 4.2 and offers many advantages over the previous versions of ECW Plugin for ArcGIS that were built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 3.x. These advantages are increased performance, additional capabilities and numerous fixes.
ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011:
Is compatible with ArcGIS Desktop 9.3, and 9.3.1 SP1 or higher, and ArcGIS Desktop 10 SP1 or higher
Decodes local ECW and JP2 data faster and more efficiently
Has a wider projection system support for ECW and JP2 than earlier plugin versions and native ArcGIS ECW support
Supports GML in JP2 data
Streams ECW and JP2 data via ECWP from ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS or ERDAS APOLLO Advantage
Uses dynamic progressive rendering of ECWP layers
Provides opacity channel support, not available in native ArcGIS ECW support
Provides a configurable persistent local disk cache of ECWP blocks
Provides an ECWP selection capability for discovery of ECWP streams on an ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS 2010 and 2011
Is compatible with foreign language versions of Windows (GUI not localized)
Re-projects ECWP streams on-the-fly
Supports multi-band ECWP streams
Supports 16-bit ECWP streams using min-max calculation
Improved printing support for large scale ECWP plots (tested up to A0)
ECW for ArcGIS Desktop will not:
Encode (compress) any data
Enable ArcGIS Desktop to serve ECW or JP2 data
Query the ERDAS APOLLO Advantage Catalog
Read ERDAS ER Mapper ALG or ERS files
The ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011 is built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 Desktop SDK version 4.2 and offers many advantages over the previous versions of ECW Plugin for ArcGIS that were built with the ERDAS ECW/JP2 SDK 3.x. These advantages are increased performance, additional capabilities and numerous fixes.
ECW Plugin for ArcGIS Desktop 2011:
Is compatible with ArcGIS Desktop 9.3, and 9.3.1 SP1 or higher, and ArcGIS Desktop 10 SP1 or higher
Decodes local ECW and JP2 data faster and more efficiently
Has a wider projection system support for ECW and JP2 than earlier plugin versions and native ArcGIS ECW support
Supports GML in JP2 data
Streams ECW and JP2 data via ECWP from ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS or ERDAS APOLLO Advantage
Uses dynamic progressive rendering of ECWP layers
Provides opacity channel support, not available in native ArcGIS ECW support
Provides a configurable persistent local disk cache of ECWP blocks
Provides an ECWP selection capability for discovery of ECWP streams on an ERDAS APOLLO Essentials IWS 2010 and 2011
Is compatible with foreign language versions of Windows (GUI not localized)
Re-projects ECWP streams on-the-fly
Supports multi-band ECWP streams
Supports 16-bit ECWP streams using min-max calculation
Improved printing support for large scale ECWP plots (tested up to A0)
ECW for ArcGIS Desktop will not:
Encode (compress) any data
Enable ArcGIS Desktop to serve ECW or JP2 data
Query the ERDAS APOLLO Advantage Catalog
Read ERDAS ER Mapper ALG or ERS files
ERDAS Press Relase: http://erdas.com/company/news/newsreleases/11-06-28/ERDAS_Extends_ArcGIS_Support_with_New_Version_of_ECW_Plug-in.aspx
Blog Post on Release of ECW for ArcGIS Server product
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