Tag: Hemisphere GPS

The Remaking of Hemisphere
When Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co. Ltd. in Beijing, China, acquired the Hemisphere GPS OEM business back in January 2013, and the significant Hemisphere GPS agriculture business went off on its own under the new AgJunction name, it’s possible that people may have gotten the impression that the OEM business might have been weakened by the break-up. (Read my column about the changes here.)

There was word of a long-term supply agreement where the newly created Hemisphere GNSS was to still supply AgJunction with OEM receivers, but the OEM business now had to stand alone and fully support itself — perhaps a challenge for the teams in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Calgary, Alberta, that became part of the new company.

After the first transition year in 2013, Jon Ladd, chairman of the new Hemisphere GNSS board of directors and former CEO of Novatel, along with the other Hemisphere board members, decided to hire Chuck Joseph in January 2014. Prior to joining Hemisphere GNSS, Chuck Joseph was president and CEO of an energy technology company, and he was also senior VP and general manager of a tactile feedback technology company focused on GPS centric mobile and industrial applications. But the key experience that may have brought Chuck to Hemisphere GNSS was probably when he was corporate VP of marketing and sales at Magellan Corporation and executive VP and general manager of Trimble.

I talked at length with Chuck Joseph and his team recently about how things have gone since he joined Hemisphere and the changes that have brought them to some new product launches now being announced.

Chuck reviewed some of his experiences from Trimble — a time when even Trimble was struggling in the early days and he helped with a reorganization that pulled them back from some big losses around the time of the first Gulf War — and how that has helped him at Hemisphere GNSS. Focusing on the consolidation of products and markets that work, and moving away from things that don’t work as well — this is always a key element for any recovery.

As a part of Hemisphere GPS, the OEM business may have been at a major disadvantage when it was tied so tightly to the success of its own agriculture business — all of its receiver-development efforts were focused on agriculture applications and on whatever worked best for agricultural customers. So the rest of the company’s efforts to create a self-sustaining OEM business all came in second. But with some of the brightest innovators and developers in the GNSS OEM business, Hemisphere had a wealth of experience and a store of existing Intellectual Property (IP) ready to open up when the opportunity came around as a part of the new organization.

Chuck likes to talk about Hemisphere GNSS being a “start-up inside a reinvention” — a phrase that describes how life may have been re-energized and changed for the people in the new company. With UniStrong support, there was no need to seek other outside external investment for company expansion and sustainment, so all management effort could be initially focused on the re-engineering effort. Staff working groups were formed that were able to brainstorm and come up with new concepts, explore how they fit with their market and existing customers, and over time create viable approaches, turn them into strong business cases and then go find the support they deserved. “Disruptive” market ideas were at the forefront — ideas/products/services that would allow Hemisphere to make advances in the OEM market that would offset the strengths of the competition and allow them to succeed. Closer partnering with new and existing customers to provide improved value was a major leading concept.

The first product to hit the market from the new Hemisphere GNSS process came out of a 10-person team who set out to re-engineer and improve Hemisphere RTK — the release of Athena was announced at the beginning of May. As the announcement goes, this new RTK “excels in virtually every environment where high-accuracy GNSS receivers can be used.”

Customers have already validated Athena’s performance in long baseline, in open-sky environments, under heavy canopy, and in geographic locations with significant scintillation. Key features include:
- Initialization in less than 15 seconds at better than 99.9% reliability
- Robustness under the most aggressive of geographic and landscape environments
- Industry-leading position stability for long baseline applications, with position quality often exceeding the performance of the best-of-breed RTK systems on the market
- Sustained accuracy within GNSS scintillation-affected areas
Testimonials in the Athena release support Hemisphere’s claims — from independent testing (Andy Carbognin, Vecto Geomatics), marine construction and hydrographic survey (Cable Arm), land survey and machine control (Carlson Software) and agriculture precision steering (Novariant).

And Hemisphere GNSS has more new products coming — the company just announced its Atlas GNSS global correction service on June 15. Hemisphere is marketing Atlas using a “disruptive” approach, intended to not only provide end customers with the best value and best performance global correction service available today, but also to support the sales channel that the customers buy through. The sales angle chosen is to allow the sales channel to actually sell and bundle the Atlas service directly to the customer and make money from the sale of the service. This approach is not currently used by other correction service distributors, who tend to have manufacturers and customers deal with them directly for service, sales and support.

Hemisphere GNSS put together a team of seasoned developers to build Atlas that between them have already generated a huge amount of IP around corrections technology. Together, they have now developed the Atlas GNSS correction service, available via L-Band satellite broadcast and over the Internet, which uses the very latest technologies to deliver a correction service that matches or exceeds existing competitive system performance:
- Positioning accuracy: Atlas provides competitive positioning accuracies down to 2 cm RMS in certain applications, often exceeding competitive systems’ capabilities
- Positioning sustainability: Position quality maintenance in the absence of correction signals, using Hemisphere’s Tracer technology.
- Convergence time: Industry-leading convergence times of 10-40 minutes.
- Receiver-agnostic capability: Atlas is the most receiver-agnostic positioning system available. SmartLink technology allows an AtlasLink antenna to be used as an Atlas signal extension for any GNSS system which uses open communication standards.
- Network RTK augmentation: BaseLink technology allows Atlas-capable receivers to self-calibrate, self-survey, and automatically manage the transmission of RTK corrections to augment or extend established or new GNSS reference networks in areas of poor Internet connectivity.
- Atlas subscriptions: Subscriptions are now available for a range of Hemisphere GNSS’s multi-frequency, RTK-capable products — AtlasLink, R330u, V320, and VS330u — and will soon be available via the Atlas web portal and from a number of channel partners and OEMs such as Carlson Software.
Available Hemisphere GNSS Atlas service levels:

Service Level Position Accuracy

H100 100 cm 95% (50 cm RMS)

H30 30 cm 95% (15 cm RMS)

H10 8 cm 95% (4 cm RMS)

The provision of “agnostic” corrections via the SmartLink service is a new twist that allows customers to buy the best correction service they choose, rather than being tied to a particular receiver manufacturer and/or their corrections services supplier. Using the Hemisphere GNSS AtlasLink smart antenna, corrections can be supplied over a standard interface to any make of GNSS receiver, provided it has an interface that is compatible with “open-standard” correction data, such as RTCM data format. It remains to be seen if this “receiver-agnostic” approach to corrections supply changes the way that PPP and other correction services are supplied across the industry.

The service can also be used to set up base stations to transmit corrections to an existing network using the BaseLink service option, which Hemisphere is also making available.

Meanwhile, back at UniStrong in China, Xinping Guo, president and CEO of UniStrong — or ‘XP’ as he is known to the Hemisphere GNSS team — has been actively seeking further funding through potential additional stock offerings, not only to maintain support for Hemisphere, but also to buy additional companies in China. While Hemisphere GNSS has ramped up revenue since being purchased by UniStrong and is on its way to a record year in 2015, it is clearly doing more things and announcing more new products and initiatives than its normal revenue ramp would solely support. So, just as in the case of a start up, UniStrong is supplying supplemental resources to support this very fast track growth.

Coordination of activities across the UniStrong and Hemisphere GNSS companies continues as the Hemisphere GNSS company/brand relaunch rolls out during the second half of this year. Product designs will flow back and forth across the group, too, with Hemisphere GNSS software used in UniStrong products, and BeiDou capability going into Hemisphere GNSS fourth-generation chips. The collaboration of the UniStrong and Hemisphere product development teams is producing products unique to each market place, to be sold and supported by the respective sales, support and marketing teams, helping both companies. While UniStrong may be able to claim to be leading in China in the single-frequency product (GIS, etc.) market, it’s also easy to see that bringing Hemisphere GNSS multi-frequency capability into China could also improve its domestic market share.

So, it’s been a good start to the reshaping of Hemisphere GNSS as a company, its capabilities and its approach to its chosen markets. Let’s see how this roll-out and the anticipated growth continue through the rest of the year, and we’ll check in again in detail with them in the fall. Many thanks to Chuck Joseph and his team for this inside look into what’s going on in the remaking of Hemisphere GNSS.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace
June 17, 2015
Juniper Systems’ Archer Field PC Records Elevation of Remote Himalayan Peak

Photo credit: Mark Fisher at www.fishercreative.com, Instagram: @fishercreative; via Juniper.

Juniper Systems’ Archer Field PC has beenused to record the elevation of a never-before-climbed peak in the remote Myanmar Himalaya. The peak, Mount Gamlang Razi, has historically been known as the second highest peak in Southeast Asia, but a joint American-Myanmar-led expedition set out on a mission last September to hopefully prove that it is in fact the tallest. Read the whole story on Juniper Systems’ blog.

Standing at a reported 5,881 meters tall, Mount Hkakabo Razi has long been known as Southeast Asia’s highest peak. In recent years, however, the legitimacy of the elevation of Hkakabo Razi has come into question. Current digital analysis suggests that initial surveys of Mount Hkakabo Razi were overstated and its actual elevation is as much as 100 meters lower than originally believed. At the same time, digital analysis suggests that virgin-peak Gamlang Razi may in fact be the taller peak. This controversy prompted Idaho resident and experienced climber Andy Tyson to lead an American-Myanmar expedition team on a three-week approach through 150 miles of cobra-riddled, mosquito-infested jungle, and from there up to the peak of Gamlang Razi to measure its elevation in person.

Tyson needed a device that could accurately record the elevation at the summit, while being able to withstand the extreme conditions of the hot, wet jungle and the frozen mountaintop. With this in mind, Tyson requested from Juniper Systems a top-of-the-line rugged handheld. In response, Juniper Systems provided the team with an Archer Field PC with Hemisphere GPS XF101 receiver, along with training to record the GPS data they needed.

Setting up the Archer Field PC to collect GPS data. Photo credit: Mark Fisher at http://www.fishercreative.com/Instagram: @fishercreative/via Juniper.

After a 35-day journey, Tyson and the team successfully summited Gamlang Razi, with the Archer Field PC in hand. After collecting GPS data at the top, the data was sent via satellite phone to Juniper Systems for analysis. After post-processing the data against terrestrial base stations in Lhasa, Tibet, and confirming the results with Effigis in Montreal, Canada, Juniper Systems concluded that the elevation of Gamlang Razi was 5,870 meters, ±2 meters. This suggests that Gamlang Razi is taller than nearby Hkakabo Razi by approximately 112 meters and should be considered Southeast Asia’s new highest peak.

However, there are many — particularly natives to Myanmar — who are not ready to accept changes to Hkakabo Razi’s original elevation measurement. This was made apparent in a letter Myanmar’s president, Thein Sein, wrote to Tyson and the team after their successful summit, congratulating them for summiting Southeast Asia’s second-tallest peak.

Tyson remains firm in his assertion that Gamlang Razi is the country’s highest peak, but some have suggested that the debate may not be over until someone actually climbs Hkakabo Razi and measures it in person. Juniper Systems said they have a handheld for the job, should that time come.

The expedition team. Photo credit: Mark Fisher at http://www.fishercreative.com. Instagram: @fishercreative/via Juniper.

February 4, 2014
Nightmare on GIS Street: GNSS Accuracy, Datums and Geospatial Data

Sponsored by: Hemisphere
Broadcast Date: Thursday, June 20, 2013
Moderator: Eric Gakstatter, Survey Scene Newsletter Editor
Speakers: Kevin Kelly, Geodesist, ESRI, Inc.; Craig Greenwald, Technical Director, GeoMobile Innovations; Michael L. Dennis, RLS, PE, Geodesist, NOAA

A look at the challenge of dealing with horizontal datums in your GIS. We are moving into a new era in dealing with datum transformations. Geodata 2.0 is coming, and it can create big headaches when attempting to combine disparate geospatial databases. Sensors such as GPS receivers, remote sensing imagery, and 3D scanning provide much more accurate data, setting up a collision with outdated and mismatched legacy horizontal datums.

June 20, 2013
Hemisphere GPS Moves Calgary Office

The Hemisphere GPS Calgary office is relocating to a new address, effective May 8.

As of that date, the location on 9th Street will be replaced by this address:

150 – 6712 Fisher Street SE, Calgary, AB T2H 2A7

April 25, 2013
Hemisphere GPS Sells Precision Business to Chinese UniStrong

On January 31, Hemisphere GNSS Inc., a subsidiary of Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co. Ltd., purchased the Precision Products business and related GNSS technology and intellectual property from Hemisphere GPS Inc. for $15 million US. In a related press release, Hemisphere GPS Inc. has announced the intention to change its company name to AgJunction.

As part of the transaction, Hemisphere GNSS acquired all of the high-precision GNSS product lines, all related intellectual property rights and the Hemisphere GPS trademarks and brands. The Precision Products segment generated revenues of approximately $13.3 million in 2012 serving marine, land survey, construction, mapping, and OEM segments.

Hemisphere GNSS will operate its business headquarters out of Scottsdale, Arizona, and will maintain its operations in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Phil Gabriel has been appointed president of Hemisphere GNSS Inc. and will also serve as a board member. Gabriel has more than 15 years of experience with Hemisphere GPS, serving for the past six years as the vice president and general manager of the Precision Products business. “We are truly excited about our future growth prospects as a fully focused GNSS products and technology provider,” Gabriel said. “I would like to assure all our global distribution partners, suppliers and customers that it remains business as usual as we take our first steps forward with the strong backing of UniStrong.”

With this acquisition, UniStrong is expanding its capabilities in the high-precision GNSS business and also expects to promote commercial applications of China’s BeiDou Navigation System. UniStrong is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under ticker 002383.

Business analysts have reported in China that this is the first acquisition of an internationally renowned enterprise initiated by a domestic enterprise in China’s satellite navigation industry and represents an important milestone in the development of the industry. “The acquisition will create an international route enabling UniStrong to expand its global business outlook, enhance our ability to attract international talent, and lay the foundation for international growth and profitability,” stated Xingping Guo, president and CEO of UniStrong.

As part of the agreement, Hemisphere GNSS and AgJunction have formed a strategic alliance and a collaborative business relationship covering supply chain management, customer support, technology development and cross-licensing. “Having already established a relationship with UniStrong as one of our resellers made our new alliance a win-win for both parties,” said Rick Heiniger, president and CEO of AgJunction. “I am very pleased to be working together in this close technology-sharing relationship.”

Hemisphere GNSS’s newly appointed board of directors brings additional GNSS industry experience to the company. The board is chaired by Jonathan W. Ladd, former president and CEO of NovAtel Inc. Also joining the board is Werner Gartner, former executive vice president and CFO of NovAtel Inc.

“Hemisphere’s talented team will leverage its core GNSS capabilities and product marketing knowledge with UniStrong’s high quality, low cost GNSS product design and development resources,” said Ladd. “Hemisphere’s existing and future customers and partners will most certainly benefit from the resulting rapid, cost-effective product innovation across multiple product lines.”

Beijing UniStrong is focused on GNSS industry, with R&D, production, engineering, sales and service facilities. Its technical solutions and products cover GPS/GLONASS/COMPASS receivers, multi-system navigation and positioning, high-accuracy surveying, GNSS data post-processing, and system integration.

The re-branding of Hemisphere GPS as AgJunction is an integral part of the strategic re-focusing of the company’s resources on precision agriculture, and part of the restructuring initiated in September 2012. The company maintains ownership of its key patents and leading agricultural brands including AgJunction, Outback Guidance, and Satloc.

February 4, 2013
Hemisphere GPS: Change Can Be Good

Nothing can be more certain in today’s economic environment: companies will continue to adjust in order to survive and prosper. Hemisphere GPS has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1990 in Calgary, Alberta, through to a recent decision to focus on its agriculture business and move its headquarters to Hiawatha, Kansas.

I’ve always had a soft spot for Hemisphere GPS — it grew up alongside NovAtel in Calgary, the company I worked for over many years. I knew a lot of the Hemisphere GPS people and I watched the company wax and wane over the years as it brought other companies into the fold, struggled and often succeeded with integration, with new product development and introduction, and eventually settled into its position as a leader in the GNSS ag business. The company’s recent announcement to sell off its Precision Products and Core GNSS group almost brought a tear to my eye — but it’s really just another step in their ongoing evolution.

Selective Availability. CSI came into the GNSS game back in 1990 when GPS still had to struggle with the inaccuracies of Selective Availability (SA), and it was an initial approach of overcoming SA with differential GPS that got it started. Steven Verhoeff and Michael McCullough got the original company off the ground with the Data Trakdifferential HF unit that was sold into the offshore oil and gas industry, improving 100 meters SA measurements to an accuracy of 5-10 meters. As the U.S. Coast Guard beacon service came online through 1991-1993, CSI jumped on-board with the MBX-1 beacon receiver and business began to take off in early 1994, with significant sales in marine and the newly developing precision agriculture industry.

In order to maintain the rapid growth that CSI had initially experienced, there followed a series of private placements and public offerings that provided the necessary capital needed to sustain growth. The first private placement in Calgary was followed by an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange. These funds allowed CSI to not only invest in further beacon receiver development, but also gave it the capability to look at alternative approaches to growth through a series of acquisitions over the next seven years that would change CSI forever.

While the beacon receiver business sustained CSI through many years, by 1999 the talk was that SA would soon be switched off by the U.S. government, putting the need for differential beacon receivers in question. This motivated CSI’s diversification strategy, which saw them acquire Satloc in Arizona. The acquisition added a highly skilled engineering team that had developed the first GPS products for crop duster planes used in the safe and efficient application of chemicals, owning 75 percent of this market. Satloc had also deployed these products into ground-based precision agriculture applications for guidance of tractors, sprayers and other ag equipment.

CSI Wireless. CSI became CSI Wireless in July 2000, following the acquisition of Wireless link Corporation in California, which brought on not only CSI’s entry into the wireless communication market, but also into fleet and asset management, fixed and mobile telemetry, and automotive and consumer telematics markets. To handle this diversity of products and markets, CSI Wireless quickly organized itself into two business units, one for the GPS sector and another handling wireless.

The wireless business went well at first, with revenues of around $200 million between 2000 and 2006, mostly in fixed-base wireless phones sold through Motorola in developing countries without wired communications infrastructures. However, margins fell as completion increased, and the wireless and telematics businesses were to be eventually sold off later in 2006. In contrast during this period, the GPS business thrived.

Outback. Linking up with RHS out of Hiawatha, Kansas, CSI Wireless brought out the Outback-S light-bar guidance systems for retrofit in ground ag. Outback-S quickly became an after-market leader with more than 25,000 units sold. A series of ag guidance derivative products quickly followed as CSI and RHS, operating as a highly successful team, pioneered GPS-based precision agriculture techniques for the mainstream family farm during 2001-2004. e-Dif and COAST — proprietary software technologies — were added to enhance GPS accuracy and reliability without third-party differential corrections and during periods of GPS signal outage.

During the same period, CSI also introduced the Vectorline of GPS heading sensor (compass) products, which re-established a position in the marine market providing heading corrections for seafaring vessels using a technology that was far less expensive and much simpler than competing gyro-compasses — consistent with the performance/value theme established in the family farm market.

CSI also introduced a variety of new GPS and DGPS receivers, including the PowerMAX Bluetooth-enabled DGPS receiver, the Seres integrated DGPS/SBAS smart-antenna system and the DGPS MAX, a high-accuracy GPS receiver integrating GPS, SBAS, WAAS and beacon DGPS.

Hemisphere GPS. Building on the successes that CSI and RHS had enjoyed, in April 2005 CSI announced that the marketing and distribution assets of the Outback Business were to be combined with CSI’s GPS Business Unit to create Hemisphere GPS, with three business units: Ground Agriculture, Air Agriculture and Precision Products. With the addition of the RHS business, the agriculture business unit was suddenly the largest in terms of revenues and set up the goal “to be the global leader in after-market GPS guidance products.” Shortly thereafter, Hemisphere announced that a strategic partnership had been established with CLAAS — one of the world’s top agriculture OEMs — providing it with guidance and auto-steering technology and products for integration with its equipment, all based on the newly developed Crescent receiver. Later in that year, the next-generation Outback S2 guidance product was announced incorporating Crescent technology.

With all three businesses poised for growth, everything seemed set for great things to happen. But the agriculture markets didn’t cooperate and with the wireless group still to be divested; internal costs mounted as sales and margins declined. Before the ship could be righted there were casualties, and unfortunately one of them was the founder and CEO Steven Verhoeff, who left the company in May 2006. Chairman Mike Lang stepped in as interim CEO, and CFO Cameron Olson became interim president. While a CEO search got underway, the cleanup related to the divestment and wind-down of the wireless businesses was completed, and new products in each of the three businesses continued to be introduced. By September 2006, Steve Koleswas was installed as Hemisphere’s next president and CEO, closing a difficult chapter in the CSI story and beginning what everyone hoped would be a phase of recovery.

During 2007 in the Agriculture group, the Outback product family grew with the introduction of the Automate and S-Lite. The Precision Products group also introduced a number of new products, including the LX-1 OmniSTAR-compatible DGPS receiver board and the XF100 receiver for handheld mapping applications.

Total Eclipse. One of the most significant steps forward for Hemisphere came about in 2007 with the release of Eclipse dual-frequency GPS receiver technology. This dramatically extended high levels of precision and reliability into the company’s products. With Eclipse RTK technology, centimeter accuracies were now possible — a dramatic improvement from CSI’s first products that enabled accuracies of around 10 meters.

Making a Beeline. With the return to strong revenues through 2007, Hemisphere felt confident enough to return to its acquisition strategy, and in December it brought Beeline in Brisbane, Australia, into the company fold — adding intelligent high-end GPS guidance and auto-steering solutions for agriculture equipment and autonomous control solutions for other machine control applications. Leveraging highly accurate “steer-by-wire” automatic vehicle steering, the acquisition accelerated the evolution of auto-steering products from hydraulic-based steering to electronic vehicle control, and brought many other talented and experienced engineering employees into the company.

The agriculture markets were extremely robust in North America in 2008, but there was even stronger growth in offshore international markets for the Precision Products group. During 2009, Hemisphere’s AG group introduced the Outback S3, a touch-screen high-end precision guidance terminal that added important new features and enabling entry into new higher-end segments of the market. In the Air group, the Air IntelliFlow dual-rate system was also introduced for aerial applications and the R220 dual-frequency RTK GPS receiver was announced.

Taking a Hit. Then the economic crisis of 2009 hit, and the resultant global recession impacted Hemisphere’s annual revenues significantly — the company experienced its first decline in annual revenues since it went public in 1997. Fortunately, an existing strong balance sheet helped them weather the storm. In late 2009, a “lean forward” strategy and internal restructuring took place, reorganizing each business with its own dedicated Engineering and Marketing teams. This accelerated new product introductions, and 2010 proved to be an all-time high for new product releases.

For the ground AG group, products like Outback eDriveX provided a new level of high-precision AG steering applications and opened up significant new market opportunities. The A220 and A221 dual-frequency smart antennas provided farmers and other machine control customers with RTK level receivers. At that time, the Air group introduced Intellistar and quickly followed with the Satloc Bantam next-generation aerial guidance systems, which were all quite successful. The Precision group also went on to introduce more than a dozen new products, including new Crescent L1-based Vector products under the Hemisphere GPS brand and other private label variants. During this period, the Core GNSS R&D group worked very closely with the Precision group on Vector, Eclipse 2 and the miniEclipse. New antennas were also developed for the new receiver designs, establishing Hemisphere’s Precision group as a significant antenna and board supplier in the OEM market.

With all systems firing, Hemisphere came through the recession of 2010 and 2011 relatively unscathed, and emerged in 2012 to continue with its acquisition strategy. In January, it bought Ag Junction in State College, Pennsylvania, to further its Ag business growth. While John Deere was introducing Farmsight as a soup-to-nuts service for farmers, Ag Junction offered Hemisphere the opportunity to grow alongside, with in-cab real-time crop yield analysis and prescription preparation that is becoming the way ahead for the future of farm automation.

However, despite ongoing revenue growth, Hemisphere continued to struggle with profitability. In a move to reposition itself, in September 2012 the Hemisphere Board decided that a pure play Agriculture focus was necessary for the public company to prosper. Rick Heiniger, a board member since the RHS acquisition in 2005, was appointed Hemisphere’s third ^third CEO. Rick moved quickly to begin repositioning the public company and recently announced intentions to move the public company’s head office to its Hiawatha, Kansas, Ag distribution center and to divest the Precision and Core GNSS R&D activities.

The Precision/Core business unit remains intact and will continue to be based out of Calgary, Alberta, and Scottsdale, Arizona. It’s understood that new investment is being sought, and that product offerings will continue to be supported and expanded with specific focus on the traditional markets of Marine, OEM, Survey and Machine Control.

So the adventure will continue, but it’s expected to be somewhat different as 2013 rolls forward. As we learn more about the changes at Hemisphere, we’ll be sure to talk with them so we can continue their evolving story.

Tony Murfin
GNSS Aerospace

January 8, 2013
Hemisphere GPS Cuts Non-Agriculture Business

Hemisphere GPS, Inc., has announced a new corporate strategy that focuses exclusively on the agriculture business. The company, which appointed Rick Heiniger chief executive in September, said it expects to save $7 million annually from the restructuring. The workforce will be reduced from 273 to about 170, and the headquarters will be moved from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to Hiawatha, Kansas, where Hemisphere GPS’s agricultural operations are located.

Hemisphere GPS said diversification into marine, construction, and other industries had increased costs, absorbed cash, and distracted management focus from its core agriculture business. The agriculture business contributed 81 percent of the company’s revenue in the first nine months of 2012. Hemisphere’s agriculture products include the Outback line, OEM boards and antennas, and precision agriculture systems.

The company has hired an investment banking firm to pursue strategic alternatives for the Precision Products (non-agriculture) business. “Given the agricultural focus of the Company, the board believes that the Precision Products business can grow more quickly with another organization that is more strategically aligned,” the company stated.

“The agricultural industry is entering a period of exceptional opportunity. We’re in the early stages of transformational adoption of high-definition production practices,” said Hemisphere GPS’ new CEO, Rick Heiniger. “We are a data driven society, and agriculture is no different. Agronomic specialized data-management and cloud information services, combined with a new generation of connected devices and machines, will not only enable emerging technologies, but will simplify existing workflows and deliver productivity gains for the industry. We will be wholly focused on the essential core technologies while at the same time assisting the industry in its adoption.”

November 15, 2012
Hemisphere GPS Introduces Outback MAX with ConnX

Hemisphere GPS has introduced Outback MAX with Outback ConnX — what it calls its “next-generation Outback Guidance system that redefines simplicity in precision farming.” Working seamlessly with Outback eDriveX with eTurns, the Outback MAX integrated display terminal provides a full array of features including section and variable rate control, Eclipse L1/L2 GPS and GLONASS guidance, and video support for up to four monitoring cameras, the company said.

Outback MAX also provides wireless connectivity via the Outback ConnX data management system to deliver real-time data access and management that is imperative for modern farmers. ConnX provides seamless data transfer between the Outback MAX terminal, office, and service providers ensuring efficient, accurate decision making and farming operations. ConnX can automatically import and export data, engage customer service with remote control capability, and simplify connection to RTK correctors. ConnX is compatible with popular data platforms including AgJunction, AgVerdict, NutriScription HD, OptiGro, and Precision.Ag.

“Hemisphere GPS has established a new level of innovation with Outback MAX that will substantially improve the accessibility and effectiveness of automated guidance and application control,” said Kip Pendleton, senior vice president and general manager of Agriculture at Hemisphere GPS. “The highly functional yet simple design of Outback MAX combined with the seamless connectivity between the field, office, and service providers greatly enhance the value that farmers can realize from precision farming techniques.”

Building on the functionality of company’s successful, the feature-rich Outback S3, the Outback MAX adds a host of new features: simplicity in design and operation, a powerful mapping engine, excellent screen clarity, seamless connectivity, and a rugged design that can operate in rough environments — features that are critical to achieving the benefits of precision farming. Outback MAX incorporates the ability to create shortcuts and favorites for the most commonly used tasks, facilitating a short learning curve with simple access to important features, getting farmers up and running quickly, Hemisphere GPS said.

September 14, 2012
Hemisphere GPS at the ESRI International Users Conference

GPS World magazine interviews at the ESRI International User Conference 2012, talking with Garry Hurkens of Hemisphere GPS.

September 12, 2012
Hemisphere GPS Awarded New Patents for Machine Control

Hemisphere GPS, a leading innovator and manufacturer of advanced GNSS products, continues to expand its intellectual property portfolio with newly awarded patents. These patents represent the latest advancements in adaptive machine control and GNSS solutions, the company said.

The Adaptive Machine Control System and Method patent describes the sophisticated adaptive control methods used to guide vehicles and provide accurate and efficient coverage. The system is comprised of a machine controller, GNSS guidance system, and software and is most commonly used in precision farming. From pre-planned guidance patterns the system provides the ideal pattern adjustments for guidance and automated steering taking into account a variety of conditions and user inputs including path, boundary or terrain irregularities, and minimum turning radius. In addition, the system provides optimal, automated turns and spray nozzle control. As a result, farmers complete their fieldwork with greater accuracy and efficiency as well as improve their yields and reduce their input expenses. The patent supports current products and new developments within Hemisphere GPS’ precision farming product line including Outback Guidance branded products.

Hemisphere GPS was awarded seven other patents in 2012 that include advanced GNSS solutions for antenna design, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), multiple antenna control system, tracking of fixed and slow-moving structures, augmentation of differential corrections, antenna alignment and monitoring system, and vehicle guidance control.

"Hemisphere GPS’ commitment to innovation has generated over 75 pending and issued patents,” said Mike Whitehead, chief scientist at Hemisphere GPS. "Through these inventions and sophisticated new technology, we continuously enhance capability and performance of our positioning, guidance, and machine control solutions in the marketplace.”

July 25, 2012
Compact Modules for RTK GNSS

Hemisphere GPS announces the Eclipse P300 and Eclipse P301 OEM modules — its next-generation high‑performance compact modules for RTK GNSS applications. Based on new Hemisphere GPS multi-function application firmware and Eclipse GNSS multi‑constellation technology, P300 and P301 provide the ability for tracking commercially available GNSS signals for precise positioning.

P300 is a drop-in board replacement for Hemisphere GPS’ successful Crescent L1 board as well as the first‑generation miniEclipse P200 GPS-only OEM board. P301 is the company’s 20‑pin OEM module configured as a drop-in replacement for a different industry standard interface. Eclipse P300 and P301 improve GNSS positioning performance, particularly with RTK applications, through Hemisphere GPS’ patent-pending SureTrack technology. Benefits include extended and more robust RTK solutions as the rover RTK receiver will process all available signals even if they are not common with the base receiver. RTK solutions are therefore better maintained in challenging environments, with baselines of up to 50 km, and reacquisition times are improved resulting in more robust overall performance, the company said.

P300 and P301 are designed for OEM system integrators who demand the highest level of multi-frequency positioning, accuracy, fast initialization time, and GNSS RTK solutions. Hemisphere GPS’ miniEclipse series includes a single frequency L1 GPS + L1 GLONASS model named P202. Both series are designed for developing integrated high-precision and control applications for geomatics, survey, machine control, and unmanned vehicle solutions.

“P300, P301, and P202 all improve upon our already successful miniEclipse OEM modules adding GNSS support to our most compact modules for excellent accuracy and affordability,” said Phil Gabriel, vice president and general manager, Precision Products, for Hemisphere GPS. “System integrators have a wider range of Hemisphere GPS solutions from which to choose to develop world‑class high‑precision products.”

Measuring 71 mm long and 41 mm wide, miniEclipse allows for easy integration, especially for integrators who are accustomed to Hemisphere GPS’ Crescent and miniEclipse OEM module performance and footprint.

All miniEclipse modules are available through the Hemisphere GPS Precision Products global dealer network.

June 13, 2012
Snow Grooming Management System

Hemisphere GPS has announced the EquiPiste integrated snow grooming management system. EquiPiste provides visual guidance, snow depth status, and event logging for snow grooming operators, mountain managers and snow road operations. Ski resorts benefit from improved grooming quality and productivity, optimal snow making decisions and distribution, as well as more predictable and preventative snow cat maintenance, according to Hemisphere GPS.

Snow grooming operations are tasked with creating quality snow conditions for ski trails or pistes, as they are referred to in the industry. Designed with an integrated touchscreen terminal and Crescent GPS, Hemisphere GPS’ EquiPiste graphically displays to the operator the areas groomed, boundaries, assets, points of interest, and hazards. Through the guidance cues, operators increase their efficiency and quality of work by avoiding overlaps and skips in grooming, Hemisphere GPS said. Areas that need attention such as thin snow pack and winch anchors can be flagged with meta-data so operators can easily navigate back at any time, even in low visibility. Pathways can be mapped and re-used for training novice operators or for repeatedly navigating snow roads. Operation managers benefit from reviewing the job files from each machine to determine variable costs, performance and maintenance tracking, the company said. As well, data can be mapped within Google Earth and used for generating daily grooming or road maintenance reports for customers.

Many ski resorts also spend a substantial amount of their budget on snow making activities. When combined with Hemisphere GPS’ survey grade Eclipse GNSS technology, EquiPiste displays and records real-time snow depth measurements and maps, the company said. The snow depth data improves the efficiency and quality of managing the snow levels. The depth data helps indicate where and when to make snow, it alerts the operator to thin snow pack, where to redistribute snow as well as how to identically recreate (day to day and year to year) downhill race courses. Analysis of the snow depth data enables more optimized snow management.

June 13, 2012

*Service Level*	*Position Accuracy*
H100	100 cm 95% (50 cm RMS)
H30	30 cm 95% (15 cm RMS)
H10	8 cm 95% (4 cm RMS)