Blog

UNB’s PPP Software Centre v2.0 Beta Now Available

The PPP Software Centre, an email-based Online PPP comparison utility hosted by the University of New Brunswick, is once again functioning with its release of version 2.0 Beta following an extended hiatus while being rewritten.

The centre is a convenient method for the GNSS community to compare results from several online precise point positioning services. For a more detailed description, including submission instructions, see the homepage at http://www2.unb.ca/gge/Resources/PPP/.

Note that the report has changed slightly, adding additional features, including final static position estimates tabulated in both Cartesian and geodetic coordinate systems; the name of the Cartesian system (and its epoch); and featuring a so-called Subject Line Interface, allowing advanced users some additional control over the centre’s behavior. This last feature may see some future expansion.

The centre invites feedback on the utility.

June 17, 2015
PTFS to Rebrand ArchivalWare as Knowvation at GEOINT 2015

Progressive Technology Federal Systems Inc. (PTFS), a provider of Enterprise Content Management (ECM) solutions, has upgraded and rebranded ArchivalWare, its flagship product line, as Knowvation. PTFS will demonstrate the enhanced Knowvation ECM offering and the roles it can play in Activity-Based Intelligence at GEOINT 2015, which will be held June 22-25 in Washington, D.C.

“In response to client feedback, we have improved the Knowvation graphical user interface making it faster and easier to query and retrieve content from vast enterprise repositories,” said Dan Quinn, PTFS vice president. “Knowvation will continue to appeal to government agencies, commercial organizations and libraries.”

PTFS will demonstrate the new Knowvation ECM solution in booth #2083 at the GEOINT 2015 Symposium.

Knowvation ECM is a web-based federated search and discovery application that manages structured and unstructured content, including born-digital and digitized files, in many databases at multiple locations across the enterprise. Fully modular, Knowvation enables users to interrogate and retrieve content by searching on metadata, full text, or geospatial parameters. Searchable content includes documents, books, newspapers, video, audio, photographs and raster/vector geospatial files in all formats.

“Combining full-text and geospatial queries sets Knowvation apart from many other Enterprise Content Management systems,” said Quinn. “The geospatial search and discovery capability has made Knowvation a trusted all source tool relied upon by government agencies with large GIS and satellite imagery archives, especially in the Intelligence Community.”

Knowvation users can perform geospatial searches on data archives containing over 200 different types of file formats. Format-agnostic geospatial queries can be initiated by typing a geographic name, entering latitude/longitude coordinates or drawing a polygon on a map interface. Once the analyst has retrieved required data their ELT of choice is launched with one click to perform analysis and build timely actionable intelligence.

PTFS offers the option of deploying Knowvation as the client’s repository of record in which all content is ingested, stored, managed and searched. Or the client may keep its content in other applications and shared drives with the ECM solution deployed externally to index the information for easy search and retrieval. The Knowvation server can be located behind the client firewall or hosted by PTFS offsite or in the Amazon cloud in a Software-as-a-Service business model.

Introduced 11 years ago as ArchivalWare, Knowvation is deployed in government agencies, libraries, academic institutions, and labor unions. The largest installations are within the U.S. federal government at DoD sites.

PTFS President John Yokley and Global Marketing Insights President Dr. Shawana Johnson will participate in a video at GEOINT 2015 discussing emerging technologies in the Federal/Civilian space and Knowvation’s move into the Amazon Marketplace.

Concurrent with GEOINT, Dan Quinn will speak on GeoPDF technology at 11 am on Thursday, June 25, at the U.S. government’s 9th Geospatial PDF Working Group meeting at the Washington Convention Center.

June 17, 2015
Companies Team on UAS Imagery for Pipelines, Electric

Flightline Geographics and Tablerock Land Survey have partnered to provide industry-leading premium 3D aerial imagery from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for pipeline and electric transmission projects across North America. The announcement was made at the International Right of Way Association annual conference and trade show.

FlightlineGeo is a GIS company that has been involved in professional UAS since 2012 and is able to provide base mapping and 3D terrain modeling through the use of drones for energy corridors and other areas of interest. Resolution and delivery times are far better than traditional manned sources and costs are significantly lower. “GIS is a technology that depends upon up-to-date content and UAS is now a cost-effective way to provide aerial visual intelligence for GIS, in the form of stunning 3D Imagery. All delivered in days, not months,” said FlightlineGeo Founder and CEO Devon Humphrey.

Tablerock provides complete survey, right-of-way, and project management/inspection services for projects of all sizes. “One of the challenges we have faced has been obtaining current aerial imagery and topographic information that meets industry needs for project design and GIS within the United States. On most projects, our clients are limited to whatever current satellite imagery is available on the Internet, but it is often dated and of low quality. Content from FlightlineGeo changes all that,” said Andrew Darlington, President of Tablerock Land Survey.

FlightlineGeo is an ESRI Partner Network Company based in the Austin, Texas, area, and Tablerock Land Survey is based in Denver, Colo.

June 17, 2015
CHC Introduces UAV Ground-Control Specific GNSS System

The UAV Ground Control (UAV GC) and post-processing kit for high-precision UAV systems by CHC Navigation.

CHC Navigation has launched a new UAV Ground Control (UAV GC) and post-processing kit for high-precision UAV systems. This kit is designed to provide an easy-to-operate complete system, and be cost-effective for producing centimeter-level control for UAV projects.

The standard kit includes five GNSS receivers with expansion of additional receivers in pairs. The core of the system is the X900+OPUS, a dual-frequency triple-constellation receiver capable of cm positioning of the project at 200 km in absolute geodetic space. The secondary X20+ receivers serve as ground-control points for orthorectification, project verification, and other high-accuracy positional tasks.

“Low cost and easy to use, the CHC UAV GC system is a necessity for any UAV manufacturer or operator who is interested is promoting/proving the high accuracy of their deliverables,” said George Zhao, CEO of CHC Navigation. “The UAV Package offers unrivaled performance at an unheard of low price, and fills the last remaining gap for a complete whole product solution in the UAV market.”

The UAV GC kit is now available through the existing CHC distribution channel worldwide.

June 17, 2015
MEMSIC Launches Inertial System with GPS

The MEMSIC INS380SA.

MEMSIC has launched its latest inertial system, the INS380 — a complete inertial navigation system with a built-in 48-channel GPS receiver. The INS380 is part of a portfolio of inertial systems enabled with MEMSIC’s SmartSensingtechnology for a broad range of precision-motion sensing applications.

The MEMSIC portfolio consists of inertial measurement units (IMU), vertical gyros (VG), attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS), inertial navigation systems (INS) and tilt measurement systems in a variety of packages for system designers and end-equipment manufacturers.

The SmartSensing technology enables a turnkey system with better than 0.01 m/s velocity measurement accuracy. The integrated 3-axis magnetometer allows for accurate operation when the GPS signal is lost or when the vehicle comes to a stop. SmartSensing provides users with sensor fusion and performance in critical motion sensing applications.

SmartSensing combines enhanced and patented Kalman-based algorithm with proprietary temperature, motion and alignment calibration for consistent and high-accuracy performance over a wide range of extreme operating conditions. Applications include unmanned ground and aerial vehicles, platform stabilization, avionics, precision agriculture, construction and more.

INS380SA-400 EVALKIT is available for evaluation and ships completer with an INS380 unit along with necessary accessories for quick installation. Designers can evaluate and configure the system using MEMSIC’s NavView Software, available for download.

June 17, 2015
Companies Partner on UAS Imagery for Pipelines, Electric

Flightline Geographics and Tablerock Land Survey have have partnered to provide 3D aerial imagery from unmanned aerial systems (UAS ) for pipeline and electric transmission projects across North America. The announcement was made at the International Right of Way Association annual conference and trade show.

Flightline Geographics is a GIS company that has been involved in professional UAS since 2012 and provides base mapping and 3D terrain modeling through the use of UAS for energy corridors and other areas of interest.

“GIS is a technology that depends upon up-to-date content, and UAS is now a cost-effective way to provide aerial visual intelligence for GIS in the form of stunning 3D imagery. All delivered in days, not months,” said Flightline Geographics’ founder and CEO Devon Humphrey.

Tablerock provides survey, right-of-way and project management/inspection services.

“One of the challenges we have faced has been obtaining current aerial imagery and topographic information that meets industry needs for project design and GIS within the United States,” said Andrew Darlington, president of Tablerock Land Survey. “On most projects, our clients are limited to whatever current satellite imagery is available on the Internet, but it is often dated and of low quality. Content from FlightlineGeo changes all that.”

Flightline Geographics is an Esri Partner Network Company based in the Austin, Texas, area and Tablerock Land Survey is based in Denver.

June 17, 2015
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
Highest Peak in North America to be Surveyed

At 20, 320 feet, Mount McKinley is North America’s highest peak. (Photo courtesy of Todd Paris, UAF).

A new GPS survey of Mount McKinley, the highest point in North America, will update the commonly accepted elevation of McKinley’s peak, 20,320 feet. The last survey was completed in 1953.

The USGS, along with NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey (NGS) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), are supporting a GPS survey of the Mount McKinley apex. Surveying technology and processes have improved greatly since the last survey and the ability to establish a much more accurate height now exists, the USGS said.

The Mount McKinley survey team, and their equipment, are expected to face temperatures well below zero, high winds and frequent snow. Current forecast, courtesy of NOAA. (Photo courtesy of Todd Paris, UAF).

An experienced team of four climbers, one from UAF and three from CompassData, will start the precarious trek to the summit with the needed scientific instruments in tow, in the middle of June. They plan to return on or before July 7 and begin work with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and NGS processing the data to arrive at the new summit elevation.

With the acquisition of new elevation (ifsar) data in Alaska as part of the 3D Elevation Program, there have been inquiries about the height of the summit. The survey party is being led by CompassData, a subcontractor for Dewberry on a task awarded under the USGS’ Geospatial Products and Services Contract (GPSC).

Using modern GPS survey equipment and techniques, along with better gravity data to improve the geoid model in Alaska, the partners will be able to report the summit elevation with a much higher level of confidence than has been possible in the past.

According to CompassData, the survey equipment includes two Trimble R10 antennas and one Trimble Net-R9 with a Zephyr-2 antenna. Also being taken up the mountain is a 10-meter specialized glacier avalanche probe and a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), courtesy of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

It is anticipated the newly surveyed elevation will be published by the National Geodetic Survey in late August.

Climbing Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak, is a daunting task for even the most experienced mountaineers at Denali National Park in Alaska. (Photo courtesy of National Geographic).

June 16, 2015
Avenza PDF Maps v2.5 for iOS Highlights Pan and Zoom
Avenza Systems Inc., a developer of cartographic software — including MAPublisher for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager geospatial tools for Adobe Photoshop — has released PDF Maps app 2.5 for iOS devices with enhanced features.

Avenza’s PDF Maps app and mobile solution is used for both personal and commercial purposes and incorporates more detailed functions commonly needed when tracking, plotting points, navigating and collecting data in areas where Internet service is unavailable. To date, Avenza’s PDF Maps app has grown its commercial side to more than 30,000 regular users.

Paired with mobile devices that use GPS, such as a smartphone or tablet, the PDF Maps app provides constant access to geographic locations without the risk of losing reception due to cell-tower proximity. Over the years, the app initially attracted the attention of recreational users such as hikers who traveled through rugged areas.

Today, PDF Maps app has developed a growing list of commercial users globally, including the military, wild fire units, search and rescue teams, and conservation groups that use the app to record data, document with images and share detailed navigation points with others quickly and easily. Based on the various types of environments the app is being applied in, Avenza has further developed its latest features based on the feedback and specifications of its users. These include:
- Enhanced navigation: ability to establish both GPS position and compass.
- Measurement: tools to calculate distances, size and areas.
- Map use: capable of overlaying search engine results on any map for offline use.
- Map Collections: convenient map searching tools including the ability to pan and zoom between maps.
- Personalization: ability to load a user’s own geospatial PDF, GeoPDF, GeoTIFF, JPG and TIFF maps and imagery from a file system, Dropbox, URL or email.
“Avenza’s PDF Maps app has always been popular with the recreational groups who often use the free app for use while in the air, on land or sea excursions. The mapping resource has helped many novice and expert outdoor enthusiasts navigate through areas where most digital maps fail in the details,” said Ted Florence, president, Avenza Systems Inc. “Recently, the popularity experienced on the recreational side is now being felt on the commercial end as many organizations that work in remote areas, and require use of their own custom maps and drawings on smartphones or tablets, need the ability to locate themselves and make notations and share information on detailed maps quickly. Avenza is excited to see the growth of PDF Maps, not just as a product, but as a valuable tool that is aiding commercial users such as conservation teams and similar groups. We hope the latest features of PDF Maps app 2.5 helps make a difference in their work.”

Currently, Avenza’s vast PDF Maps app library covering maps for domestic and international destinations includes more than 100,000 maps organized by country, state and area. All maps available through the in-app iTunes-like map store offer the following capabilities:
- Access and load maps through in-app purchase, iTunes File Sharing, Wi-Fi or cellular network to read maps anytime.
- Access and interact with saved maps without the need for a live network connection (offline).
- View your location on the PDF map using the built-in GPS device or via Wi-Fi triangulation.
- Find coordinate of any location in the map, including the ability to type in a coordinate to search.
- Display coordinates as Lat/Long (WGS84), Lat/Long (Map Default), Northing/Easting, or Military Grid Reference System (MGRS/United States National Grid (USNG).
- Support for GeoTIFF files to create tiles similar to how a geospatial PDF is tiled.
- Map rendering in higher resolution.
- Overlay Google search results.
- Add waypoints and collect/record information about locations, including photos.
- Measure distances and areas.
- Open current map extents in the Maps app.
- Quickly view, zoom and pan maps using gestures (pinch, drag and flick, double tap).
- Change pin colors, position and label names.
PDF Maps app 2.5 is available now on the iTunes App Store free of charge for personal and private use. PDF Maps app is also available for use with Android devices in the Google Play Store free of charge for personal non-commercial use. A Windows version is currently in public beta targeted for a release later this year. Commercial, government and academic use licensing is available for a nominal annual fee.

For more information about PDF Maps, visit the Avenza website or the PDF Maps website. Pricing of each map is set by the publisher and free maps remain free to users through the PDF Maps app in-app store.
June 16, 2015
June Webinar to Focus on Autonomous Driving
Autonomous vehicles — and the technology that will make them possible — are the focus of the June GPS World Market Insights Webinar. The Road to Driverless: Autonomous Vehicle Platforms, Sensors and Requirements will be held Thursday, June 18, at 1 p.m. EDT/10 a.m. PDT. Registration is free.

Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) are now integrated in all luxury cars and moving into mainstream models. Governments are getting involved to prevent accidents and minimize the related economic impacts with them. Manufacturers are not far behind; every one of them wishes to be seen as a technology master. Most car and truck companies are working actively on qualifying fully driverless technology today. The military also has a high interest in this area, and has developed autonomous convoy capability for large trucks and supply vehicles.

Although no driverless car is expected to operate freely on public roads for the next 10 years, some open test drives have already taken place, including one 100-mile highway cruise by a driverless Mercedes. This technology is restrained by legal issues and the lack of reliable nationwide mapping data — but the platforms are nearly ready to go.

Join us as we explore the current state of affairs and the likely near-term future developments.

Speakers:

John Fischer, Chief Technology Officer, Spectracom
Fischer has more than 30 years experience creating navigation and communications systems, received his Masters in electrical engineering from SUNY at Buffalo and has worked in radar, command and control, and wireless systems prior to joining Spectracom. To learn more, visit www.spectracom.com.

Lisa Perdue, Applications Engineer, Spectracom
Perdue is an applications engineer at Spectracom and a specialist in GNSS simulation. She has more than 15 years of navigation and RF systems experience, including 10 years of Naval Service.

Topics:
- Accurate positioning of ADAS vehicles on the test track using similar methods as used in military UAVs – John Fischer
- GNSS and Hybrid Navigation Testing Issues for ADAS and Driverless Cars – Lisa Perdue
- Realtime Testing Issues for V2V and V2X for ADAS and Driverless Cars – John Fischer
Register today. The webinar is sponsored by NavCom.
June 15, 2015
Septentrio Completes Acquisition of Altus Positioning

Septentrio Satellite Navigation has completed the acquisition and integration of Altus Positioning Systems. Septentrio said the acquisition strengthens the company’s focus on highly accurate and reliable GPS/GNSS positioning equipment, and the integrated company will continue to focus on developing emerging markets across the globe and increase advancements in the field of GIS.

“At the heart of this fusion are our customers,” said Antoon de Proft, CEO and president of Septentrio, “They will benefit from this unique opportunity, which combines the knowledge and experience of Septentrio in GNSS positioning with experience of Altus-PS in survey, mapping and GIS; and from an expanded offering of products and services under one group.”

Septentrio Satellite Navigation and Altus-PS started working together in 2007. The collaboration between the two companies resulted in a series of successful products such as the APS-NR2, APS-3, APS-U and APS-GeoPod, surveying and GIS products that provide essential accurate and reliable results and ease of operation, Septentrio said in a statement. The smart antenna products will form a product line in the Septentrio product portfolio.

The acquisition brings key capabilities and synergies in other areas such as testing, manufacturing and delivery, which will now be based from Septentrio’s corporate headquarters outside the Belgian city of Leuven.

Neil Vancans

Neil Vancans, formerly president of Altus-PS, now becomes vice president of Septentrio Americas. “The fusion of our two companies is a logical step in our evolving business relationship and professional collaboration,” Vancans said. “We look forward to leveraging the strengths of both our organizations to grow the market for Septentrio products across a wide range of market sectors and build the same level of success for Septentrio products in the American market that we have enjoyed elsewhere in the world.”

Septentrio designs, manufactures and sells high-precision multi-frequency, multi-constellation GPS/GNSS equipment used in demanding applications in a variety of industries such as marine, construction, agriculture, survey and mapping, GIS and UAVs. Septentrio receivers are available as OEM boards, housed receivers and smart antennas.

June 15, 2015
Hemisphere GNSS Debuts Atlas GNSS Correction Service
Hemisphere has released Atlas, its new entrant into the GNSS global correction services market. Atlas is delivered via L-Band or the Internet at accuracy levels ranging from meter level to sub-decimeter level. Atlas support is being introduced across a wide range of hardware, including Hemisphere’s new AtlasLink smart antenna, also launched.

“Atlas comes out of a change of culture and focus,” Hemisphere CEO Chuck Joseph told GPS World in an extensive interview that also included Rodrigo Leandro, Hemisphere’s director of engineering, GNSS Positioning Systems. For the full interview, see the second half of this news story.

Starting June 19, Atlas will be available for subscription at the dedicated Atlas web portal across a range of Hemisphere’s multi-frequency, RTK-capable products, such as AtlasLink, R330u, V320 and VS330u. Atlas will also be available from a number of Hemisphere’s channel partners and OEMs such as Carlson Software, Inc.

“Since joining Hemisphere I have heard from customers large and small that they need a different option when it comes to high-accuracy corrections, one they can buy from their provider of choice and with little to no impact on their operating budgets,” said Chuck Joseph, Hemisphere GNSS CEO and president. “We listened hard to what they told us and built Atlas to answer their needs — a totally new service that delivers freedom of choice to our customers along with industry leading corrections at dramatically reduced prices.”

“We formed a team of our most experienced GNSS professionals with the task of developing a roadmap for the future of correction services business and technology in the world — assessing current needs, and also what users across the globe will be looking for over the next decade or two,” said Rodrigo Leandro, Hemisphere director of engineering. “Atlas not only introduces Hemisphere as a business and technology leader in the correction services industry today, it also provides an essential platform for delivering multiple levels of correction services to a very wide range of users spanning commercial business and consumer application use.”

Systems supporting Atlas utilize the newly released and proven Athena GNSS engine. To be able to utilize Atlas corrections, users of supported systems will simply need to update to Athena firmware and purchase a subscription through the Atlas portal.

To build Atlas, Hemisphere GNSS put together a team of seasoned developers whose collective experience matches the best in the GNSS industry. Together they have developed a GNSS correction service, available via L-Band satellite broadcast, which utilizes the most powerful technologies available to deliver a service that matches or exceeds competitive systems across a range of metrics:
- Positioning accuracy: Atlas provides competitive positioning accuracies down to 2 cm RMS in certain applications.
- Positioning sustainability: Position quality maintenance in the absence of correction signals, using Hemisphere’s Tracer technology.
- Scalable service levels: Atlas is designed to serve all. It is capable of providing virtually any accuracy, precision and repeatability level in the 5 to 100 cm range.
- Convergence time: Convergence times of 10-40 minutes.
- Exclusive agnostic capability: Atlas is an agnostic positioning system. SmartLink technology allows an AtlasLink antenna to be used as an Atlas signal extension for any GNSS system compliant with open communication standards.
- Network RTK augmentation: BaseLink technology allows Atlas-capable receivers to self calibrate, self-survey, and automatically manage the transmission of RTK correction data to augment or extend established or new GNSS reference networks in areas of poor Internet connectivity.
“High-quality corrections are essential to our customers,” said Randy Noland, director of Machine Control, Carlson Software, Inc. “The way all the existing services are purchased, delivered and supported is completely separated from the rest of the positioning ecosystem. We see Atlas as an opportunity for us to deliver corrections under our own brand as part of a holistic package — all of which means empowering our ability to provide a stronger solution and a better experience for our customers.”

“Atlas completely changes how augmentation services are delivered and supported,” said Andy Smith at Saderet Ltd. “For the first time, distributors and dealers can fully participate in selling to and supporting our customers, strengthening our relationships by providing them with a much better experience.”

“I’ve extensively tested Atlas, and the performance is exceptional, making it a great fit for our GIS and survey customers” said Jean-Yves Lauture at Eos Positioning Systems, Inc. “Even better, we can now offer global augmentation services with our Arrow GNSS receivers to our customers as part of an integrated solution. After many years in this industry, that’s a major change.”

Atlas service levels and position accuracies can be customized to meet OEM needs, the company said.

Exclusive Interview with Hemisphere’s Chuck Joseph and Rodrigo Leandro

A Startup Inside a Reinvention

“Atlas comes out of a change of culture and focus,” Hemisphere CEO Chuck Joseph told GPS World, in an extensive interview that also included Rodrigo Leandro, Hemisphere’s director of engineering, GNSS Positioning Systems. “We are reinventing a storied brand, and to do that we have to act more like the startups I have directed since leaving Trimble — move fast, be flexible, and focus on innovation. Effectively we are building a startup inside of a reinvention.”

“On my first day on the job, we divided the staff into five working groups and told them: you are now startup companies, entrepreneurs, with six people each team. Go away and come back with big ideas. Go build a business plan. Out of that we got Athena, released last month, Atlas, AtlasLink, and a couple more new products coming out in the months to come.”

A Different Kind of Corrections Service

Joseph and his colleagues at Hemisphere describe the distribution, pricing, and overall business model of Atlas as “disruptive.”

“Our approach comes directly from talking to customers in agriculture, machine control, and to our channel partners. Other corrections service providers did not allow them to participate, forced them to give up their end user list, and to buy directly from [the service provider] — who in some cases was their competitor in that market.”

“When you step back you can see the impact of those restrictions — after 10 plus years the corrections service marketplace generates probably $150 million in total revenue — it should be bigger than that by now. We think a different approach combined with a very aggressive price point will substantially broaden the marketplace.”

“We’ll be making announcements of OEM signings in the months to come. For us it’s all about what works for our partners — some of them will private-label the service, some will choose to use the Atlas brand. We really don’t care if our name is on the product or not — we’re an OEM play. Whatever brand they choose, we will provide them with the infrastructure to be successful, even down to the portal their customers will use to manage their devices and subscriptions — we will develop that for them, and provide the back-end e-commerce.”

A Look at the Technology

Rodrigo Leandro added, “The basic architecture is not extremely different from other L-band reference services. However, within that, we have really pushed to develop leading-edge technology. For example, our correction method format is well-developed for new constellations and different applications it can serve, and our corrections message structure is the most advanced of those available today. As a result, we have a number of patents pending on technologies included in Atlas.”

Chuck Joseph interjected, “When we were doing the initial planning for Atlas we agreed that it was absolutely critical that our performance meets or beats the competition’s, otherwise we wouldn’t want to offer it to customers out there. We have been benchmarking the competition at every stage of our development, and know that we are delivering a market leading product.”

“This slide shows the same, single antenna connected to Atlas and to a competitor, and it shows being able to converge down to decimeter level.

“This one gives more details on time to converge.

“And here, this one shows pass-to-pass results, the relative accuracy between 2 tracks of the tractor — this is important for people more interested in agriculture applications. We can get down to 2.5 centimeters.”

“The new AtlasLink antenna is designed to be a main channel for customers of our service. It can be used in GIS, machine control, marine applications and so on. Features inside it include a very big internal memory storage, a web server application, multi-GNSS multi-frequency capability, L-band and RTK — it supports Atlas and Athena out of the box. Other innovations will come later, for instance, incorporating Galileo. We believe it is the most powerful multi-purpose GNSS smart antenna in the industry.”

“At the same time there is easy support and easy configuration by the user. It takes literally about six clicks from log-in to register the receiver, out of the box. In 20 minutes you’re running Atlas. It’s very easy to get up and running.”

Broadening the Market

Leandro continued, “The Atlas service isn’t the only area of innovation however. We also spent a lot of time working on how we could deliver the service to the broadest possible audience, and the resulted in two key features of our AtlasLink antenna — SmartLink and BaseLink. Those features free customers from the restrictions of their current hardware and current service — they really change the game.”

“Customers don’t want to have to buy a new $10-$20K receiver [in order to get a corrections service]]. If you’re happy with the hardware you’re currently running, there’s no need to change it, you can still get this service. We are not in the business of using the service to sell hardware. We are using the hardware to sell the service.”

Joseph concluded, “This is all good for OEM customers. For them the SmartLink and BaseLink capabilities are huge. They can go back into their installed base and not have to push people to upgrade receivers or get a brand new receiver. At the same time, it enables them to go after their competitors installed base, and opens up markets that previously weren’t available such as recreational marine service, for example, the lower end of the marketplace. Fundamentally, we want to change this market — enable more users to get access to correction, and deliver real choice to those that have it already.”
June 15, 2015

*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)

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Exclusive Interview with Hemisphere’s Chuck Joseph and Rodrigo Leandro