We’re pretty pumped. Why? Well, we always are — that’s how we make such great software. But in particular, our white paper on the MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) technology has been republished by the good folks at GeoPlace.com, so that word about the format’s new features — support for multispectral imagery, alpha band transparency, support for LiDAR point cloud data and improved mosaics — can reach an even wider audience of users.

If you haven’t seen it yet we encourage you to read it and learn about the capabilities of LizardTech’s latest version of the format that first made it possible for geospatial professionals to use high resolution imagery in their applications and that continues to evolve with advancements in geospatial imaging.

Visit GeoPlace.com, look for the section “White Papers” in the main column on the home page, and click Download now.

LizardTech’s business is not only about compression ratios and lossless quality; it’s about making our customers’ jobs easier by providing the best GIS solutions around while still taking into account their current operations. While much of our team’s time during the last ten months has been spent building and launching LizardTech’s GeoExpress® and Express Server® software products, we’ve also worked (and continue to work) hard to ensure that these products remain compatible with other commonly used GIS software.

Based on your feedback, we know many of you manage workflows that include one or more pieces of Esri software and it is increasingly important for both LizardTech and Esri technologies to integrate seamlessly together. Supported file formats allow projects to run smoothly and make sharing data faster and more efficient. Everyone wins.

To that end, LizardTech has recently made available a free plug-in for interoperability between our Express Server and Esri’s server product, ArcIMS. Express Server 7 came on the scene in July offering exciting features such as added support for raster images encoded to MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) format and the option to install as a 64-bit application. Now when used together, Express Server makes viewing images via ArcIMS up to 25 times faster!

We also offer free plug-ins that add support for MG4 raster data files in Esri’s ArcGIS Desktop version 9.3.1 and 10. Now Esri’s Arc users can harness the benefits of the new MG4 files that GeoExpress 8 produces, including support for compressing hyperspectral data allowing users to compress up to 255 bands of geospatial data.

You can download the plug-ins for ArcIMS, ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1 and ArcGIS Desktop 10 here.

We greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions for future releases, so thank you, and keep it coming!