Press Releases


LizardTech Partners with Smartronix, Inc., Enabling the Air Force Easy Access to Imagery

Warfighters Get Fast Access to Imagery with Express Suite

SEATTLE, Wash. – November 24, 2008 - LizardTech, a division of Celartem Inc. and a leading provider of software solutions for managing and distributing digital content, announced a partnership with Smartronix, Inc., a global professional solutions provider specializing in networking, systems management and integration, to enable the Air Force easy access to imagery for supporting U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Smartronix, Inc., a consultant to the AFSOC (U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command) was tasked to provide their client a faster solution to serve out imagery to support war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Previously, AFSOC employed a process for storing and serving imagery, however the delay time was typically in excess of three months to complete from image acquisition to deployment. After implementing LizardTech’s Express Suite, AFSOC was able to compress their imagery to MrSID, (Multiresolution Seamless Image Database), a powerful wavelet-based image encoder, viewer, and file format, reproject it, load it into Oracle, and have it ready to serve to the field in less than three weeks, four and a half times faster than before.

“At LizardTech our goal is to offer tools that let our customers get critical, time-sensitive imagery out to the necessary decision makers as rapidly as possible,” said Jon Skiffington, LizardTech senior product manager. “For our military personnel supporting the warfighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, time is everything. We’re proud to partner with Smartronix to create a solution for AFSOC to compress, store and serve out imagery in weeks, not months and look forward to partnering with them on other projects in the future.”

“Using the LizardTech Express Suite family of products we were able to save the Air Force time and money,” said David Streed, Smartronix, Inc. “Our requirements for storage dropped from Terabytes to Gigabytes which kept equipment costs down, allowed a significantly smaller footprint, and saved our client in excess of 1,700 man hours all while providing the imagery they needed in a timely manner.”

The Express Suite line of geospatial products combines the best image manipulation and compression tools with the best solutions for image storage and distribution in standard geospatial formats. The Express Suite products – GeoExpress, Spatial Express and Express Server – work together seamlessly and interoperate with virtually all geospatial applications and protocols.

About Smartronix

Smartronix is a global professional solutions provider specializing in Networking and Systems Management, Information Systems Security, Application Integration and Development, Software and Hardware Engineering, and Business Management Services. Headquartered in California Maryland, Smartronix operates 11 offices in the US in addition to strategic locations internationally including: Germany, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. With more than 550 employees, Smartronix has received numerous recognitions and awards including Vault’s 2009 “Best Firm to Work For”, one of the 50 largest technology employers in the Greater Washington, D.C. area, and one of the top 5000 fastest-growing private companies nationally as ranked by Washington Business Journal and Inc.500/Inc. 5000 media, respectively.

About LizardTech

Since 1992, LizardTech has delivered state-of-the-art software products for managing and distributing massive, high-resolution geospatial data such as aerial and satellite imagery and LiDAR data. LizardTech pioneered the MrSID technology, a powerful wavelet-based image encoder, viewer, and file format. LizardTech has offices in Seattle, Denver, London and Tokyo. For more information about LizardTech, visitwww.lizardtech.com.

About Celartem

Celartem Technology Inc. http://www.celartem.com develops and sells innovative technologies for storage, access and distribution of rich media content. Celartem has developed technology in the areas of digital image compression, scalable image viewing and secure content distribution and management. Celartem is listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, JASDAQ: 4330. Established in 1996, Celartem is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Celartem Inc. d.b.a. LizardTech with headquarters in Portland, OR.