GeoExpress Case Study – Pixxures, Inc

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Pixxures, Inc. employs GeoExpress for higher quality imagery and lower costs.

Background

Based in Denver, Colorado, Pixxures, Inc. is one of the world’s largest providers of digital mapping products, services, and online delivery solutions. Find out how the company employs GeoExpress with MrSID formatting to help clients receive the highest quality imagery. An added bonus: They’re helping clients keep costs down, too.

Founded in 1999, Pixxures has grown rapidly thanks to the high quality of its digital mapping products and services, its commitment to affordability, and its high rate of customer retention. Today, Pixxures’ clients cover all of North America and include telecommunications, engineering, insurance, utilities, and oil and gas industries. Pixxures’ images are also used by government agencies ranging from the smallest municipalities up to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Challenges

Pixxures is committed to meeting the unique needs of a diverse range of clients. So when customers asked for images to be delivered in MrSID format, Pixxures complied without hesitation, noting the technology’s wide-spread industry acceptance. “When you have to compress massive amounts of imagery, MrSID is the logical choice. Our clients have very demanding specifications — our imagery is valuable to their operations, and must be accurate and accessible. GeoExpress with MrSID plays a strategic part in helping us meet and exceed client expectations,” explains Brian Webster.

Solution

Leah Martin, production manager, concurs. “We deal in large volumes of ortho imagery and second-generation orthos. These are massive files—850 MB or larger. We also work frequently with aerial photography in six-inch pixel resolution. Our clients definitely appreciate the compression capabilities of the MrSID format; they can view information much faster,” Martin elaborates. “It is also very easy to use.”

Pixxures also employs GeoExpress with MrSID to meet the challenge of transmitting giant files over the Internet. Based on groundbreaking technology developed at Los Alamos Labs, MrSID formatting compresses files up to 95 percent of their original size with no loss of image quality. As a result, files transmit with lightning efficiency, saving time and dramatically reducing storage costs.

Endorsed for accuracy by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), files compressed using GeoExpress with MrSID lossless format are mathematically and geometrically correct.

Benefits

After employing GeoExpress, Pixxures quickly realized the benefits of the technology’s unique mosaicking capabilities. Users can seamlessly combine multiple image sets into a single image, with an automatic history of changes preserved within the document. Tiling is no longer necessary.

Martin also praises LizardTech’s record for exemplary customer service. “When we have a question, we never have to wait long for an answer. We’ve had a very satisfactory experience with LizardTech and MrSID. Our customers are happy with it and it’s been a positive experience all around.”