GeoExpress
What you know and rely on:
LizardTech® GeoExpress® software reduces storage costs by compressing images to less than 5 percent of their original size using either the industry-standard MrSID® image compression format — now updated to MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) — or the ISO-standard JPEG 2000 format, all while retaining the visual quality of the originals.
"The MrSID format provided us an opportunity to speed up the client's use of the imagery and consequently its QC. Equally important, the MrSID format proved more capable of managing its coordinate system information than other formats."
Todd Thies, CP
Project Manager
Ayres Associates
Madison, Wisconsin
Overview
Introducing Version 8.5:
GeoExpress 8.5 supports MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™), the new version of the industry standard geospatial image format. With MG4’s support for compressing multi- and hyperspectral data you can use GeoExpress software to compress up to 255 bands of geospatial data to MrSID, select any subset of output bands from multispectral source images, and specify an individual compression ratio for each band or groups of bands. Whether you need to compress 4-band color images containing an infrared channel, take advantage of the latest 8-band satellite imagery, or compress high-resolution RGB datasets, GeoExpress has you covered.
Introducing MrSID Generation 4 (MG4):
MrSID Generation 4 (MG4™) is the new version of the LizardTech® MrSID file format. In the years since MrSID first emerged as the industry solution for working with large images, new technologies for analyzing the earth have been developed and become commonplace in the geospatial environment.
MG4 meets the demands of current and future advancements by supporting hyperspectral imagery, LiDAR point cloud data, multiterabyte datasets, and other innovations. Geospatial professionals can use MG4 to losslessly compress their geospatial data, mosaic datasets together, color balance raster imagery, and manipulate data in many other ways.
LiDAR data compressed to MG4 can be viewed in Merrick MARS, Overwatch LiDAR Analyst, ESRI 3D Analyst, and LizardTech’s free GeoViewer. Raster imagery compressed to MG4 can be viewed with either of LizardTech’s free viewers.
With GeoExpress 8.5 you can:
- Compress up to 255 bands to MrSID format
- Select any subset of output bands from multispectral source images
- Specify individual compression ratios for each band
- Add true transparency control through support for alpha channels
- Enable speedy creation and fast viewing of imagery via new mosaicking options
- Utilize powerful image editing tools: advanced color balancing, reprojection, cropping, area of interest encoding, despeckling and more
Features and Benefits
GeoExpress 8.5 offers MG4 compression of raster data, adding support for multispectral data, alpha channels and improved mosaicking.
Customize Your Multispectral Imagery - With MG4’s support for compressing multi- and hyperspectral data you can use GeoExpress software to compress up to 255 bands of geospatial data to MrSID, select any subset of output bands from multispectral source images, and specify an individual compression ratio for each band or groups of bands. Whether you need to compress 4-band color images containing an infrared channel, take advantage of the latest 8-band satellite imagery, or compress high-resolution RGB datasets, GeoExpress has you covered.
Add true transparency control through support for alpha channels - Make portions of your image transparent or opaque so you have greater control over how your imagery looks, even at high compression ratios. You can also use alpha channels on existing compressed images to remove compression artifacts known as speckling. Images with alpha channels will seamlessly combine into artifact-free mosaics for accurate analysis and visualization in your favorite GIS applications.
Speedy creation and fast viewing of imagery via new mosaicking options - Previously, mosaics were either quick to create but slower for end users to open, or took a long time to create but opened rapidly in viewing applications. Now you can combine thousands of MrSID files without spending valuable time reprocessing them. MG4 mosaics open as quickly as a single image, so you save time creating images and your users save time viewing them.
Additional GeoExpress features:
GeoExpress is ideal for defense and intelligence agencies, GIS data providers, government municipalities, or any other organizations that rely on aerial and satellite imagery for critical decisions.
Compression
Turn Unwieldy Geospatial Datasets into Network-Friendly Imagery -Compress your imagery to industry standard MrSID or ISO standard JPEG 2000 format at 5 percent of its original size without sacrificing visual quality. You can also encode imagery losslessly and save 30 percent or more on disk space while retaining pixel-for-pixel fidelity to the originals. Your imagery encoded with GeoExpress will travel faster over networks and can be used in almost every major geospatial application. And GeoExpress’ despeckling technology removes compression artifacts from the edges of images, making your imagery look better than ever before.
Encode with Confidence - GeoExpress helps you take the guesswork out of generating compressed imagery conforming to government requirements for ISO and other standards, including Department of Defense and NGA JPEG 2000 encoding specifications (such as NPJE and EPJE) and long-time industry-standard MrSID. Predefined and user-defined encoding profiles ensure that your organization delivers the same high-quality imagery, every time.
Manipulation
Reproject Imagery - Reproject your imagery from one coordinate system to another and output directly into MrSID or JPEG 2000 format – all using the familiar GeoExpress workflow. You don’t need to revert to TIFF or other raw formats in order to reproject, so you can save time and storage space by keeping your imagery compressed.
Color Balance Images and Mosaics - Manually or automatically adjust brightness, contrast and gamma to correct uniform imbalances and make one image more like its neighbors. For non-uniform imbalances like tilt, seam lines and vignetting, GeoExpress can also correct automatically.
Tailor Your Imagery to Every Need - From mosaicking, cropping, color-balancing, reprojection to despeckling, use GeoExpress to your advantage.
Demosaic and Export Imagery - Use the new export tools to demosaic or “tile out” your imagery for better fitting onto CDs or DVDs. No need to learn command line tools – simply draw a grid to decode all or part of your MrSID or JPEG 2000 imagery and then export to GeoTIFF directly from the GeoExpress graphical user interface.
Add and Edit Custom Metadata tags in MrSID and JPEG 2000 imagery - Assign coordinate reference system information to your imagery without having to reencode, and use custom metadata tags to build flexible and robust Web applications that can be served with LizardTech Express Server®image serving software.
Include GMLJP2 Metadata in JPEG 2000 Imagery - In addition to such widely used methods as GeoTIFF and world files for including metadata, GeoExpress supports the GMLJP2 standard adopted by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) in 2005, enabling you to natively integrate geospatial metadata into your JPEG 2000 imagery, resulting in greater interoperability among GIS applications. GML (geography markup language) is an XML-based grammar for delivering and displaying geographic data across networks.
Administration
Use GeoExpress on 64-bit systems - With access to more memory than ever before – 16 gigabytes or more! – you can create mosaics of imagery multiple terabytes in size.
Put Flexible Licensing to Work for Your Team - Users traveling from one office to another can check out licenses as “commuter licenses” for working offline. And GeoExpress 8.5 enables administrators to control how many floating licenses are available as commuter licenses.
Remote image manipulation and encoding - GeoExpress Remote Edition, a licensing option, provides unlimited MrSID and JPEG 2000 encoding and manipulation in a Terminal Services or Citrix environment. Now you can install GeoExpress on a central server and log in remotely to run GeoExpress. This is of great benefit since imagery can now be stored in a central repository so remote users no longer have to copy large images to their local drive. Multiple users can run GeoExpress concurrently and perform intensive image processing jobs such as compression, reprojection, or color balancing on the server, freeing up their local machine for other work.
Interoperability
Encode Directly to Express Server - Select Express Server as the output destination for newly encoded imagery, or publish your existing MrSID and JPEG 2000 images to Express Server without having to reencode them. A few clicks moves your imagery from editing in GeoExpress to distribution via Express Server to WMS, ArcIMS or Web applications.
Administer Express Server from GeoExpress - The Express Server Management Console in GeoExpress enables you to create, index and update catalogs in multiple Express Servers from a single location. You no longer have to leave GeoExpress to prepare catalogs for the imagery you’re working with. Accessible from the GeoExpress toolbar, the Express Server Management Console enables you to create and update indexes, overviews and WMS layers in all your image catalogs.
Take Full Advantage of Your Oracle Database - Load imagery directly into Oracle Spatial 10gR2 from GeoExpress and reduce your database storage requirements by 95%. With LizardTech Spatial Express and the integration of native support for MrSID and JPEG 2000 into Oracle Spatial, analysts across your organization can retrieve imagery from a common location and IT administrators can plan for cost-effective, failsafe disaster recovery.
Ensure Interoperability with Geospatial Applications - GeoExpress is designed for interoperability with the widest range of leading geospatial applications, including native support in applications from ESRI, Leica Geosystems, Autodesk and Intergraph, MapInfo, Bentley, and GE/Smallworld, to name a few, enabling your users to view MrSID and JPEG 2000 imagery using their existing software.
Case Studies
Ville de Sherbrooke, Québec
Canadian city uses GeoExpress® software to prepare imagery for first responder vehicle terminals.
Case Study ~ PDF 702 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
City of Aurora, Colorado
City of Aurora, Colorado benefits from using GeoExpress by saving thousands in color balancing costs.
Case Study ~ PDF 265 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
Pinnacle Mapping Technologies, Inc.
GeoExpress enables Pinnacle Mapping Technologies, Inc. to create mosaics in multiple resolutions and projections.
Case Study ~ PDF 345 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
Maine Department of Transportation
State DOT saves storage space and speeds up image distribution using GeoExpress.
Case Study ~ PDF 718 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
City of Rockville, MD
The Floating License option available with GeoExpress 6 helped the city of Rockville cost-effectively improve GIS analyst productivity by putting the powerful image processing and compression tools they need to do their job right at their fingertips. With GeoExpress 6 installed on their workstation, they no longer have to travel to a shared workstation or wait for the shared workstation to become available.
Case Study ~ PDF 233 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
Sanborn Map Company, Inc.
Leader in geographic solutions wins multi-million dollar government contract using GeoExpress.
Case Study ~ PDF 98 kB
Case Study ~ HTML
Pixxures, Inc.
Pixxures, Inc. employs GeoExpress for higher quality imagery and lower costs.
Case Study ~ PDF 3 MB
Case Study ~ HTML
British National Space Centre
LizardTech provides British National Space Centre with cutting-edge imaging technology.
Case Study ~ HTML
Data Sheets
GeoExpress Datasheet
~ 738 kB
GeoExpress 8.5 Best Practices Guide
~ 284 kB
MG4 White Paper
~ 261 kB
Express Server Datasheet
~ 513 kB
LizardTech and Esri
~ 2 MB
GeoExpress 8.5 User Manual
~ 8 MB
System Requirements
Windows™
- 32-bit: Windows XP (SP3), Windows 2003 (SP2), Windows 2008 (SP2), Windows Vista (SP2) or Windows 7
- 64-bit: Microsoft Windows XP Pro (SP2), Windows 2003 R2, Windows 2008 R2, Windows Vista 64 (SP2) or Windows 7
- Microsoft .NET Framework (32- or 64-bit) 2.0 or later (included)
- Microsoft Management Console 3.0 (included)
- 1.5+ GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor (2.6+ GHz recommended)
Linux™
- Red Hat Enterprise Server 5.0 or 6.0 (32-bit or 64-bit)
- 1.5 GHz Intel Pentium 4 Processor (2.6+ GHz recommended)
Solaris™
- Sun Solaris SPARC V9 9 or 10 (64-bit)
- Sun UltraSPARC IIIi (UltraSPARC IV or higher recommended)
All Platforms
- 1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended for 32-bit; 8 GB RAM recommended for 64-bit)
- DVD-ROM Drive
- 200 MB free hard disk space, plus room for imagery
Customer List
Local Government
- Wood County, OH Auditor’s Office
- Region of Peel, ON Public Works
- Westchester County, NY GIS
- Warren County, KY
- WA State Department of Natural Resources
- City of Chesapeake, VA
- City of Rockville, MD
- Lee County, FL
- Broward County, FL
- City of Seattle, WA
- Jefferson County, CO
- Snohomish County, WA Public Utilities Dept. #1
- King County, WA Information & Administration
- Skagit County, WA Information Services
- Montgomery County, MD
- WI Department of Natural Resources
Departments of Transporation
- North Carolina Department of Transportation
- Florida Department of Transportation
- Michigan Department of Transportation
- Minnesota Department of Transportation
- Texas Department of Transportation
- Washington Department of Transportation
- New York City Department of Transportation
Oil & Gas / Utilities
- Idaho Power Company
- Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority
- Florida Power and Light Company
- Chevron Texaco Energy Technology Company
- Marathon Oil
- Canada Department of National Defence / Public Works
- WEB Water Development
Data Providers and Private Industry
- Bergmann Associates
- Applied Geographics
- Infotech Enterprises (replaces VARGIS)
- Earth Data International
- Dewberry
- Sanborn
- Norfolk Southern Railway
- Earth Balance
- Digital Aerial Solutions LLC
- Lockheed Martin
Federal Government
- United States Marine Corps
- Federal Aviation Administration
- United States Army Corps of Engineers
- United States Military Academy
- United States Army
- United States Forest Service
- National Park Service
- Library of Congress
- United States Air Force
- National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
- Central Intelligence Agency
- National Security Agency
- Federal Bureau of Investigation
- United States Marshal
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- United States Department of Agriculture Aerial Photography Field Office
- United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conversation Service
- Bureau of Land Management
- United States Geological Survey
- Naval Space Command
- United States Coast Guard
- United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
- United States Bureau of Reclamation
- United States STRATCOM
- United States Census Bureau
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
- Special Operations Command
- Federal Highway Administration
Purchase Options
GeoExpress Unlimited Edition
Unlimited MrSID and JPEG 2000 encoding and powerful image manipulation tools.
- Starts at a suggested retail price of $8,500
GeoExpress Standard Edition
Level 1 – 100GB of annual encoding
Level 2 – 500GB of annual encoding
Level 3 – 1TB of annual encoding
- Starts at a suggested retail price of $3,115
GeoExpress Tools Edition
Powerful image manipulation tools for existing MrSID or JPEG 2000 imagery, including MrSID Generation 4. No encode capabilities for a low-cost, high-power, edit-only station.
- Starts at a suggested retail price of $1,615
GeoExpress Remote Edition
Unlimited MrSID and JPEG 2000 encoding and manipulation in a Terminal Services or Citrix environment.
- Starts at a suggested retail price of $10,500
Floating License Option
LizardTech’s Floating License System allows you to deploy GeoExpress on workstations throughout your organization with a flexible, token-based licensing system such as the new commuter license, ideal for field personnel and workers traveling from one office to another.
- Starts at a suggested retail price of $2,015
Frequently Asked Questions
What is GeoExpress?
With powerful tools for reprojecting, color balancing, mosaicking, cropping and more, LizardTech® GeoExpress® software is your first choice for manipulating and encoding your geospatial imagery to the industry standard MrSID and ISO standard JPEG 2000 compression formats. GeoExpress supports alpha bands for true transparency control and multi- and hyperspectral imagery for more flexible band utilization. The interoperability within LizardTech’s Express Suite®software means that you can configure Express Server® and Spatial Express®software directly from GeoExpress, making it the ideal command center for your storage and distribution workflows.
I've heard reference to "MG4," "MG3" and "MG2". What are they?
Those are MrSID format files with the file extension of “.sid.” MG2 stands for MrSID Generation 2, MG3 stands for MrSID Generation 3 and MG4 stands for MrSID Generation 4. GeoExpress can create all three files with MG4 supporting the latest cutting edge technology from LizardTech, such as hyperspectral data, alpha channels and improved mosaicking.
Is GeoExpress backwards compatible with previous versions of MrSID?
Yes. GeoExpress can read all previous versions of MrSID and encode to MG2and MG3 formats. The ExpressView Browser Plug-in utility can view all previous versions of the MrSID file format. ExpressView Browser Plug-in ships on the GeoExpress DVD and is available as a free download at www.lizardtech.com in the downloads section.
I want GeoExpress, but I'm currently using an older version. Can I upgrade or do I have to purchase the entire software?
If you currently are using an older version of GeoExpress, you can still upgrade to the new release. Please contact your LizardTech representative for details and/or any applicable promotional time periods.
What are data cartridges?
Data cartridges are binary encrypted files that enable you to encode images with GeoExpress. Cartridges are not a physical dongle or hardware lock. They are generated by LizardTech based upon your system ID and then emailed to you as an attached file.
What operations get charged against my cartridge?
Only the initial encode to MrSID file format or JPEG 2000 charges against the cartridge. Working with images already in MrSID format does not decrement the data cartridge. For instance, you can encode to a lossless MrSID file, which decrements the cartridge, and then use that MrSID file to create visually lossless compressed MrSID files that do not charge against the cartridge. Additionally, updating mosaics and creating mosaics of existing MrSID files do not charge against the cartridge.
Can multiple users in my organization run GeoExpress?
Yes. GeoExpress includes a network version of the cartridge manager on the product software media. Contact your LizardTech sales representative for purchasing additional encoders that can read from the network cartridge manager. If your workflow requires many people in your organization to share encoding tasks, consider GeoExpress Remote Edition, a licensing option that provides unlimited MrSID and JPEG 2000 encoding and manipulation in a Terminal Services or Citrix environment. Users can install GeoExpress on a central server and log in remotely to run GeoExpress. This is of great benefit since imagery can now be stored in a central repository so remote users no longer have to copy large images to their local drive. Multiple users can run GeoExpress concurrently and perform intensive image processing jobs such as compression, reprojection, or color balancing on the server, freeing up their local machine for other work.
How long will it take me to learn to use GeoExpress?
Unlike other image processing applications, GeoExpress is designed for the geospatial professional who is an expert in their field but is not an image scientist. A simple and intuitive interface allows new users to quickly perform imaging tasks so they can get their real work done, while powerful advanced tools support even the most demanding imaging expert.
Can I use all the tools in one encode operation?
Yes. You can mosaic, color balance, reproject, and crop your imagery, then export it for use in WMS applications in one operation. You’ll save time by combining all of these processes into one encoding operation to get just the image you need, just when you need it.
Does GeoExpress work with other GIS applications?
GeoExpress is designed for interoperability with the widest range of leading geospatial applications from ESRI, Leica Geosystems, Autodesk and Intergraph, MapInfo, Bentley, and GE/Smallworld, to name a few.
Someone just gave me a .sid file. How do I know if it is an MG4 file?
GeoExpress 8.5 automatically installs an add-on to Windows Explorer that, when enabled, adds fields for the version, type, and compression ratio of MrSID files, so you can easily sort by MG4, MG3, MG2, or compression ratio. This extension may also be downloaded and installed separately by clicking here.
I've been happily using JP2 for my multispectral images for some time now. What is the advantage to using your new MG4 multispectral support instead?
MrSID Generation 4 is LizardTech’s format, meaning that all software that supports MrSID does so through our Software Development Kit (SDK), providing consistent display and performance. There are many inconsistencies involved when using such a complex open standard as JPEG 2000. For example, a JPEG 2000 file may not display or behave consistently across all JPEG 2000 software because different manufactures must write their own JPEG 2000 viewers and writers, which may not support certain features of the JPEG 2000 specification.
I have an 8-band image I want to encode. Will it take 8 times longer than encoding a 1-band image? Will it take eight times longer to decode?
Yes it will take eight times longer to encode and decode.
I am using your alpha masking. Does that new alpha band get included in my data cartridge cost?
No. The alpha band is encoded free of charge.
Preferred Data Providers
Fugro EarthData
Fugro EarthData is a global remote sensing, mapping, and GIS services organization that provides customized products and solutions to support a wide range of land-use and natural resource management activities. Equipped with state-of-the-art technologies, Fugro EarthData collects and transforms information about the earth's surface into spatially accurate mapping and GIS products for use in GIS, engineering design, and other land and information management environments.
Pinnacle
Pinnacle provides mapping technologies and creative solutions to technical and budgetary problems. Pinnacle is a corporate member of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) and the Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS).
Sanborn Map Company
Sanborn Map Company offers end-to-end spatial solutions to GIS and photogrammetric mapping customers. The company's combined product and service offerings include: consulting; off-the-shelf products; analog, digital and lidar data acquisition; and photogrammetric mapping.
Sani-International Technology Advisors, Inc
Sani-International Technology Advisors, Inc provides geomatics services and consulting in geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing and softcopy photogrammetry.
Surdex Corporation
Surdex Corporation is a national provider of aerial data collection and geospatial data generation services. Our aerial data acquisition capabilities include black & white, color and infrared photography, digital multi-spectral imagery and LiDAR elevation data. Our photogrammetric product generation capabilities include planimetric data, topographic data and digital orthophotography.
