Trimble announced that it has been selected as the preferred supplier of machine control and survey equipment for Thiess John Holland, the lead contractor building Australia’s largest road project¯EastLink in Melbourne. With total construction costs of AU$2.5 billion (US$1.9 billion), the scale of work required for timely completion of Melbourne’s EastLink is beyond that ever tackled before on any single infrastructure project in Australia. EastLink’s three-lane, freeway-standard road is expected to be built over three and a half years. Construction includes two million square meters of paved road, more than eighty bridges, seventeen interchanges and 1.6 kilometers three-lane twin tunnels. The project will deliver Melbourne’s second fully-electronic tollway, comprising about 45 kilometers of freeway-standard road connecting the city’s eastern and south-eastern suburbs.
www.connecteast.com.au

ABB wins a $10 million space contract

Headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S., ABB, the power and automation technology group, said recently that it has won a $10 million contract to supply the main component for a new satellite that will enable the Japanese government to study and measure greenhouse gases in support of the Kyoto protocol. The contract is with NEC Toshiba Space Systems, the primary equipment supplier to Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) program. GOSAT is being jointly developed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), the National Institute for Environmental Studies, and Japan’s Ministry of Environment. The satellite will be launched by JAXA in 2008.
www.newswire.ca

Space Imaging has been awarded a $5.88 million satellite imagery capacity contract from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). This ClearView mid-year supplemental contract enables the NGA to acquire additional commercial imagery from Space Imaging’s IKONOS satellite.
www.spaceimaging.com

KVH Industries has recently announced that it has received three new orders for its TACNAV vehicle navigation systems and TFOG( TM) fi ber optic gyro (FOG) upgrade. Together, the orders are valued at more than $2.4 million. The orders were placed by U.S. defense prime contractors and a foreign military, all of which are current KVH customers. KVH expects to recognize the majority of the contract revenue during the second half of 2005.
http://home.businesswire.com

Intermap Technologies Corp has recently announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Intermap Technologies GmbH, has been awarded a new data acquisition contract in the amount of 1,033,418 Euros (U.S. $ 1.3 million). The contract is for delivery of Intermap’s high-resolution digital elevation data and radar imagery. Delivery of the product is expected to occur during the third and fourth quarters of calendar 2005. www.ccnmatthews.com

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging has announced Digital Aerial Solutions (DAS) has obtained its second Leica ADS40 Airborne Digital Sensor, which will enable the company to double its collection capacity and facilitate faster turnaround in providing high quality digital data products to its customers.

Falcon II now is listed as an officially certified geodetic measurement system and accredited for Lidar scanning in Russia. Currently only very few sensor systems have a valid certification for Russia but worldwide there is no other sensor system except the Falcon II which has been certifi ed for enhanced accuracy. This is a direct result of the fi ber based system concept that avoids any mechanics for laser beam defl ection and though avoids mechanical errors in a very critical component. Also the outstanding pulse rate of 83 kHz, which is kept constant up to 1,600 m, has had a significant impact to achieve the extended accuracy, as this is also not achieved by any other sensor system. The certifi cation has been performed in co-operation with PRIN, Moscow, the exclusive partner of TopoSys in Russia. www.toposys.com

By converting to the legal status of a limited liability company (GmbH), GfK MACON is completing its integration into the GfK AG network. GfK fi rst acquired a share in the former MACON AG at the beginning of 2002. The company then increased 100% at the beginning of 2005. The change of corporate form will take place this month. German company GfK MACON has been providing innovative geo-marketing solutions and consultancy services on all aspects of the topic of Area Planning since 1991.
www.gfk-macon.com

RADARSAT International and several other companies in the MacDonald
Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA)family have been rebranded and are now conducting business under the common brand name “MDA”. RADARSAT International belongs to MDA’s Geospatial Services business area and is referred to as MDA Geospatial Services International. Acquired by MDA in 1999, RADARSAT International has over 16 years of experience in providing Earth observation data, products and services to the international geospatial marketplace.
www.mdacorporation.com

Contex Scanning Technology and Z Corporation announced that they will merge to create a global leader in color scanning and 3D printing solutions for engineering markets, including computer-aided design (CAD), geographic information systems (GIS) and architecture, engineering and construction (AEC). The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005. Financial terms were not disclosed. The combined company will have annual revenue in excess of US$100 million (84 million euro), distribution in more than 80 countries, and more than 400 employees. “This merger is exciting because combining Z Corp’s 3D printers with our leading 2D scanning and data lifecycle management products delivers a complete solution for data collection, storage, processing, and output,” said Steen Borg, CEO of Contex Scanning Technology and CEO of the combined entity.
www.contex.com

GeoTango, a supplier of 3D/2D mapping and visualization software based in Canada, has announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with PCI Geomatics, a developer of image-centric geomatics software. Under the agreement PCI and its worldwide reseller network will resell SilverEye, GeoTango’s 3D building and measurement software. SilverEye is said to be the best way to rapidly generate 3D models of urban areas and facilities of interest.
www.geotango.com

MapMart, a division of IntraSearch Inc. has announced its recent alliance with DigitalGlobe Inc. as a direct reseller of QuickBird Satellite imagery products via its internet website www.MapMart.com. QuickBird products can be purchased directly through www.MapMart.com in standard panchromatic, multi-spectral or color (rgb) formats. The addition of QuickBird digital satellite imagery allows customers access to 2-foot multi-spectral imagery anyplace on earth.
www.mapmart.com

Spot Image and ImageONE have recently signed a commercial partnership agreement giving ImageONE exclusive rights to distribute FORMOSAT-2 data to the Japanese market. The agreement also grants three minutes per day priority reservation of the satellite’s resources on the orbit west of Japan. The FORMOSAT-2 Earth-observation satellite was launched by Taiwan’s National Space Organization (NSPO), in May 2004. It provides blackand- white images at two-metre resolution and colour images at eight-metre resolution. The NSPO has chosen Spot Image as exclusive global distributor of FORMOSAT- 2 products and services outside Taiwan and China.
www.spot.com

Exor Corporation, providing Infrastructure Asset Management Solutions, has recently announced the latest release of its linear asset management software. The new release builds on Exor’s capabilities in the area of integrated asset management, and features signifi cant enhancements for enterprise wide consolidation of asset registers and work practices through a spatial ‘Hub’. A major enhancement at the 3.2.1 release is the ability to model and include assets in databases that have no connection to a linear network – such as a recreational park – with the total flexibility Exor users have been used to. www.exorcorp.com

Geodetic Systems, Inc. (GSI), a provider of portable 3D coordinate measurement systems for industrial measurement, located in Melborne and Florida has announced the release of their new V-STARS/E4X Digital
Photogrammetry system. This entrylevel product can be used for a wide
range of applications that do not require the highest level of accuracy or expandability as provided by GSI’s top-of-the-line V-STARS/S8 Single Camera and V-STARS/M8 Dual Camera systems.
www.primezone.com

Citadel, a GPS-GIS solutions company in India has developed a digital map of the city Hyderabad called InforMAPtion on a CD. The software will help the user locate and plan the routes to locations in the city. K Jayachandra, additional director general of police formally launched InforMAPtion recently.
www.business-standard.com

DAT/EM Systems SUMMIT EVOLUTION Digital Stereoplotter is fully compatible with: • AutoCAD, Versions R14 through 2006, including AutoDesk Map3D and Land Desktop • MicroStation, Versions J, V8 and 2004 edition • ESRI ArcGIS, Version 9
www.datem.com