ION GNSS/CGSIC annual conference
September 25, 2009
I realize the GIS world doesn’t revolve around GPS but I’m going to spend some space on it this month. Currently, I’m in Savannah, Georgia at the annual ION GNSS/CGSIC conference.
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I realize the GIS world doesn’t revolve around GPS but I’m going to spend some space on it this month. Currently, I’m in Savannah, Georgia at the annual ION GNSS/CGSIC conference.
It’s been awhile since I covered new GPS/GNSS products on the market. Following are some recent introductions. Please note I’ve only included major features. Click on the links to view the datasheets of the products for detailed specifications and features.
The increasing number of Global Navigation Satellite Systems means more choices — and more confusion — for the user. Knowing the capabilities and schedules
of each can help you make more informed purchasing decisions, including when (and when not) to upgrade existing equipment.
The Institute of Navigation’s Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ION GNSS) conference is one of my two favorite industry events of the year; the other being the ESRI conference. At ESRI, I mix it up with GPS technology users, listen to what they are doing and what they want to do with the technology. At ION, I listen to GNSS designers and researchers.
I had a great visit at the ESRI User Conference earlier this month. If you recall last year, I wrote:
“As much as surveyors, engineers, and constructors may not appreciate geographic information systems (GIS) technology, at some point everyone should attend at least the ESRI Survey/Engineering Summit and the first couple of days of the ESRI User Conference held every summer in San Diego, California. This is not a GIS sales pitch. It’s a networking sales pitch. When other conferences are struggling to maintain attendance levels, the ESRI conferences seemingly never fail to grow in attendance. This year, it attracted some 15,000 people from 120 countries. That means gobs of GIS people, and also gobs of surveyors and engineers.”
The statement rang true this year too. Even in today’s economy where conferences are severely impacted or even cancelled due to travel budget cuts, the ESRI User conference still attracted ~11,000 people this month.
In my column earlier this month, I discussed the use of consumer GPS receivers for GIS data collection. Remember the analogy I used?a Volkswagen Beetle wasn?t designed to run in a Formula One race? This column is going to focus on the Formula One cars, not the Volkswagen Beetles. In other words, it will focus on the GPS receivers on the market that are designed for GIS data collection. I will refer to them as GPS/GIS receivers.
Three categories of GPS are used to populate GIS databases: consumer-grade receivers, GPS receivers designed specifically for GIS data collection, and survey receivers. This month, I discuss consumer-grade receivers. In a new issue in two weeks’ time, I?ll cover the class of GPS receivers designed specifically for GIS data collection.
What can you say about RTK Networks, except wow! They have popped up everywhere and continue on a path of rapid growth. In the last five years, I’d say it’s clear that two GNSS technologies have changed the survey/construction industry more than any others; machine control and RTK networks.
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