Graz, Austria, April 30, 2015 ” Williams Aerial & Mapping, Inc., has contracted with Microsoft's UltraCam business unit and subsidiary to purchase an UltraCam Falcon digital aerial camera system. The package includes the UltraNavGNSS-Inertial Direct Georeferencing + Flight Management System, an integrated unit that consolidates all navigation and flight planning components into the sensor head, and UltraMap workflow software for generating radiometrically corrected and color-balanced Level 3 imagery in TIFF or JPEG format.
We have direct control in-house of every project from start to finish, so it's important for us to have the best equipment and software available to do our jobs well, said Graham Rhodes, Photogrammetry Flight Director at Williams Aerial & Mapping, Inc. Our purchase of an UltraCam Falcon will enhance our productivity due to the large on-board storage, the rapid image capture rate, and the automated processing capabilities provided by UltraMap.
Williams intends to use the UltraCam Falcon for engineering, transmission line, and pipeline projects, as well as county and state-wide mapping.
Adding the UltraCam Falcon to our selection of digital cameras is an exciting opportunity, said Jim Moffitt, Photogrammetry Manager at Williams Aerial & Mapping, Inc. The high resolution should be a real boon to our image quality and clarity.
Williams is a very experienced mapping firm that serves many types of customers across a broad geographic area, said Alexander Wiechert, Microsoft Business Director. The compact size and flexibility of the UltraCam Falcon, along with its advanced image quality, is an excellent camera to meet diverse needs.
About the UltraCam Falcon
The UltraCam Falcon features include:
- PAN, color and NIR data captured in one pass
- Choice between two image footprint sizes (14,430 pixels across or 17,310 pixels across) and two lens focal lengths (the standard 100mm Pan or wide angle 70mm Pan)
- Solid-state image storage system that holds approximately 7,500 images (with 14,430 pixel footprint) and 5,200 images (with 17,310 pixel footprint)
- Maximum frame rate <1.0 | 1.35 seconds per frame
- Panchromatic physical pixel size: 7.2 μm (6.0 μm)
- Compatible with UltraNav flight management and direct georeferencing system from Applanix
About Microsoft's UltraCam Business Unit
With its operations based in Graz, Austria, and sales and support teams in North America, Microsoft's UltraCam business unit brings more than two decades of photogrammetry expertise to Microsoft's Bing Maps business unit. The division is responsible for the highly successful line of UltraCam digital aerial mapping systems that today include the UltraCamHawk, UltraCam Falcon, and UltraCam Eagle digital photogrammetric sensors, and the UltraCam Osprey nadir/oblique photogrammetric digital aerial sensor. Also offered is the UltraNav Flight Management and Direct Georeferencing system, designed to maximize the efficiency of UltraCam aerial mapping. Rounding out the UltraCam offerings is the fully integrated UltraMap workflow software system, with features that include high-density 3D point cloud creation, highly accurate and detailed digital surface model (DSM) generation, and ortho mosaicing capabilities based on an automatically generated DSM or traditional DSM.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq MSFT) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
About Williams Aerial & Mapping, Inc.
Williams Aerial & Mapping, Inc., is a full service photogrammetric mapping and geospatial data firm with a long history of aerial film and digital data acquisition, as well as LiDAR and video collection. Its global operations include an array of cameras and scanners and a large fleet of aircraft with trained crews that are leased to customers around the world. Williams has completed a wide variety of projects for government agencies and private corporations. A team of certified photogrammetrists processes all data in-house. For more information please contact Rick Kosinski at (574) 287-2104 or [email protected].
