Leica Geosystems Inc. today announced that ORTHOSHOP Geomatics Ltd. has purchased the Leica ALS70 LiDAR and Leica RCD30 imaging camera as its first digital airborne sensors. ORTHOSHOP plans to use the sensors in their integrated and stand-alone configurations to serve its existing clients more effectively and expand its business into new markets.
“The Leica legacy played a part in our purchase decision – we have been prolific users of their equipment for over three decades,” said ORTHOSHOP CEO George Constantinescu. “ORTHOSHOP and Leica share the same attitude toward technical excellence and place the same emphasis on enduring, mutually beneficial partnerships. We value the way Leica practices innovation.”
Established in 1980 and based in Calgary, Alberta, ORTHOSHOP is a leading provider of comprehensive geospatial services across Canada and around the world. In the 1980s, the firm earned a reputation for innovation when it became the only company in Canada to own the Leica OR1, the first computer-controlled orthophoto workstation. With a strong foundation in engineering, surveying and photogrammetry, ORTHOSHOP serves private and public-sector clientele in many disciplines including energy, transportation and utilities.
One of the application areas that ORTHOSHOP plans to service with the Leica ALS70 and Leica RCD30 is vegetation monitoring in utility power line corridors. The firm will integrate the two sensors into a single aircraft for simultaneous collection of LiDAR point cloud data and metric quality RGB/NIR imagery. The Leica ALS70’s waveform digitization option adds yet another valuable data dimension for vegetation analysis. The combined data sets will provide utilities with all of the information they need to ensure that tree canopies are not encroaching on high-voltage electric lines, in accordance with increasingly stringent North American utility regulations.
“Our objective is to provide our clients with services that define best practice. The integrated Leica ALS70/RCD30 sensor package, with its industry leading technical capabilities will allow us to do that in utility corridor mapping as well as many other applications,” said Constantinescu. “In addition, the Leica ALS70 will allow us to collect high-density data at higher than customary aircraft speeds, which will deliver cost benefits to our clients.”
The Leica ALS70 is an affordable airborne laser scanner with a 500 kHz pulse rate capability from a single laser scanner, which is designed specifically for high-density point collection in diverse environments. The Leica ALS70-CM version, purchased by ORTHOSHOP, was developed specifically for city and corridor mapping at lower altitudes and features plug-and-play compatibility with Leica Geosystems’ medium-format digital camera solutions, such as the RCD30.
“ORTHOSHOP has a reputation for technical innovation and uncompromising execution, and we are delighted they selected the Leica ALS70 for their needs now and in the future,” said Jean Gardiner, General Manager of the Leica Geospatial Solutions Division. “The unique Point Density Multiplier technology makes our LiDARs the most productive available, and the Leica ALS70-CM can be upgraded to the higher-flying-height ALS70-HP configuration, making it an excellent choice for a growing business.”
Introduced by Leica Geosystems as a digital follow-on to its highly successful RC30 film cameras, the Leica RCD30 is a medium-format digital imaging system developed for a variety of photogrammetric and remote sensing applications. The 60 MP single-camera-head design delivers co-registered, multispectral imagery in the Red, Green, Blue and Near IR portions of the spectrum. The sleek modular design allows the camera to fit easily in aircraft previously outfitted with film cameras, and the Leica RCD30 integrates with many LiDAR sensors, including the Leica ALS series.
“With its single-lens, twin sensor design, the Leica RCD30 is a step forward in medium-format camera technology,” said Constantinescu. “It is a true metric camera built from the ground up for mapping, and its attractive form factor means it can be deployed in a wider range of aircraft than most other metric cameras making it an ideal imaging sensor for its intended niche.”
One of the application areas that ORTHOSHOP plans to service with the Leica ALS70 and Leica RCD30 is vegetation monitoring in utility power line corridors. The firm will integrate the two sensors into a single aircraft for simultaneous collection of LiDAR point cloud data and metric quality RGB/NIR imagery.
About ORTHOSHOP Geomatics Ltd.
Established in 1980 by a team of surveyors and photogrammetrists that saw a market for high-quality orthophotography, ORTHOSHOP is a leading provider of geomatics engineering services in Western Canada. It owns four aerial sensors and two aircraft and maintains full-service, in-house, processing capabilities for all aspects of its services. In addition to many projects in the U.S. and Canada, ORTHOSHOP has completed mapping missions in Mexico, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Guyana.
Leica Geosystems – when it has to be right
With close to 200 years of pioneering solutions to measure the world, Leica Geosystems products and services are trusted by professionals worldwide to help them capture, analyze, and present spatial information. Leica Geosystems is best known for its broad array of products that capture accurately, model quickly, analyze easily, and visualize and present spatial information.
Those who use Leica Geosystems products every day trust them for their dependability, the value they deliver, and the superior customer support. Based in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, Leica Geosystems is a global company with tens of thousands of customers supported by more than 3,500 employees in 28 countries and hundreds of partners located in more than 120 countries around the world. Leica Geosystems is part of the Hexagon Group, Sweden.
