Every day at Geo Week News, we publish the most important press releases from the industry to keep those within the industry up-to-date with all of the news they need to know. Of course, we know it can be difficult to keep up with everything coming in, so we’re going to look back at the week that was in news every Friday to recap the biggest happenings of the last five days. Today, we have the return of a day dedicated to one of our most important technologies, plus partnerships, collaborations, and more.
World Lidar Day is Returning
We start out with our big news of the week, which is the return of World Lidar Day. This day, which was created to shine a light on the transformative power of lidar, started last year at Geo Week, and is set to return on February 12, 2025. This once again coincides with the Geo Week conference, with the celebration taking place on the final day of the show. World Lidar Day was created by a group of founding members, including Geo Week and ASPRS as well as organizations like Woolpert, NOAA, USGS, and more. According to the release, the event “aims to inspire further innovation, bridge knowledge gaps, and champion lidar’s role in shaping a smarter, more connected world.” Registration for Geo Week is still open, so don’t miss your chance to celebrate the second annual World Lidar Day with thought leaders from around the industry.
Acquisitions, Partnerships, and Collaborations
While this time of year as the holidays hit full-swing and the new year is right around the corner, the news cycle slows down a bit. That being said, there were still a few announcements coming in under the wire, including a few involving companies coming together by various mechanisms. We’ll start with an acquisition, as VIAVI announced a “strategic acquisition” of Intertial Labs for $150 million with the possibility of that price going up to $175 million in four years.
Next, we move over to the mining industry for a new collaboration between Trimble and GroundProbe. As we all know, mining can be extremely dangerous and it’s vital that companies have a strong understanding of the geophysical attributes of the areas around them. Right now, it often takes a series of disconnected tools to get this information, and this collaboration aims to stop that. In their release of the news, they say, “this joint effort will enable geotechnical mine monitoring customers to purchase a comprehensive slope stability monitoring portfolio from a single point of contact. GroundProbe customers can now easily purchase Trimble monitoring solutions to complement GroundProbe's range of sensors and software.”
Finally, we move to the world of GIS with dataplor announcing that they have joined the Esri Partner Network as a Bronze Partner. Based in California, dataplor is a geospatial data company who specializes in Point of Interest Data, and they now join the massive network of Esri partners, which comes in at over 3,000. They say that this new collaboration “aims to provide customers with enriched geospatial insights, combining the strengths of both companies to empower businesses with advanced tools for strategic decision-making worldwide.”
Other News
Wherobots, a spatial intelligence cloud, announced the general availability of Raster Inference for WherobotsAI. The new offering makes satellite or drone imagery analytically accessible for data developers who use SQL or Python.
Before the end of the year, the U.S. Department of the Interior appointed seven individuals to the National Geospatial Advisory Committee. This committee provides advice and recommendations on national geospatial policy and management issues. And for another plug for Geo Week, two of the appointees – Ronda Schrenk and Amy Rose – will be part of the Geo Week 2025 conference program.
One of the big trends we’ve seen with lidar recently is an influx of examples of the technology being used in forestry. This press release from RIEGL talks about how their equipment is being leveraged by the sector.
This week, Orion Space Solutions announced that they were award “new work” from NOAA to support its Advanced Access Methods for Earth Observations Digital Twin program. The company has used AI and other technologies to build a digital twin platform for processing, analyzing, and visualizing Earth observations.
Finally, Sharper Shape, whose platform allows for the building of digital twins for the utility industry, announced “a year of record achievements” in 2024.
