The biggest problem faced by users of G.I.S. systems is the
sheer complexity of the software and data. Most G.I.S. vendors
have done all they can to help reduce the learning curve, but
by far the most efficient way to get started in G.I.S. is to
spend some time with an experienced user of the software -
who can demonstrate the basic concepts and functionality as
they apply to your problem. This jump start can have a great
benefits in getting an organisation started in G.I.S. removing
weeks or even potentially months from the learning process.
Of course the requirement for training doesn't necessarily
stop there, even experienced G.I.S. operators can benefit from
brush up training, maybe a new technique or process, maybe
simply they have a problem with some data and need to talk
it through one on one with another experienced operator, the
line between "training" and "consultancy" can
blur.
NPA can offer training courses to meet your needs, we prefer
one to one training or small groups as we think the individual
gains more benefit from interactive training than pre-prepared
classroom sessions.
NPA maintains a team of digital cartographers who use large
format (double A0) digitising surfaces to transcribe hardcopy
original maps into digital form using industry standard packages
such as AutoCAD and ARCview, as well as NPA's own preferred
G.I.S. solution TNTmips. From your hardcopy original we can
build a fully G.I.S. capable digital dataset output in whatever
data format you require. All NPA digital products are available
in a range of map projections to suit your requirements.
NPA also maintain several different hardcopy production facilities
from simple A3+ inkjet printers through high volume A3 continuous
tone colour laser printers right up to high accuracy large
format high resolution inkjet plotters. We also maintain a
black and white and colour photographic filmwriting service
allowing us to produce quality positives or negatives at over
1000DPI resolution. This is backed up by a full in house photographic
lab enabling us to produce black and white or colour prints
up to approx A0 in size.
We can accept data in a very wide range of both G.I.S. industry
standard formats and also more generic packages such as CorelDRAW
and Adobe Illustrator.
With N.P.A.'s wide experiance and over 50 man years of G.I.S.
experience, we can offer a wide range of advice and help in
implementing your G.I.S., from the basics of hardware and software,
through database design and reporting. We can also supply source
data from a wide range of sources, or even coordinate data
capture programmes using our or your own staff.
NPA have been developing geo-data related software for over
20 years, some longer term clients may remember the DIAD image
processing system of the mid 80's. Since that time our software
efforts have concentrated on smaller more specialised developments
including DIVIEW (see our Downloads page) and it's derivative
SPOT-DIVIEW. We are happy to undertake development work in
Windows 32-bit, Linux or SGI Irix environments.
NPA can take your old digital data on a variety of storage
media and transfer it onto more modern accessible media such
as CD-ROM.
We have many years experiance of handling geo-science industry
data formats, and so can help you read old data into the current
generation of software.
A lot of our clients are based in the Petroleum Exploration
industry so we are experianced in handling clients' sensitive
data and thus carry out all transcription work in-house, no
sub-contractors are used, the security of your data is assured.
The following table contains the physical storage media we
can retrieve data from.
4mm DAT tape
8mm Exabyte tape
1600BPI Half inch reel to reel tape
6250bpi Half inch reel to reel tape
QIC40 cartridge tape
QIC80 cartridge tape
Jaz disk
Zip disk
3.5inch floppy disk
CD-ROM
DVD-ROM
DVD-RAM
NPA currently maintain several web servers. We can host conventional
websites at a modest cost, but we really come into our own
when hosting G.I.S. data via the TNTserver product. We can
take your G.I.S. and image data and present it onto the internet
where your customers or employees can access it with a simple
web browser. There is no limit to the size of these data sets,
the system automatically ensures only the minimum required
data is transmitted for each operation.
Take a look at our gigabyte sized Global Index of Satellite
data as an example.
G.I.S. via Inter and Intra-nets Consultancy by NPA
NPA under the guise of our subsidiary NetGIS have been pioneers
in the field of presenting G.I.S. data via either the Internet,
or via a corporate intra- or extra-nets. We can take your geo-data
sets and present them to the whole internet or to a smaller
suibset of authorised users by utilising industry standard
security systems. Experimenting first with Autodesk's Mapguide
we have now settled on using TNTserver from MicroImages.
As an example of this, please view our own Global Index of
Satellite data, a gigabyte sized dataset showing the location
of satellite images used by our clients in the Exploration
industry.
NPA have developed considerable in-house expertise in the
application of proven traditional I.T. solutions in the geo-data
field. We can help and advise in the implementation of Geo-data
handling facilities, including hardware and software solutions
as well as setting up bespoke systems for dealing with client-specific
problems and data-sets.
NPA maintain a full in house I.T. support capability which
may be able to help you in some of the more sticky I.T. problems
faced by users of modern computer hardware and software. We
maintain systems based on the Unix (Solaris, SGI-IRIX and Linux)
as well as the MS Windows operating environment and while we
do not currently maintain Apple or Novell hardware and software
in our office, our staff have had recent experiance of integrating
these product families with both Unix and MS Windows. This
broad swathe of experiance puts us in a good position to solve
problems in the most complex of computing environments.
NPA have been building and configuring computer systems for
use in geo-data applications for over 20 years and will be
happy to advise on a specification to meet your needs, we can
also offer a competitive quote to assist you in sourcing. We
can also advise and assist in upgrading your existing systems
to meet the needs of modern geo-data applications.
