Hemisphere is a compaby in the GNSS business.
Hemisphere the company
The focus of Hemisphere is to create a big portfolio on intellectual property. As a result of this they have more than 35 patents. Most of their patents are focussed on GNSS.
According to their website now they are a leader in the high-performance satellite positioning with a robust technology foundation and a relentless focus on innovation.
As a result of that they have different brands. Some of those brands are Atlast, Crescent, Eclipse, Outback Guidance and Vector. Most of those brands are for high precision positioning applications and for heading applications.
Hemisphere focusses on the markets of agriculture, marine, construction and mining. Hemisphere products are manufactured for heavy duty purposes. Also they serve the public via OEM partners.
Hemisphere is part of the Beijing UniStrong Science & Technology Co. Ltd. The short name for this company is Unistrong. Unistrong also owns the company Stonex, which is another manufacturer of GNSS receivers. Unistrong is a Chinese company. The headquarters of Hemisphere are in Scottsdale, Arizone in the USA.
Mission of Hemisphere
Hemisphere has only one goal or mission. They want to be the leading provider of high-performance satellite positioning and heading solutions.
They have a big portfolio of intellectual property. Because of this they have a wide range of solutions. For the desires out of the market they can pick a solution out of their portfolio and implement it on the market. It is a bit how Hemisphere can make tailor made solutions to their clients.
So that might help reaching their goal.
Hemisphere Atlas, a global correction service for GNSS
One of their products is Atlas. Atlas of Hemisphere is a correction service for GNSS. It gives corrections through L-band satellites. The accurracies differ from a meter to sub-decimeter.
For many purposes Atlas is a good solution. For example there is the marine business. But for land surveying you want to have cm accuracy to be able to map accurate enough.
But the good thing is that Atlas covers almost the complete world. This means you can get corrections anywhere on earth. That is the result of having over 200 reference stations spread over the world.
Another benefit is that Atlas provides correction data for Beidou and Galileo as well as GPS and GLONASS.
For using Atlas with some other GNSS receiver than a GNSS receiver of Hemisphere you need Baselink and Smartlink. Those are also part of the portfolio of Hemisphere.
GNSS receivers of Hemisphere
Vector GNSS receivers
Hemisphere has lots of GNSS receivers. Those receivers are able to connect to Atlas. After they are connected to Atlas they can receive the correction data of the Atlas correction service. Many of their GNSS receivers are of their series Vector.
As you can see it has a bit different shape than the more common GNSS receivers. The reason for this is that the Vector series are very accurate in giving the heading. This is important for marine solutions.
A222 GNSS smart antenna
Besides the Vector series Hemisphere also manufactures other GNSS receivers. One of them is the A222 GNSS smart antenna. This one is suitable for GIS and mapping purposes.
Of course the performance for GIS and mapping depends a lot on the specifications of the GNSS receiver. Here are the specifications of the A222 GNSS smart antenna
- Dimensions: 158x158x79 mm
- Weight: 1050 gram
- Ingress protection: IP67
- Corrections: NTRIP, RTCM2, RTCM3, CMR, CMR+, Hemisphere GNSS proprietary
- Position output: NMEA, Hemisphere GNSS binary
- Positioning kinematic horizontal: 8 mm + 1 ppm
- Positioning kinematic vertical: 15 mm + 2 ppm
- GNSS signals tracked: GPS L1, L2, GLONASS L1, L2
- Number of channels: 114
A326 GNSS smart antenna of Hemisphere
Another GNSS receiver of Hemisphere is the A326 GNSS smart antenna. It is also of their A-series. So it looks like the A222.
As you can see the colors of this GNSS receiver are different. But it also has a higher number in the A-series. So we expect it to have better specifications than the A222.
- Dimensions: 158x158x79 mm
- Weight: 1150 gram
- Ingress protection: IP67
- Corrections: NTRIP, RTCM2, RTCM3, CMR, CMR+, Hemisphere GNSS proprietary
- Position output: NMEA, Hemisphere GNSS binary
- Positioning kinematic horizontal: 10 mm + 1 ppm
- Positioning kinematic vertical: 20 mm + 2 ppm
- GNSS signals tracked: GPS L1, L2, GLONASS L1, L2, BEIDOU B1, B2
- Number of channels: 372
There is a possibility to upgrade this GNSS receiver in a way that it can also track signals of GALILEO
Atlaslink GNSS smart antenna
According the website of Hemisphere is the brother of the A326 the Atlaslink GNSS smart Antenna.
In looks Atlaslink does not differ a lot from the A222 and the A326 GNSS smart antenna. So the differences should be in the specifications of the receiver.
- Dimensions: 158x158x79 mm
- Weight: 1150 gram
- Ingress protection: IP67
- Corrections: NTRIP, RTCM2, RTCM3, CMR, CMR+, Hemisphere GNSS proprietary
- Position output: NMEA, Hemisphere GNSS binary
- Positioning kinematic horizontal: 10 mm + 1 ppm
- Positioning kinematic vertical: 20 mm + 2 ppm
- GNSS signals tracked: GPS L1, L2, GLONASS L1, L2, BEIDOU B1, B2,
- Number of channels: 372
According to the specifications we gather on our website there is no difference between the A326 and Atlaslink. So the difference might be small details.
C321+ GNSS smart antenna of Hemisphere
Then there is a GNSS receiver that does not look like the other GNSS receivers. This is the C321+ GNSS smart antenna.
This GNSS receiver is more focused on land surveying. You can also see that in the specifications.
- Dimensions: 141x141x140 mm
- Weight: 1380 gram
- Ingress protection: IP67
- Corrections: NTRIP, RTCM3, CMR, CMR+, ROX
- Position output: NMEA
- Positioning kinematic horizontal: 8 mm + 1 ppm
- Positioning kinematic vertical: 15 mm + 1 ppm
- GNSS signals tracked: GPS L1, L2, L5, GLONASS L1, L2, BEIDOU B1, B2, GALILEO E1, E5a, E5b
- Number of channels: 394
S321+ GNSS smart antenna
Finally there is the S321+ GNSS smart antenna of Hemisphere.
Also here Hemisphere plays with the colors of the receiver, because besides the colors the S321+ looks exactly the same as the C321+ GNSS smart antenna. So the specifications should show the differences between those two GNSS receivers.
- Dimensions: 146x146x148 mm
- Weight: 1380 gram
- Ingress protection: IP67
- Corrections: NTRIP, RTCM3, CMR, CMR+, ROX
- Position output: NMEA
- Positioning kinematic horizontal: 8 mm + 1 ppm
- Positioning kinematic vertical: 15 mm + 1 ppm
- GNSS signals tracked: GPS L1, L2, L5, GLONASS L1, L2 BEIDOU B1, B2, GALILEO E1, E5a, E5b
- Number of channels: 394
Surveying software
Hemisphere developed some software. The software is mostly for heavy machinery like machine control. For machine control they have Earthworks and Grademetrix. Also for the agriculture market they have a solution. This is Landmetrix.
Then the software that comes closed to mapping and land surveying is SiteMetrix. But this software is more a construction site management software.
So the best land survey software application for the GNSS receivers of Hemisphere is Apglos Survey Wizard. Because you can connect the GNSS receivers with this Android app via Bluetooth and the GNSS receivers spit out NMEA strings is this combination a great solution for your land surveying projects.