Sophia : a great American contract for Istar

Istar got a great contract of almost 8 million dollars (nearby 50 million francs). The American Orbimage chose the company of digital cartography based in Sophia Antipolis, to realize a database of digital cartography dealing to two hundred American urban centres. From pictures that are realized by satellites and completed by aerial pictures (a technique that was perfected to give detailed observations to mobile phone operators, allowing an optimisation of the ground installations), Istar will automate the data collection and it will have to provide pictures that may be used by the customers of Orbimage.This is a contract of three years. This allows Istar (80 employees in Sophia Antipolis, and about 15 in Toulouse) to think of a 50% growth of its turnover this year ( it may go from 45 million francs in 1999, to 63 million francs in 2000). Thus, the company from Sophia Antipolis plans to take on about forty people (technicians and engineers in digital cartography, and in geographic information systems).