Blom is a European service provider within acquisition, processing and modelling of

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...

. Blom maintains European databases with collections of map, images and models. With particular focus on online services, Blom provides data and services to customers in government, enterprise and consumer markets and enables partners to create applications using Blom’s databases, location-based services and navigation systems. Blom has more than 600 employees and subsidiaries in 10 countries. The company headquarters is in Oslo,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. The parent company NRC Group is listed on the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

().

History

Blom ASA was founded in 1954 by

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary ...

Ole H. Blom. By 1988 the company was listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. In 2015, the company merged with Team Bane and

Svensk Järnvägsteknik Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

to create NRC Group, making Blom a subsidiary of the new company.

Operations

The primary business areas are

aerial photography Aerial photography (or airborne imagery) is the taking of photographs from an aircraft or other airborne platforms. When taking motion pictures, it is also known as aerial videography. Platforms for aerial photography include fixed-wing aircr ...

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laser scanning Laser scanning is the controlled deflection of laser beams, visible or invisible. Scanned laser beams are used in some 3-D printers, in rapid prototyping, in machines for material processing, in laser engraving machines, in ophthalmological ...

(LiDAR), mapping and modelling,

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

s and database

applications Application may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks ** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...

, GIS services and online map services (BlomURBEX). Blom focuses on the following main market segments: • Defence & Security • Resources & Environment • Government & Public Administration • Utilities & Infrastructure • Web & Mobile Solutions Blom uses large format cameras mounted in twin-engined fixed-winged

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines. ...

or rotor wing helicopters assisted by Global Positioning System (GPS) with

Inertial Measurement Unit An inertial measurement unit (IMU) is an electronic device that measures and reports a body's specific force, angular rate, and sometimes the orientation of the body, using a combination of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and sometimes magnetome ...

s (IMU) to perform oblique and vertical aerial photography. In addition, the company capture map data using

survey camera Survey may refer to: Statistics and human research * Statistical survey, a method for collecting quantitative information about items in a population * Survey (human research), including opinion polls Spatial measurement * Surveying, the techniq ...

s, laser scanners (LiDAR) and Hyperspectral scanners. Blom maintains a large database of oblique and vertical aerial photography, laser data, map models such as 3D city models, digital surface models and digital terrain models, and digital orthophoto images .

References

{{reflist Business services companies of Norway Companies based in Oslo Business services companies established in 1954 Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange Norwegian companies established in 1954