By: Simon Woo, Product Engineer, Esri
At ArcGIS 10.1, we introduce a new concept called a raster product. A raster product is a new and easier way to handle specific vendor data. Most vendor products are distributed with each band as its own file. This meant that you had to process the data before you could use it as one raster dataset.
Previous workflow disadvantages
- You need to Composite Bands to put all the bands into one logical filelayer before using as a multi-spectral raster (the Image Analysis window made it a bit easier).
- It is not always obvious which order the bands should be.
New workflow advantages
- You now have the ability to add one item (a raster product) into ArcGIS, and have all the bands available.
- The bands will be ordered in the appropriate order.
- If the data structure has a panchromatic band, then the image can be added as a pan-sharpened raster.
How do you use it?
You can simply add or drag in a raster product 
into ArcGIS. That will give you the default templeteproduct, which is usually multispectral. If you want to choose a different available template, then you expand the plus sign next to the raster product icon to see what is available. Then you can simply add the desired template into ArcGIS. This raster product later is using raster functions to put all the appropriate bands and processing into place, to save you time and effort.
