A compression method includes: measuring a waveform associated with a chemical event occurring on a sensor array, wherein the waveform comprises a plurality of measured values and the chemical event is indicative of a number of nucleotide incorporations in a genetic sequencing reaction; applying a first compression process to the waveform, the first compression process including a truncating of data corresponding to a portion of the waveform that is not related to nucleotide incorporations in the genetic sequencing reaction; and applying a second compression process to the waveform, the second compression process including a data substitution process that replaces at least a portion of the waveform with a plurality of coefficients representative of the portion of the waveform.