Drone News & Articles

New drone technology is being developed with the capability of planting 40,000 trees a day.

Crowd-funded start-up AirSeed Technologies has developed a drone system that can plant seeds on a mass scale, firing specially encased seedpods into the ground at a rate of 2 seeds per second. AirSeed co-founder Andrew Walker believes this is a significant step in the restoration of deforested and bushfire affected areas.

Last month Australia saw one of the worst fire seasons on record, with extreme weather events predicted to become more frequent. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates that 8.4 million hectares have been burnt, with forests expected to take decades to recover.

"Deforestation leads to a reduced amount of carbon sequestration. So it means more C02 ... we're getting more wildfires, which is ultimately destroying more habitat. So our goal is to help," Mr Walker said.

If effective, drones could greatly accelerate reforestation efforts around the world. AirSeed Technologies has already completed successful trials, with the latest planting 100,000 Acacia and Eucalyptus trees in Central West Africa.

Newly planted trees by AirSeed drones

Whilst the company is not the first to use drones for seeding purposes, Associate Professor David Suggett from the University of Technology Sydney believes the ballistic technology and seed casing make these more effective than predecessors.

The seed pods, encased in a such a way to prevent them from being eaten before they can germinate, are pumped up with additional nutrients and probiotics to encourage growth success.

However, it's not all about the planting. Professor Suggett, who is involved with the project, said the real challenge is to be aware of the state you want the ecosystems to be in, as it's impossible to replant all of the species that have been lost.

"To grow and replant all of [the species] is just not practical, so we tend to focus on the primary habitat providers ... you need to fast-track the base of the ecosystem to a significant level so that the rest of the system can start to re-establish," he said.

The use of drone technology to battle deforestation is piquing the interest of governments and industry bodies alike. A spokesperson for environmental organisation Greening Australia said it believes there is "a lot of potential in aerial techniques for cost-effective broadscale seeding".

Whilst drones are currently "not being used for reseeding bushfire impacted areas", the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment expects that drone technology will play an important role in habitat recovery.

Yet, AirSeed Technologies argues recovery isn't a blanket solution to deforestation. Professor Suggett said we can't be caught in the process of just adapting to a warming planet.

"We absolutely know that the fundamental goal is solving climate change, but even if we did that today ... we need these sorts of tools that make sure we have some ecosystem left to recover."

RANCHI: For the first time in India, hi-tech drones loaded with mapping facility, will be used for mining activities like gauging underground fire in Jharia and also to measure overburden lying above the coal or mineral reserves in mining areas. 

The Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) is to procure seven drones which can fly to a height of 400 meters for more than one hour from the Centre for Aerospace Research in Chennai.

So far, these activities were being carried out through terrestrial laser technique and satellite imaging.

“We are going to procure high-end drones which will be used for different purposes like laser sensing for volumetric measurement of overburden lying above a coal or mineral reserves, optical sensing for land reclamation after mining activity is completed in the area and lastly, laser sensing for identifying underground fire in Jharia,” said General Manager (Geometrics) Rajnish Kumar. 

These drones, according to Kumar, will also be helpful in the efficient measurement of overburden lying above the coal or mineral reserves through laser sensing. 

“Through thermal sensing, the exact location of underground fire pockets in Jharia can also be found easily enabling mining officials to expedite their efforts in extinguishing it,” said Kumar.

“Two drones will be procured by March this year, while the others will be delivered by next year,” said Technical Secretary to Chairman and MD CMPDI, Sanjay Dubey. 

At 5:30 a.m. DJI Epidemic Prevention Volunteer Service Team Leader Wang Xuan put out the call on WeChat. By midday, after he and 20 other volunteers wearing masks and goggles had assembled in Shenzhen’s Baolong Industrial Park. Two DJI P4R drones hovered overhead, surveying and mapping the environment from all angles, generating HD maps, and sending the planned operation route to ground control.

At 2:00 p.m. the mission began. The empty streets were now abuzz with the sound of agricultural spraying drones autonomously navigating through the district at a height of five meters and a speed of three meters per second, misting the environment with disinfectant. The drones cycled through the command centre for battery and spray replacement, and Wang’s team finished the 660-hectare area in about three hours.

Disinfection of public areas is a challenging but crucial process in the fight to stop the spread of the COVID-19. Ad hoc teams of DJI drone hobbyists have sprung up nationwide to provide this service for free.

Wang hasn’t stopped working since he first volunteered on February 6. His team has serviced schools, isolation wards, food waste treatment plants, waste incineration plants, livestock and poultry epidemic prevention centres, and more. The cumulative spraying area has reached one million square meters.

Besides disinfection, drones are also being used for public message broadcasting, parcel delivery, and remote body temperature measurement in China.

Shenzhen-based DJI is a leading drone and associated technologies company. There are about 55,000 DJI spraying drones used in farming in China, often with 15 litre capacity; and more than 60,000 drone pilots. Total disinfection coverage of DJI agricultural drones exceeds 600 million square meters across more than 1,000 villages. Plant protection professional Zhao Guo of Shishou City in Hubei Province told Synced he estimates each local township has 3 to 10 spraying drones.

The DJI Agricultural team has reported receiving more than 200 million requests nationwide for disinfection assistance. “Governments and property owners have disinfection needs and some have submitted requests to us,” says DJI Public Relations Director Xie Yi.

On February 3, DJI launched the “DJI Army Against the Virus” project, providing subsidies to support working pilots, with provisions for pilot protective kits and assistance to villages who perform drone disinfection. There is also support for drone failures and spare parts issues during missions.

Although DJI has done much to contribute, it is also lining up for essential supplies. One volunteer tells Synced that it is not easy to get N95 face masks and protective clothing. The availability of regular raincoats, rain boots, household rubber gloves, fisherman’s hats and goggles is also increasingly limited, forcing some drone teams to rely on disposable raincoats when on-site or suspend operations while they await supplies.

Still, the fight continues. Drone-based disinfection efforts are now increasingly concentrated in the rural areas of Hubei and other provinces.

A 9th grader in Williamsville, New York, created a new app that might help save lives. Vidya Shah, 14, developed the award-winning HoverOver app that can help first responders identify people who might be in danger.

In an interview with WKBW, Shah says the following about the HoverOver app:

"The inspiration I had for this app was basically the fires in California and the Amazon… I was like, why not have a way to make the response time from first responders to people in danger quicker?"

Here’s how the process works. First, she programs the drone. Shah used a DJI Ryze Tello to test the HoverOver app to fly over a certain part of a disaster area and take photos. The photos are then uploaded to the cloud (IBM Watson Machine learning for kids platform) and with help from artificial intelligence software, the photos are screened for people who might be in danger. That information (photo, time stamp, and coordinates) is then passed along to the first responders so that they can easily find and help those in need. Shah said:

This could be the difference between life and death.

Shah, who is a Williamsville East freshman, submitted the video of the HoverOver app to the Congressional App Challenge and won. Congressman Brian Higgins congratulated the young programmer:

"It’s to promote STEM learning… this is a recognition of the importance of this kind of education."

Shah started coding while still in 5th grade with help from her parents who manage The Coder School in East Amherst. She said:

:I don’t like to code just for the sake of solving math problems… I like to get a solution out of it."

Shah said that she does not yet know what she’d like to be when she grows up, but did say that she hopes to inspire children to learn how to code, specifically girls:

"The gap between the number of men [and women] working in this field is humungous."

‘There’s a huge number of jobs unfilled, so we really want girls to be going into coding and STEM because that’s where the future lies,’ said her mother, Sanchayita Shah.

For the development of the HoverOver app, Shah won a $250 Amazon gift card and a trip to Washington, D.C., on March 24 to show her app to federal lawmakers.

An Australian couple stuck on a quarantined cruise ship with cases of coronavirus on board have managed to get wine delivered by drone. The couple’s wine club was more than happy to send wine to the cruise ship via drone, leaving the couple a little bit happier.

Posted to Facebook by Jan and Dave Binskin on February 7, the couple provided insight into life on the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan, and more specifically, getting wine onto the ship.

The Naked Wine club received the request from the couple who wanted to know if they could get a wine delivery while stuck on the ship. To everyone’s surprise, they accepted.

The couple’s post stated that two cases of wine were delivered to the ship by drone, and said the Japanese Coast Guard had no idea what was going on.

"On a lighter note, in the middle of the chaos yesterday we get a ring from our wine club, I asked do they do free freight to Japan. We have arranged for two cases to be delivered by drone. Naked Wine Club you’re incredible, just got the first drop thank god for drones. The Japanese Coast Guard did not know what was going on."

A few posts later, the couple looked to be enjoying themselves with the following said in their post:

"Happy hour drone wine, even have a wine filter, day three going troppo."

The Diamond Princess cruise ship is currently under a 14-day quarantine period due to a case of the coronavirus being recorded on board. So far, 69 cases of coronavirus have been recorded, with 12 in the United States.

Agricultural drones in China have been flying around spraying disinfectant to rid villages of coronavirus. A video also showed up on the internet of a drone yelling at people for walking around the streets of China without a face mask on.

Whether you're a professional or an amateur videographer, here is a list of drones that will give you the best aerial view.

Drones are used by professional and amateur photographers, and they've become the new-gen shooting equipment recently. They can reach areas that normal cameras can't, and provide unique aerial perspectives of cities, landscapes, and buildings. 

Taking videos or photographs with drones allows you to see every corner of the landscapes, and they're also controllable. Previously, helicopters were used for professional video shots, but it's far easier to remote drones and change their directions from your smartphone.

In this list, you can find a drone for your every need, and it'll help you choose the right one accordingly. 

1. For Adventure 

Thankfully, the drones are portable and smaller than ever before. If you're a backpacker or an adventure-enthusiast, a drone is the best travel buddy for you. With a drone, you'll capture the funniest moments of your adventures even in underwater.

Taking heavy camera equipment with you makes everything harder. They are hard to carry and heavy, while on the other hand drones are light and easy to handle. You can carry them during all kinds of adventures. 

• PowerVision PowerRay Underwater
• Pocket Selfie Drone
• Hover Drone
• UDI RC

2. For Filmmaking 

Remember Lady Gaga's Super Bowl performance that was filmed by a drone? We've used all kinds of drones for high-resolution videos all over the years. They've become a component of art. Droned can be used to impress audiences and make your movie shots more interesting. 

For the filmmakers, drones are safer and easier than helicopter shots. They also make the scenes more immersive with different techniques of filmmaking. It's important to have durable equipment for the harshest conditions. Although drones look small, they withstand wind, heat, and crashes. 

• DJI Matrice 600
• DJI Mavic Pro
• GoPro Karma
• Airdog AD20

3. For Marketing and Advertisement

From package delivery to promotional videos, drones are the stars of marketing. 

If you don't have a large budget but still want to shoot promotional videos for your company, a drone is the best option for it. Specifically, restaurant, cafe, or hotel owners can promote their company with the drones, and give information to their customers. 

Drones will photograph and film your products, and give you what you need for marketing videos. You can produce professional-quality videos with drones that will surely increase your sales.

• Autel Robotics - EVO 4K
• DJI Mavic Mini
• DJI Inspire II

4. For Travel

If you like to travel around the world and taking photos and videos of your destinations, a drone can make your work more professional. You'll get unique perspectives with drones. You don't need a videographer to capture professional videos anymore. 

Whether you have a travel blog or you're the owner of a traveling company, drones make capturing the landscapes easy and effortless. You'll stun your audience with unique images. They're also affordable and portable. 

• DJI Phantom 3
• Parrot ANAFI
• DJI Spark

5. For Events

From indoor events to outdoor concerts, drones provide professional-looking entertainment. You can share your events' real-time videos and images with drones. Your posts will get more engagement on social media. Live streaming your event with a drone on social media will make your audience a part of the event. 

They can be used for security in events. You can use them to monitor the places where tickets are sold and the entrance doors. 

• Tello Quadcopter
• Holy Stone HS700D

HOW TO PICK THE BEST DRONE?

Choose Your Purpose

First of all, ask yourself why you need a drone. If your answer is hobby or entertainment, like most beginner users, inexpensive and amateur drones will be the ideal choice.

Technical Features 

After all, you'll be getting a drone for the first time and your priority will be to learn how to control this device. In this context, even if you have the money, a drone with a 12 MP camera that can shoot 4K videos won't be the right one for you. A simple yet adequate drone in terms of its technical specifications would be a good start.

Flight Time and Battery

The most common problems for all drone users are charging time and battery capacity. They can stay in the air for 7-25 minutes. However, drones with low capacity batteries can fly for a very short time. Before you buy the drone, you should do detailed research about flight time and battery capacity. 

Drone maker Skyfront has partnered with Silvus Technologies to create a drone with a maximum flight time of five hours and an operating distance of 100km. The new long-range drone will allow operators to inspect pipelines and other assets as well as conduct long-range surveillance missions.

Perimeter 8 is equipped with Silvus Technologies’ SteamCaster Radio system, a powerful user-customizable radio system for the military, police, and broadcast. Perimeter 8 is an octocopter with the ability to fly for five hours and travel up to 100km without losing connection from the ground station. Currently, five models of the drone are available to suit uses including mapping, LiDAR, and medium, long, or extra-long surveillance.

SteamCaster radio system uses the latest beam-forming technology, spatial multiplexing, and space-time coding to ensure the drone can be controlled in environments in which other radio systems are likely to fail. The combination of the technologies allows the range to be increased from 40% to 100%. SteamCaster comes with SteamScape, a network management interface to allow for key metrics and statistics to be viewed and collected in real-time. The system also allows the drone to be overlayed onto a map showing the current location and path of the drone.

Skyfront’s CEO Troy Mestler had the following to say on what the integration of the SteamCaster Radio system means for the company’s Perimeter 8 drone.

"The integration of the StreamCaster into the Perimeter line of UAV has enabled it to fully utilize its extreme endurance and fly beyond-line-of-sight (BVLOS) missions with ease."

Each year, independent corn and soybean seed company Peterson Farms Seed (Fargo, ND, USA; www.petersonfarmsseed.com) researches and tests innovative methods to apply seed and fertilizer. Field conditions such as soil content and plant health must be monitored to determine input levels for each season. One method for doing so involves the use of satellite images, but new technologies like multispectral imaging and drones provide a much faster and more accurate method for doing so.

The regional corn and soybean seed company must determine input levels for seed and fertilizer. A process known as variable rate application involves using optimal amounts of seed or other inputs in certain areas of a field based on historic yield, soil health, elevation, and satellite or drone imagery. For example, if a corn field has a traditional seeding rate of 34,000 corn seeds per acre, adjusting the amount of seeds that go onto areas that historically yield higher and putting less seeds in areas with lower yield makes sense, according to Nolan Berg, Precision Systems Specialist, Peterson Farms Seed.

In-season variable rate fertilization is another method utilized by Peterson Farms Seed to lower input costs while still maintaining higher yields.

“Corn takes up more nitrogen at the end of the season, so putting all the nitrogen at the beginning creates the risk of losing that nitrogen to environmental factors like rain and heat,” says Berg. “Putting a lower rate of nitrogen up front and coming in later in the season to reevaluate what the soil and corn plants look like and using a variable rate on top of that helps mitigate that risk.”

A plan for variable rate applications is known as a variable rate prescription. Traditionally, according to Berg, satellite images help inform variable rate applications and subsequent prescriptions.

“Satellite imagery works well for variable rate, but satellite images only come in once a week at most, or once every two or three weeks,” he says. “Putting down an immediate application requires using whatever the latest satellite image is, which may not be quite representative of what the field looks like then and there.”

By using drone-based imaging technology, the company now has the capability to zero down within inches to change prescriptions and applications in the fields, explains Berg.

“There is variability in different fields, so inputs of materials like seed and nitrogen are redistributed as needed,” he says. “Some areas of the field are poor every year, there is no point in putting high amounts of seed and fertilizer there. It’s a waste of money, so these areas are lowered and the rates in better areas of the field bump up, resulting in potentially higher yields.”

For the project, the company chose Sony Electronics Professional Solutions of America’s (Paramus, NJ, USA; www.pro.sony) vegetation analytics platform, which includes a multispectral camera and accompanying Fast Field Analyzer offline software.

Using Sony’s system mounted onto a Phantom 4 quadcopter drone from DJI (Shenzhen, China; www.dji.com), a flight plan is created to cover a target field. Once the plan is set, the drone takes off by itself and begins capturing images of the field. Once it lands, the SD card is removed from the camera and put into a laptop for processing. With this system, a map can be generated within a few minutes after the flight without relying on any internet connection at the field.

Once Sony’s FFA software generates a map, it is exported and put into Ag Leader’s (Ames, IA, USA; www.agleader.com) SMS farming software. Input data includes color drone data, along with data input layers including soil type, soil test numbers, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) maps, and multiple years of yield maps. These run through the software and average together to create the variable rate prescription management zones.

In a recent example, the drone in one day flew over several fields. By the next afternoon, Berg used both software packages to process the NDVI maps and create variable rate maps to apply fertilizer the following day. Red sections of the map showed areas of drowned-out corn with no fertilizer application. On the southern, more well-drained area of the map, the company applied more fertilizer for better yields.

“The amount of inputs used on the fields usually remains the same, but instead of wasting things like seed or nitrogen in low or no-yield areas, more fertilizer goes down in the good areas instead, resulting in higher yields.”

The MSZ-2100G sensor unit consists of a multispectral camera and RGB camera. On the RGB side, a 12 MPixel Sony Exmor R CMOS image sensor captures aerial images, while the 2 MPixel NDVI multispectral camera unit captures images in the red and NDVI range.

NDVI is calculated as follows: near-infrared radiation minus visible radiation divided by near-infrared radiation plus visible radiation, according to NASA 

Most satellite vegetation indices use this formula to quantify the density of plant growth on Earth.

In addition to the Sony image sensors, the unit contains a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensor which provides accurate geolocation data for images. Sony’s Fast Field Analyzer software processes NDVI and RGB data plus geolocation information to produce detailed maps and enable rapid in-field analytics with no internet connection required.

“Quite a bit can be done with just a color image, but NDVI images provide a lot more scientific-grade, accurate, and repeatable data,” says Berg. “If something appears red or otherwise lower on the NDVI scale, that is an accurate representation of what is happening in the field.”

He adds, “Basically, NDVI images offer the ability to show things that cannot be seen by the human eye, while showing things like plant stress earlier than it might otherwise be found.”

When Berg first started at the company, the traditional method of applying all the planned fertilizer to the field pre-planting was employed. Positive results emerged when the team opted to switch to about 70-75% fertilizer up front and a variable rate application in-season using drone imagery. The company spent about the same amount of money on inputs such as seed and fertilizer, while increasing its overall yields.

“Bottom line, we are definitely being more efficient and hopefully using less inputs than before, while getting higher yields and ultimately increasing profitability,” says Berg.

Throughout the two-plus decades that ESPN has been producing X Games, one of its primary missions has been to bring fans as close to the action as possible with some of the most unique angles in all of live sports production. That tradition continues this week at X Games Aspen 2020, where ESPN and production partner Echo Entertainment have deployed a new high-speed drone to provide a new perspective to viewers.

“I think [deploying the drone] lives up to what we’re trying to do at X Games, which is push innovation, push technology, and deliver an idea of ‘what’s next’ to our fans,” says ESPN VP, X Games, Tim Reed. “From an industry perspective, drones have become a pretty standard filming tool for snowboarding and skiing. So we’re really excited to be able to bring that into a live setting at X Games.”

Drone Captures One-of-a-Kind Aerials

The DJI Inspire 2 drone system features a Zenmuse X7 4K camera and 360-degree rotating gimbal and is capable of hitting speeds of up to 58 mph. In addition, a dual-battery system prolongs the flight time, and self-heating technology allows it to fly even in colder climates like Aspen.

ESPN first deployed a drone in Aspen in 2015 (prior to Echo’s involvement), but drone technology and production techniques have come a long way over the past half-decade. This will mark the most extensive use of a drone ever for X Games coverage.

Alex Hall competes in the Men’s Ski Big Air as a FollowCam operator trails him off the jump. Photo: Matt Morning/ESPN Images

“I think it will improve our race coverage on Snow BikeCross and Snowmobile Freestyle and get us above the action so we can see where everybody is on the course better than we’ve ever been able to,” says Hugh Arian, president, Echo Entertainment. “It will also give us some great supplemental coverage on Slopestyle and Big Air [ski/snowboard disciplines] and a look at [snowboard] SuperPipe that we’ve never had before from just outside the [half-pipe] deck and flying down the whole length of the pipe. We also plan to use it a lot as a real-time replays to look back at an athlete’s run from a perspective that has never been seen before.”

In addition to the logistical challenge of avoiding flying over crowds at the event, Buttermilk Mountain’s close proximity to Aspen Pitkin County Airport (just a mile away) added additional regulatory hurdles.

“We’re very close to the airport, so that took us a couple of years to work through [regulatory challenges]. And the tower at Aspen airport closes early, so we have a limit on how late at night we can fly it,” says Pierce Williams, technical producer, Echo Entertainment. “Like most new technologies, you have to walk before you can run, so that’s how we’re approaching it. We’re trying to work around those challenges and, hopefully, learning and will continue to work with the FAA and the airport so that we can continue to do it better in the future.”

Roving Host Set Gets Cinematic Treatment

Last summer in Minneapolis, ESPN and Echo opted not to erect a traditional set onsite for host and talent. They have continued this strategy in Aspen, moving host Jack Mitrani throughout Buttermilk to produce live segments from a variety of locations.

“We want to make his hits more immersive, so we will have Jack walking through the crowd and amongst the people,” says Arian. “We’ll also pull the curtain back for people, as we started in Minneapolis, doing a couple hits in the athlete lounge, in VIP areas, and other behind-the-scenes places.”

FollowCam operator is there as Yuto Totsuko competes in Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle. Photo: Gabriel Christus/ESPN Images

ESPN and Echo are also looking to add a more epic, cinematic feel to these live host segments by shooting them with a RED Digital Cinema UHD camera attached to a Freefly MōVI handheld three-axis gimbal.

“We feel like the RED camera gives us a more cinematic look and the MōVI mount gives us a lot of freedom to move smoothly,” says Arian. “That’s more of a cinema tool, but we have [adapted] it to be a live camera, and we’re bringing that back to the truck. That has been a challenge. It won’t match exactly to the rest of the show, but it has gone well so far, and we’re feeling good about what it adds to the show.”

Capturing the Epic Speed — and Danger — of Winter X

Besides the DJI Inspire 2 drone and RED UHD camera, ESPN and Echo have deployed a typically robust complement of cameras at Buttermilk: 30-plus cameras that will be repositioned to more than 130 locations throughout the four-day event.

They include four Sony HDC-4300 high-speed cameras (at varying frame rates up to 8x slo-mo). The Antelope Pico miniature slo-mo camera, which records up to 350 frames per second in native HD and simultaneously supplies a 1080i50/60 signal via HD SDI for line-cut purposes, has been deployed on a PoleCam rig at vantage points where larger cameras cannot be mounted.

In addition to plenty of high-speed cameras, ESPN and Echo are focused on capturing the speed of competition this year. After debuting at X Games in 2017, the CondorCam two-point aerial tracking system is now a staple of ESPN’s Slopestyle-course coverage. Eight small FollowCam systems, which have also become synonymous with X Games coverage, are attached to engineered rigs and used by operators on skis and snowboards; they are also attached to snowmobiles and snow bikes to provide dynamic tracking shots of the athletes.

“From an overall coverage perspective,” says Arian, “we’re making an effort to use more of our moving cameras that show the speed and, therefore, the danger of what all these athletes do. I’ve urged the directors to push the envelope in terms of using the FollowCams on Big Air and SlopeStyle. Then, we have CondorCam on SlopeStyle again, and we’ll have the drone on SnowBike and other events. We just want to use more moving cameras to create a more realistic look of the speed of these events.”

In addition to the RF FollowCams, BSI is supplying more than a dozen RF handheld cameras, several of which are POV cameras capable of capturing unique angles. BSI is also providing three proprietary helmet-camera systems, which are primarily deployed on athletes in the Snowmobile Freestyle, Snow BikeCross, and Snow Bike Best Trick disciplines. Two robotic cameras have also been positioned throughout the courses.

On the audio side, X Games Aspen will be telecast in discrete 5.1 surround sound and feature nearly 200 individual microphones (including 25 BSI wireless mics) — all interconnected through a variety of transport mediums, including Andiamo MADI and Calrec Hydra.

A FollowCam operator on skis follows Miyabi Onitsuka in the Women’s Snowboard Big Air. Photo: Gabriel Christus/ESPN Images

In the production compound, ESPN and Echo have brought back Dome Productions trucks for a fourth consecutive year. Silver, Journey, and Echo mobile units are covering two separate venues apiece, while Dome’s Expando B houses ESPN Event Productions, the roving host-show production, all comms, and three international partners. BSI is also on hand with its control-center truck to manage all RF cameras, comms, and microphones.

In 2018, Buttermilk Mountain installed permanent fiber going to four pedestals. All 792 single-mode ST fiber terminates in the TV compound. On top of the installed fiber, ESPN and Echo have pulled an additional 1,000,000 ft. of ST single-mode fiber and nearly 50,000 ft. of SMPTE cable (it took a 10-person crew more than a week to pull and test all the cable).

ESPN is distributing four feeds from the compound via redundant satellite uplinks/fiber circuits: the domestic feed for ABC, ESPN, and their social platforms; a dirty world feed; a clean world feed; and another clean world feed but with ESPN announcers for English-speaking countries.

X Games communications are always extremely complex, give the vast size of course on Buttermilk Mountain. Echo and ESPN have trunked three systems together via MADI to connect all five TV trucks’ RTS frames, as well as the in-house comms system. With more than 100 unique users in the comms pick sheet, the technical crew can decide whom they want to communicate with. The production team uses a trunked repeater system with 14 repeaters. The system also features 95 radio channels supporting the different groups onsite. More than 1,200 radios and 800 speaker mics are used throughout the venue.

“Echo Entertainment has been in the action-sports industry for a long time, but this is definitely our Super Bowl, says Williams. “In the compound and all over the mountain, the team is absolutely awesome, and it’s an honor for all of us to be able to do X Games each year.”

Once limited mainly to marketing campaigns, drones are now being increasingly used by the marine industry as a way of doing some jobs cheaper, faster and more safely.

The capabilities of drones—known officially as unmanned aerial systems (UAS)—impressed Johnson Marine Services of Prairieville, La., so much that the inland river/Gulf Coast marine surveying company launched its aerial surveying and imaging division January 1.

“We have found that conventional photography often falls short of conveying a complete representation of what we see during our inspections,” said Jim Johnson, chief executive officer of Johnson Marine Services and a 40-plus year veteran in the barge and towing industry. “The relatively new drone-based photography that we offer provides our clients with an aerial perspective of their equipment, facilities and/or marine casualties that, in the past, was not practical or available at an affordable rate.”

Drones allow for views from the water that might be otherwise difficult to record, such as of this damaged rock barge at Mile 37 of the Atchafalya River. (Photo by Hunter Svetanics, Courtesy of Johnson Marine Services)

Johnson Marine Services is currently using drone technology to detail new construction progress for Verret Shipyard in Plaquemine, La. The images will be used along with narrative as part of the documentation process for vessels under construction.

The company owns two drones, including one with four times zoom capability, and has the capability of providing both still images and short videos for its customers, chief operating officer Jeff Johnson said.

Hunter Svetanics, the third generation of the Johnson family to be involved in the business, is the company’s Federal Aviation Administration-certified commercial drone pilot. He said drones are particularly helpful in getting shots from the water side of any damage sites, such as when a dock is damaged.

“We’ve used the drone a couple of times to get a view from the water so we can see the damage itself, and we can see underneath the dock a lot of times, too,” Jim Johnson said. “It’s something we wouldn’t ordinarily be able to see without a boat on site to take us around and get us in position.”

Jim Johnson says Svetanics’ expertise in piloting a drone was helped by a hobby many older adults have been known to complain about.

“Believe it or not, the video games everybody complains about help in learning to fly that drone,” he said.

The drones are also much cheaper than using a helicopter, Svetanics said. In addition to documenting new construction, he sees drones as being useful in salvage operations, improving customer communication and documenting repair completion as well as improving accessibility for surveyors.

“I think there are a lot of potential uses for it,” he said, then named another one. “Just to document the condition of something on an ongoing basis, say, go out and get a picture of a fleet at 10-foot river stage in New Orleans just to see how the barges are laying in the fleet, how the current is affecting them at that river stage, and then go out and get one at 15 feet and see what the difference is.”

He cautioned that drones cannot do everything a human can, however. Federal Aviation Administration restrictions mean drone pilots must obtain waivers to fly more than 30 minutes past sunset and have limited blocks of time during which the FAA approves them to fly in certain restricted areas, such as near an airport. They may also be limited in how closely they can approach crowded areas and may not fly over people, so they have limited use in more crowded situations. Service providers must also keep in mind the importance of maintaining customers’ proprietary information, Jeff Johnson said.

Johnson Marine decided to begin its drone business after attending a conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Cairo Marine Services of Jackson, Mo., a maritime crane and hoist inspection service accredited by the U.S. Department of Labor that also uses drones.

Johnson Marine Services used a drone to capture this photo of a tow boat under construction at Verret Shipyard. (Photo by Hunter Svetanics, Courtesy of Johnson Marine Services)

Other Uses

New Orleans-based CAVU Media Group, a client-focused media production company, also has found a use for them in the inland marine industry. Although CAVU began as a creative company specializing in film and photography, much of its business is now industrial in nature, and its clients have included the Port of New Orleans and St. Bernard Port Harbor & Terminal, along with multiple shipping companies, founder Ian Cotita said.

“Now that the tech has caught up, we have nine in our fleet,” Cotita said. “We have thermal capabilities, so we can do thermal with our drones. We’ve got a weather-proof rig so we can go up in the rain. We have a 30-times zoom lens for inspections. You can get very valuable data safely.”

Among the advances in drone technology now available to industry, Cotita said a “sniffer” drone is now available to check for oil and gas leaks.

“It’s safer and greener than helicopters,” he said. “You can get a lot closer to assets. The data turnaround is a lot faster and more accurate.”

Additionally, he touted potential safety advantages.

“You don’t want to send somebody climbing up something when you can do it from the ground,” he said.

Cotita said he expects to see even more industry uses for drones as time passes.

“It’s a slow process getting everybody on board, but once they see it, they start to realize there are going to be more and more applications,” he said.