Drone Magazine UK Eye in the Sky How to Get a New Perspective with First Person Flying April 2018 pdf pdf
going pro • Flying Fpv • DJi X7 • rEviEWS
May 2018 · No 32
ON THE EDGE GOLD STANDARDS FLIGHT, CAMERA, ACTION
Pushing the limits of the law How a new code of conduct A pro pilot talks about working with to get some amazing photos can shape the future of UAVs the BBC and the new X7 camera HOW TO GET A NEW PERSPECTIVE WITH FIRST-PERSON FLYING
EyE in thE Sky
VIFLY X150 DJI MAVIC AIR TESTED TO THE LIMIT A GIANT AMONG MINI-QUADS?
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C O N T R I B U TO R S A DA M J U N I P E R
Andrew spends his time monitoring the globe for drone news stories, testing to death the things people send him (mostly drones), and hoping his cats won’t moult all over his quadcopters. He's a graduate of the Freedonia Flying Academy and has never failed to walk away from a UAV landing. You can follow him on Twitter at @raggedydrones
A N D R E W WAT TO N - DAV I E S G E M M A COX L E E S C H O F I E L D R O B C LY M O
Rowan is cinematographer and drone fanatic with a passion for exploring new places and shooting them with his Xiro Xplorer. He’s always looking for new places to fly and new ways to push his work, and you’ll often find him along the Pembrokeshire coastline on most sunny/non-windy days! You can follow his most recent shots/trips on Instagram @RTBaileyMedia.
R OWA N BA I L E Y
Hooked from the moment he saw the AR.Drone at CES, Adam has spent the years since building, crashing, sinking, losing and occasionally flying drones. With a background in photography publishing and over a decade writing about video and still photography in his rear-view mirror, he was the only choice for Ilex’s book The Drone Pilot's Handbook (on sale now!).
Our launch editor for DRONE, Gemma has worked at the helm of NEO magazine for over ten years.
Spending over a decade immersed in Asian pop culture, she recently branched out into the world of technology to take on UAVs. She’s most excited about the future of FPV racing and the prospect of drone deliveries! Can drone racing go prime time? She certainly hopes so! Follow NEO at @NEO_Magazine.
Rob has been covering tech topics for more years than he can remember, most recently in his role as editor of Digital FilmMaker magazine. He loves nothing more than hitching a ride in light aircraft or anything autonomous and has been keeping an eager eye on all things drone-related ever since he got his first glimpse of an early, slightly primitive, DJI creation a few years ago.
Known online as Painless360, Lee has a YouTube channel and business dedicated to making RC technology easier to use. An RC pilot for over eight years and with a 30- year background in electronics he became hooked on quads when he was bought one in as a present. The rest, as they say, is history! By now he can probably strip a quadcopter and rebuild it blindfolded.
Wayne was drawn into the world of RC and FPV after chancing on a tricopter video in 2011. Determined to understand how to construct his own flying machine, he’s been building, flying, crashing and fixing multirotors and planes ever since. Known online as CurryKitten, he runs his own a YouTube channel and blog focused on helping new pilots into the air more smoothly.
WAY N E A N D R E WS R O B I N E VA N S
Robin is an airline captain with over 7,000 hours logged and when he’s not ferrying people across the skies is also a freelance writer and photographer. It was two years ago that his father asked him how much crossover, in theory, there was between flying drones and airliners and that set the propellers turning! Since then he's always on the lookout for ways to get the best of both worlds…
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10
12 It’s safety first for
10 // AIR RESCUE
16 // CLOSE CALLS
drone users at a nuclear power plant…
32
20
92% of people think there needs to be some restrictions on drone use, according to a new study of both pilots and the public.
18
// PUBLIC OPINION
Some environmentally unfriendly reports, with drone deliveries needing to reduce its carbon footprint and a UAV fire-starter.
17 // HOT TOPICS
Two contrasting stories; one about a new drone designed to avoid collisions and one about a pilot who nearly caused one.
A professional drone pilot explains how his flair for flying really helped his career in television to take off – and meet Noel Edmunds!
We hear from the Special Constable who was able to use a police UAV to find a missing person on a freezing cold night.
26 CONTENTS
We speak to the Chairman of the BSI committee behind the new code of conduct coming soon to the drone industry.
26 // NEW STANDARDS
Now under the expanded guise of the UK Drone and Technology Show Live, it’s back for business in December.
20 // UK DRONE SHOW
Parrot has introduced the Flight Director editing software to its FreeFlight Pro app, offering up auto-edited videos on the fly.
14 // VIDEO TO GO
Drone are lending a hand just about everywhere these days, most recently at a decommissioned nuclear power plant in Scotland.
12 // PLANT HIGHER
32 // TV GUIDE
70 Is the GepRC MX3
58 // FLIGHT SCHOOL
Sparrow as fast as its creators say it is?
62
80
46
40
When one of our experts says this is his new number one choice for quads of this size, you might want to find out why.
66 // VIFLY X150
We’ve teased it; we’ve had some brief test flights with it; and now it’s time for our full in-depth review of the drone everyone’s talking about.
62 // DJI MAVIC AIR
Once qualified there aren’t too many other places to learn new skills but a new drone academy aims to change that.
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40 // CITY SLICKER
80 // SHARP SHOOTER
It’s not quite VHS vs Betamax or PlayStation vs Xbox, but choosing the right format for sharing your videos online can still be crucial.
74 // FORMAT WARS
The creators are claiming a top speed of more than 100mph, so is this FPV flyer punching above its weight?
70 // GEPRC MX3 SPARROW
Essential advice that will make life a lot easier for any pilots looking to ease off self-levelling flights and go fully manual.
52 // TAMING ACRO
One of our experts takes you through everything you need to know in order to take your first steps into flying FPV.
46 // HEAD IN THE CLOUDS
How one pilot has played by the rules and still been able to get some memorable shots over the skies of London that skirt the law.
We chat with Florian Ledoux, winner of the recent SkyPixel Photo Contest and a man on a mission to bring the Arctic to your laptop.
80 DISCOVER HOW A PASSION FOR WILDLIFE AND A FLAIR FOR FLYING COMBINED INTO AN AWARD-WINNING CAREER L
incolnshire Police has used a drone to help to find the missing driver of a crashed vehicle in sub-zero temperatures. The incident happened on the
A16 near Ludborough in the early hours of 25 February, during a night with temperatures reported as low -2°C when the weather was both foggy and snowing. Officers were responding to a call after a member of the public reported seeing the car upside down in a ditch with smoke coming out of it. The driver had been spotted walking on foot away from the crash site towards a nearby village.
We spoke directly with the pilot involved in the search, Special Sergeant Kevin Taylor, about the incident. He confirmed that the search of the area had started at 2.24am with four police officers on the scene, which he described as a “pitch black night, freezing cold, on an unlit section of A-road with no moon.” They were further assisted by the local Fire Brigade who had attended with a hand-held thermal camera.
Whilst the fire crew was able to check under the vehicle and in the area close by to ensure no one was trapped or had been thrown out of the vehicle, they had not been able to find the driver. As a result the decision was made for Kevin, a full-time Subject Matter Expert for Metis Aerospace with 15 years of experience with fixed wing and rotor craft, as well as a PfCO holder, to travel from Lincoln to the site as part of his voluntary role as a Special Constable.
Special Sgt Kevin arrived at the scene at 3.26am and was airborne and searching by 3.33am. When we asked how this seven- minute deployment time of the Lincolnshire
Police’s DJI Inspire 1 with XT thermal camera was achieved, he said: “We go through all the checks but we pre-plan en route as to what we’re doing, the area we’re going to and anything that might affect us.”
As for the flight itself, Kevin explained that “the section of road we were interested in searching was a kilometre long, and obviously the interest was in the road, the dykes and the surrounding fields. Lincolnshire is a very rural area, so a thermal drone search can be ideal. I did a flight out from the location of the accident to the village; there were various heat sources showing, particularly from the water in the dyke at the side of the road. I had officers check out two other heat sources first, which proved to be water. When you look at the thermal results back there were a couple of areas that were a little bit bigger and a little bit warmer, and they were ruled out.”
SEARCH AND RESCUE
MIssING DRIvER fOuND wIth DRONE suppORt Words by: ANDREw wAttON-DAvIEs
HOT SPOT
As the drone continued its flight back, Kevin spotted a third source, about 150 metres away, emanating from a ditch. “I didn’t know that it was a person at that stage, until I guided the officer in. He couldn’t see, even when he was within twelve feet of where the chap was. I had to tell him to go forward a bit and then back a bit and then turn right a bit, because he still couldn’t see. He was six feet down into the ditch and you really had to get down to see him.
“There was that element of talking him in, going backwards and forwards, interrupted by other operational radio work at the same time, so he went back past the location that I wanted him to check. So I had to ask him to go back and keep going into the ditch, then he confirmed back to me (at 3.45am) that it was the chap in the ditch who was unconscious.” Kevin confirmed that whilst the other officers
“I didn’t know that it was a person at that stage… He was six feet down into the ditch and you really had to get down to see him”
and the Fire Brigade had performed thorough longer and that the deployment possibly saved programme was started by Chief Constable searches, the missing driver “was so far down the man’s life. He also referred to the response Bill Skelly, who had previous experience in the ditch they simply wouldn’t have found as “a great team effort”, and, whilst praising with the technology in the Devon & him. The only way they could have found him all those officers involved, he made specific Cornwall force, and was supported by Crime was to go and walk down into the ditch, but mention of PC Logan-Glover, PC Smith and Commissioner Marc Jones. The team currently due to the water in there it was not a possibility. drone pilot Special Sgt Taylor. consists of four pilots, with a further six
“As soon the officer was with him I returned Lincolnshire Police’s drone project started officers currently undergoing training. You (the drone) home, because I was approaching in March 2017, with full approvals being can follow their daily operations on Twitter the end of my battery life. Being a cold evening, given for operations in October 2017. The via their handle @lincsCOPter. even with 12 minutes of flight time I didn’t have a lot of battery left. I didn’t want to leave the heat source in fear of not finding it again, so I stayed airborne and by the time the officers got to him the battery was at 30%. However, the drone was about 140 metres from my location with no wind so there was no complication with the flight back.” Once the craft had landed, Kevin began assisting the other officers, with an ambulance arriving on scene at 3.52am to take the driver to hospital.
Speaking about the incident to the press, Sgt Mike Templeman commented that without the drone this search could have taken much
GOING NUCLEAR
DRONEs DRIvE sAfEty At DEcOMMIssIONED pOwER plANt Words by: ANDREw wAttON-DAvIEs
lthough the winter weather hitting reactors. Following the closure of the facility are now being carried out with a pilot safely on the UK in March wasn’t good (and the passing of the site through a number the ground. As well as estimated manpower news for most drone pilots, it did of government bodies), the maintenance of savings of £100,000, the risk of serious injury give one aerial team the chance to the buildings, management of the potential or even death from falls has been removed as a demonstrate the positive benefits of UAV use environmental harm of the radioactive result. The savings made on the very first drone
A
for inspection work at a decommissioned materials and the safe decommissioning of inspection, which targeted two 20-metre tall nuclear power plant. With only a few flights the site has fallen to Dounreay Site Restoration ventilation stacks, are reported to have covered the team was able to demonstrate both the Limited (DSRL). the cost of the craft. financial savings and the speed and safety As part of these works, 50 building John told us that his awareness of foot methods. using traditional techniques of putting people drone programme come from a long-time
The drone programme has been initiated on roofs and up ladders that could be 55 metres interest in aerial photography. “I had a at the Dounreay plant on the north coast of off the ground. Following a project initiated by hobby background in self-built RC model Caithness in Scotland. It was opened in 1955 senior electrical engineer John Moar, and an aeroplanes and helicopters, mainly during and until 1994 was the home to five nuclear outlay of £6,000 on a drone, the inspections the 1990s, and first took aerial views using a modified auto-wind film-type camera mounted in a wooden plans-built model aeroplane. I started flying light aircraft in 1999 and began taking a lot of aerial photographs from then onwards. Drones were a natural progression and I only started operating these recently for the purpose of my work as I saw the opportunity emerge.”
Knowing the potential benefits of drone technology, the next step was convincing DSRL of the benefits of using such systems. The nature of his work environment gave John some assistance as “innovation is key to our decommissioning programme and, as an engineer, we are encouraged to constantly innovate and stay in touch with new technologies,” he explained.
As for the ground work, John says it was “a self-driven initiative as a side-line to my day job. Nuclear safety case considerations, security, training requirements, cost and conventional safety were all considerations rather than obstacles.
“It was a matter of assessing, mitigating and balancing these risks and other factors. The balance of risk compared to ‘conventional’ access methods spoke for itself and I did not need to work too hard to convince the management of the benefits once I had done my homework and presented the facts and implementation plan.”
Convincing the company of the benefits was one thing, but getting permission to fly at the plant was complicated as, due to the nature of the site, there is a strictly enforced air exclusion zone. “The area is a flight prohibited area, as regulated by the CAA, in force around the site. So the application included permission to use the airspace with security controls considered.”
With a PfCO and specific exemption finally secured, John was able to get to work using a DJI Inspire 2, operated with the dual TX set- up and chosen for the task “because of the functionality and support.” John explained that “general surveys are our main focus, such as asset inspection, condition monitoring or storm damage surveys. Provided in line of sight, the drone is able to get very close to the area being examined, much closer than a mobile elevated work platform can, for example. They cannot necessarily perform as well as a person up close with the benefit of all senses but the difficulty is in getting the person up close in the first instance, and so the drone is a clear winner.”
The success of this early use of the technology has been made evident by the amount of work the team have been able to perform. “We have successfully carried out around 20 inspections over the winter period and after the recent strong winds we managed to conduct two months’ worth of storm damage surveys over a period of just a couple of days,” John says. “This would have previously required the hire of mobile work platforms costing several thousands of pounds each week and would have been more resource intensive. In addition to saving the taxpayer money, we are increasing the quality and timeliness of the inspections.”
John says everyone seemed happy with the results. “The project manager was delighted at the quality and detail of the images and how easy and safe it was to get them. It also gives us 360 degree inspections, which often isn’t possible when doing the inspection manually.” With a team from the site’s maintenance department now involved in the drone works, John has said the system “also has the potential to develop applications in other areas, such as 3D modelling, thermographic, environmental and land remediation surveys, and PR footage.”
POWER RANGER
Further proof of the benefits of drone use can be found in a number of similar initiatives that are being undertaken at other nuclear facilities in the UK and beyond. For more details on the Dounreay facility and the drone use there, head over to dounreay.com.
“After the recent strong winds we managed to conduct two months’ worth of storm damage surveys over a period of just a couple of days” Words by AndreW WAtton-dAvies
PARROT SHOW
cREAtE yOuR bEbOp vIDEOs ON thE fly
arrot, the developer of the Bebop drone When asked what the design goal was for Flight Director is available now and requires series, has announced the addition of this latest addition to the growing library the FreeFlight Pro application from version 5.2 Flight Director to its FreeFlight Pro of software for the Bebop series, a Parrot onwards and either iOS 9.0 or Android 4.2 or companion app. The program, powered by P representative commented that Flight Director higher. The Premium version, available on a algorithms developed by Singapore-based is “part of our efforts to create a user-friendly 15-day free trial, is listed at £19.99 in the App video editing software company Muvee, ecosystem around FreeFlight Pro. Store and £14.99 on Google Play. A free version identifies the “optimum sequences” in a user’s “Our goal is to provide our users with an is also available, enabling operators to use the captured drone footage and then presents them exceptional, multi-purpose tool to accompany ‘Best Of’ feature which will select videos from with a ready-to-share montage of between 15 them during their journey with our drones. your drone to create a 15-second compilation of seconds and 3 minutes. Flight Director was specifically designed to the “best moments shot by your drone.”
The software’s algorithm automatically offer the opportunity to quickly edit drone Android users should note that Parrot has identifies the best moments of the operator’s footage and create amazing content with confirmed that the software is only compatible footage by analysing the drone’s flight minimal efforts and editing skills thanks to its with devices with the rm64-v8a and armeabi- telemetry and then synchronises them to the intuitive interface and automated processes.” v7a binary interfaces. This means that a small beats of the selected music track. Users can Whilst Flight Director is usable with all number of older devices will not be able to choose tunes from the app’s library or from three craft in the Bebop range, when asked if use the app, and will therefore not be able to their own playlists. In addition, three editing the software will be made available for users of purchase the software from the store. More styles are available to select from. the Disco fixed wing craft, we were told that it information on Flight Director, FreeFlight Pro
Talking to Parrot about these pre-set is currently “designed to work on quadcopter and the company’s range of aerial solutions can selections, a spokesperson explained that drones only.” be found at Parrot.com. Story “follows the chronological order of the shots” and is “great for following a journey or storytelling.” Trailer is a “fast-paced editing style which uses fast motion and quick cuts to the most exciting moments to crank up the impact and drama.” And finally there’s Cinematic which “automatically finds the most awesome sweeping smooth shots,” with the intention of being “great for making epic landscape aerial movies.”
Videos can be further customised with a choice of seven ‘Themes’, which are overlays that add flight telemetric information to the video. The software then uses your smart device’s built-in share systems to post the videos to any and all compatible platforms, including Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram.
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kydio, a drone development start-up based in Redwood City, California, has announced the launch of its 4K R1 autonomous drone after four years of development and boasting some impressive obstacle avoidance tech. The drone’s key feature, the Skydio Autonomy Engine, has been demonstrated in a series of launch videos showing the craft following runners, skiers, bikers and skaters through a variety of densely forested areas. The technology has also been demonstrated ‘in the wild’ by a number of vloggers, including Casey Neistat who considered the autonomy “a quantum leap” when compared to DJI’s technologies.
Talking about the launch of the R1, Adam Bry, CEO and co- founder of Skydio, stated: “The promise of the self-flying camera has captured people’s imaginations, but today’s drones still need to be flown manually for them to be useful. We’ve spent the last four years solving the hard problems in robotics and AI necessary to make fully autonomous flight possible. We’re incredibly excited about the creative possibilities with R1, and we also believe that this technology will enable many of the most valuable drone applications for consumers and businesses over the coming years.”
The craft is 13 x 16 x 1.5 inches, weighs in at 2.2lbs, has a top-flight speed of 25mph and a flight time of 16 minutes. The camera allows for
4K at 30fps (or 1080p at 30 and 60fps) with live streaming also available at 720p at 15fps. It has a maximum range of 300ft (depending on your modes available.
This isn’t a cheap piece of fun, though, as the R1 Frontier Edition is currently available for the not insignificant sum of $2,499 (plus shipping). More information can be found at skydio.com.
Words by AndreW WAtton-dAvies
Follow the Leader HigH-end automation targets tHe prosumer market
T
he UK Airprox Board (UKAB) has confirmed that on 01 January 2018, a glider on its landing approach to Dunstable Downs Airfield in Bedfordshire was involved in a near-miss incident with a drone.
The drone was reported to have been “20-50m in front of the nose of the glider and a few metres below” the Schleicher ASK 21, as it was at 550ft and making its final turn for approach. With both the weather and the UAV being described as grey, it is reported as having been difficult for the pilot to see it “against a backdrop of Dunstable town.”
The report states that with the drone passing rapidly by the glider, there had been no time for the glider pilot to take avoiding action. The report concluded that “had the drone been on a collision course, it was unlikely that the glider would have responded to control inputs rapidly enough to allow avoiding action to be effective,” and thus the Risk of Collision was given as “High”. It added that it was “a situation where providence had played a major part in the incident” and that a definite risk of collision had existed.
The incident was the highest risk of the seven drone-related reports reviewed at the January meeting of the UKAB. The other incidents included reports of UAVs being flown beyond practical visual line of sight, in the vicinity of airfields, above cloud cover, and on approach paths for landing planes. More details on the incidents can be found at the website airproxboard.org.uk.
glider and drone in close call Ph oto b y F ra nk S ch w ich te nb erg / C re ati ve Co m m on s Words by: Andrew wAtton-dAvies
FIRE STARTER
crAshed drone spArKs bl AZe
he US Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service has reported
AERIAL FOOTPRINTS
that a fire on 06 March in the Kendrick Park area of Coconino National Forest, Arizona, was caused by a drone battery igniting
environMentAl iMpAct of
after a crash landing and setting fire to dry grasses. The fire is said
T UAv deliveries Assessed to have burned more than 300 acres of forest land and required the
efforts of around 30 firefighters and a water tender truck to get under research team from the Lawrence Livermore National control, driving smoke across the nearby Highway 180. Laboratory in California has concluded that the additional The craft is reported to have been 16 x 16-inch hobby drone, with warehousing needed for drone deliveries, and the longer the pilot having been identified and charged with starting a wildfire. travel distances being planned by developers, reduces the previously The exact reason for the battery starting the fire has not yet been
A
championed environmental benefits of the technology when compared established (though a hot battery and dry grass is a bad mix), but to traditional ground-based vehicle delivery. if found guilty the drone operator can face anything from a fine or In the paper, ‘Energy Use and Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions community service to jail time. of Drones for Commercial Package Delivery’, the team found The flying of drones in the National Forest is permitted, provided the that the drones themselves potentially consume less energy per pilot follows FAA rules, does not take off or land in a wilderness area package-kilometre than delivery trucks, provided that the craft are and that there are no wildfires in the vicinity. The Forest Service itself flown at an energy-efficient speed and distance. However, savings provides maps and supporting information for those wishing to fly maintaining additional storage facilities are factored in. The paper wildfire has been caused by a drone. concluded that to realise the environmental benefits of drone deliveries, regulators and firms should focus on minimising extra warehousing and limiting the size of drones.
Co-author Joshuah Stolaroff (and team leader along with Constantine Samaras) told us: “Finding ways to use existing retail space to store and stage goods is one way they might limit the need for extra warehousing. For regulators, placing limits on package weight and drone weight seems straightforward. Both parties should assess the full life cycle impacts of their proposed system before implementing it.”
As for the potential dangers of not taking such action, he said: “In the worst case, widespread drone use would moderately increase emissions in the transportation sector at a time when we need to make dramatic reductions for climate reasons. We are not aware that any developers or drone users have systematically considered the drones’ environmental impacts before. Our paper is an important first step.” The full study can be found and analysed at the website
nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02411-5 .
N
ominet UK, the .uk domain name registry since 1996, has released research into public opinion on drones and their use as part of its Digital Futures
Index. Aimed at “identifying consumer exploring trends among drone owners,” the results show that 92% of respondents believe there should be restrictions on who can use drone craft, 90% want drones registered with a central body and 72% support “the equivalent of a driving licence for drone operators.”
The results were based on a representative sample of 2,002 UK adults and 500 drone owners, who were surveyed over a ten-day period in January 2018 by Opinium. Other data released included the findings that 83% of respondents believe that drones pose a risk to the public when out of controller range and 79% having concerns about the safety of flight paths, roads and properties.
The public were also concerned about illegal use of the craft, with 71% of respondents thinking drones could be used for criminal activities and 58% saying that UAVs pose a danger to their privacy, with 49% considering camera drones “a major privacy risk.” How the public believe registration should be handled is not as clear an issue, though, with 42% supporting the creation of a new central body, 37% in favour of registration with the government, 30% with the aviation authorities and 25% wanting drones to be registered with the police (we’d assume it was a multiple choice section before you question the maths!). that their drones are fitted with a camera but the same percentage claimed there is “a lack of clarity over filming permissions.” 62% of users said that they had filmed persons or places without permission and 9% said they didn’t think filming permissions are ever needed. On the issues of safety, 53% admitted to having crashed a craft under their control, 37% admitted to having lost drones under their control and 26% said they didn’t know the range of their devices, “despite knowing the potential dangers.”
Commenting on the study, Russell Haworth, CEO of Nominet, said: “At the moment drones are largely extravagant toys, but the reality is that they have the potential to revolutionise many aspects of our lives… What’s needed is a centralised database and flight path mapping tools that allows these drones to communicate with each other. That way, accidents are less likely to happen, as collision avoidance systems would take over in the event of an emergency. City infrastructure would also need updating to accommodate drones, including things like landing locations for drone deliveries. No doubt as cities become smarter, drones will play a wider role.”
When asked how much the views of drone operators differed from the general public, a spokesperson added: “On the whole, drone owners and consumers were aligned on their thoughts when it came to regulation and restrictions or who should be able to purchase a drone. One area where they did differ is about the potential of drone use in the future for deliveries. Drone owners were much more open to receiving deliveries via drone, with a quarter saying they think it is the future of deliveries, compared with just 10% of consumers.”
More details on Nominet’s research, covering a range of technological issues, can be found at nominet.uk/DigitalFuturesIndex – although we were told that there are no current plans for the full results of this study to be released.
NEw suRvEy bAcks DRONE REstRIctIONs
Words by AndreW WAtton-dAvies
PUBLIC ORDER
THE SHOW GOES ON!
The UK Drone Show returns in 2018 with a new and expanded format – and big plans for the future. Ian Collen spoke to the organisers to find out more…
aving launched in 2015, the UK Drone expects to be slightly bigger and certainly more As well as seeing many familiar faces from Show enjoyed two great annual shows compact than those previous shows, and with the drone world on the show floor, plus some before taking a break in 2017. Now it’s even more on to get your hands on. other potential big hitters from the worlds ready to return under the expanded The headline features include the returning of photography, gaming, technology and guise of the UK Drone and Technology Show iSeries FPV race event, boasting a whopping beyond, there’ll also be the very nicely timed
H Live 2018, being held over the weekend of 01-02 £10,000 prize pool – and the team hopes to ‘Christmas Gadget Fair’.
December back at the NEC in Birmingham. entice some major international pilots to the Oliver explained that this will include Although the change in name suggests a UK to take on the best of British over two “presentations of all the latest gadgets” and shift in focus, the core is still very much on intense days of frenetic racing. that they were “looking at getting some well- growing range of crossover industries such as grabs in the ‘Perfect Capture’ photography imagine it providing a very handy shopping photography, virtual and augmented reality, RC competition, with two categories on offer: centre for many a festive gift this year! cars, gaming, robotics and smart technologies Aerial Photography for the drone owners out it makes sense to open those doors a little wider there, and Nature Photography which is open and embrace a potentially larger audience. to more traditional hand-held photographers.
The event is being organised by DTECH Show Limited, a joint venture between the UK Drone Show founder, Oliver O’Brien (who’ll be project manager on the 2018 show); the former CEO of the MCM ComicCon events in the UK and current owner of Malo Events, Bryan Cooney; and the managing director of Activate Communications, Luke Galliana, who’ll be heading up the Brand Partnerships.
In terms of the show itself, you can expect the same wealth of major exhibitors, display stands and presentation areas that we saw in 2016, but with a plenty of intriguing newcomers and much more packed into an NEC hall space that the team
BIGGER AND BETTER
The joint venture seems to be a nice piece of timing all-round, with Bryan Cooney selling his stake in the UK MCM ComicCon in October last year, and Luke, who’d previously worked with Bryan on those MCM events, told us they’ve been keen to get involved with the Drone Show for a while. And when Bryan was free from the responsibilities of the many ComicCon shows held across the UK each year, Luke says it “gave us the perfect opportunity to get the ball rolling with Oliver and try to put some plans in place to get the show going and get the partnership going.”
On announcing the event, Luke added: “It’s going to be the largest showcase for drones and technology in Europe. We’re looking to have as many interactive areas as possible over the course of the two days. There’ll be lots of exciting competitions, lots of new product launches and lots of new technology.” This was echoed by Oliver who says it will be “the most unique consumer technology show in the UK.” Oliver also explained how expanding his original premise into the UK Drone and
Technology Show Live made sense. “With things like photography, it crosses over into a whole new world, as with eSports and so on. So it’s a natural progression for the show to grow… but it’s still the Drone Show and we’ll still have all of the right drone elements.”
To this extent you can still expect to see large sections of the show floor given over to the likes of drone training, development, insurance and all things CAA-related. Plus we’ll see the return of the popular Tiny Whoop area and the RC cars will once again be tearing it up on their own track – and with talk of underwater UAV technology joining the fun, we’re also dreaming about the possibility of a giant fish tank as well!
With the likes of flight simulators, VR and eSports amongst many other things, the 2018 show certainly does have the potential to be a hugely hands-on and interactive experience. “I think that’s key as well,” says Luke. “Obviously coming from the ComicCon experiences, for us, it’s all about having as many areas as possible that are interactive and that’s what helps to make the experience, as we’ve found in the past putting on these kinds of large-scale events.”
A NEW BEGINNING