Measure, a provider of drone services to enterprise customers, has introduced a training, equipment and support toolkit designed for broadcast news organizations that seek to use their own crews for drone-based newsgathering. The toolkit is an option to Measure’s turnkey broadcast news service, giving media and broadcast companies the option to outsource all drone operations to Measure’s expert pilots or instead leverage the toolkit to capture their own footage.
Both offerings relieve news crews and production managers of drone-related responsibilities ranging from hardware and software selection to airspace permitting, regulatory compliance, insurance coverage, equipment maintenance and repairs, and everyday troubleshooting. Measure has experienced success with its turnkey service offered to major cable and broadcast news organizations. It launched in more than a year ago and has provided broadcast-quality aerial footage of Hurricane Matthew, the 2016 presidential election and other major news events around the world.
The broadcast drone toolkit extends these benefits to media organizations that want to fly drones with their own staff. The package bundles:
- Broadcast-ready drone and camera hardware, including the DJI Inspire 2 and DJI X5S Micro 4/3 camera with interchangeable lenses. Equipment can be either leased or purchased directly from Measure.
- A LiveU Bonded Cellular Uplink enabling live footage to be transmitted directly to the customer’s production booth without dependence on a satellite or microwave truck.
- A pilot training program specifically designed for newsgathering and taught by former U.S. military flight instructors, training news crews to minimize risk while flying in challenging environments.
- Pilot, flight operations and equipment tracking, enabling customers to monitor pilot behavior for potentially dangerous flight operations that compromise safety while also capturing flight logs, project metadata and equipment usage that helps determine maintenance schedule.
- Maintenance and repair support from Measure drone engineers, including assistance in the event of a mishap.
- Preferred insurance with significantly discounted premiums as well as optional extra coverages for special events
- Regulatory support to ensure that news crews know when and where it is safe and legal to fly.
- Help desk assistance via phone or web portal, reducing media company workload by allowing questions about flight operations, regulatory compliance or mechanical issues to be addressed to Measure pilots, flight instructors, drone engineers and regulatory experts.
“Drones are now an essential newsgathering tool, but media companies face major challenges in bringing drone newscasting to their operations. You need to be an expert in everything from drone flying to state and federal regulations,” said Jon Ollwerther, Measure Vice President of Media, who has held executive positions in the drone services industry since its inception three years ago. “With our turnkey service, any news organization can be up and flying today. Now with our toolkit, media organizations can leverage drone technology for reporting purposes while using their own news crew and safely building an in-house capability.”
Measure’s unique broadcast news toolkit is part of a broader expansion that also includes the launch of new services for the solar energy industry, also announced today, and the opening of new offices in Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles.
More information on Measure’s services for the media sector is available at www.measure.com/newsdrone or at newsdrone@measure.com.
Frank Schroth is editor in chief of DroneLife, the authoritative source for news and analysis on the drone industry: it’s people, products, trends, and events.
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