Tethered Drone Firm Fotokite Snags Axon Deal

Tethered drone provider Fotokite struck an exclusive deal this week with Axon, a public-safety tech provider. The agreement will integrate Fotokite drones with Axon’s digital evidence management solution, Axon Evidence. This will allow Axon law-enforcement customers to view live-stream, aerial footage and manager or share video evidence via Fotokite’s situational awareness software tools.

According to a Fotokite press release, the integrated platform includes:

• “Evidence Management: Fotokite video footage is integrated directly into Axon Evidence allowing agencies a holistic view of what is happening in a given incident/investigation without needing to use an alternate application or tool to view the aerial footage.

• Live-streaming: Staff back at the agency’s command center can see what is happening in the field in real-time through Axon Aware situational awareness software, enabling them to deploy resources more quickly and efficiently.

• Program Management: Agencies will save time and money in the operation of this system with simplified program management that does not require federal Part 107 (drone pilot) licenses or a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the FAA.

• Scalable Aerial Situational Awareness: Traditional drone programs require public safety teams to call trained pilot teams to each scene they are deployed in. As a result, response times are slowed down by the availability of pilots on-scene. Fotokite technology enables scalable aerial scene awareness without the need for pilots on-scene, providing law enforcement the ability to gain instant situational awareness and incident records early in a response, when it matters most.”

“This partnership with Fotokite is a game-changer for how our law enforcement customers view, assess and respond to crisis situations in real-time,” says Axon CPO and EVP Software, Jeff Kunins.

“This program will be a great addition for agencies with already existing drone programs as it allows for a greater breadth of incident coverage. For agencies that have not yet deployed a drone program, this a great and simple way to get started.”

“We’re thrilled to partner exclusively with Axon in delivering a purpose-built tool to first responders in the public safety community. Our actively tethered UAS technology will directly serve Axon’s customers with the integrated product they need,” says Fotokite CEO, Christopher McCall.

“Whether the use case is traffic control, vehicular accident scene management, search and rescue or routine patrol, users can simply press one button to receive a live-streamed bird’s eye view of an incident.”

Last year, Fotokite, a Zurich-based startup, partnered with firefighting-apparel firm Pierce Manufacturing to launch a UAV system that can be integrated with public-safety vehicles as well as other firefighting equipment. In 2016, Fotokite launched a tethered camera drone, the Fotokite Phi.