Mobilicom Ltd.’s SkyHopper entity has completed its first year of activity since it was launched on August 2017. SkyHopper is a holistic solution for commercial and industrial drones and robotics.

By offering end-to-end hardware and software solutions, integration services and hands-on support, SkyHopper by Mobilicom enables drone manufacturers to focus on their core business and enjoy peace of mind when it comes to the development of their drones. In its first year of activity, the SkyHopper solution was sold to, and successfully operated by, customers in 14 countries, and integrated with 45 drone manufacturers.

The SkyHopper family of products consists of four types of solutions: communication data links (SkyHopper PRO, SkyHopper ONE), video processing and analytics (SkyHopper PRO V), content consumption systems (SkyHopper VU), and controlling systems (SkyHopper ControlAir). By employing wireless technologies, SkyHopper delivers long-range communication that supports multiple transmission modes and enables real-time full HD Video Streaming.

With its proprietary encryption mechanism, lightweight and built-in flexibility to optimize to customer needs, SkyHopper is ideal for mining and process industry, security and surveillance, infrastructure inspection, and delivery applications.

"I am proud to say that SkyHopper has exceeded its aggressive first-year goals plan, and evolved from concept to business success in only one year,” said Oren Elkayam, Mobilicom’s CEO. “As part of its holistic solution, SkyHopper addresses more than 50% of the drone's overall hardware value in targeted markets, allowing drone and UAV manufacturers focus on their core business, while knowing that all the development processes are taken care of. With 3 global certifications and a variety of customers worldwide, I am confident that SkyHopper will continue to bring value to our current customers as well as to new customers in the coming years".

Drones may fly high but Kevin Kelly, president/COO, Stampede, has a firm grip on their presence in the AV industry.

“History has shown time and again that the adoption of new technologies is driven by enthusiasts, passionate early adopters who see the potential before anyone else does,” Kelly noted. “This is true in both the consumer and commercial marketplaces.”

New facets of commercial AV can begin as an idea in search of commercial validation, driven by a core group of companies evangelizing the benefits of new technology. “It's the visionaries who open the eyes of the mainstream systems integrators. This has always been the case,” said Kelly.

That gradual adoption through specialists, followed by core adoption by traditional systems integrators is evident with drones. “The adoption rate for any new technology is always due, in part, to the appetite a traditional business has for taking on any new category,” he added. “Drone technology is evangelized by those with a personal interest in it and is driven by folks who get excited by it.”

Although systems integrators are not getting a lot of requests for drones at the moment, as education and government accounts start including them in their quote requests, integrators will incorporate them as well, according to Tim McPherson, sales manager, VSA.

“Integrators and installers will have to pursue the drone market and include drones in their repertoires to remain competitive,” he explained. “Right now, many systems integrators prefer to go with what they know. Sometimes it takes a customer to request a product for it to really take off. So, I don’t think it will be long before integrators start to include drones in their product lines. Especially as Amazon, UPS, and Fedex look to drone delivery for their customers.”

McPherson’s initial drone experience was for a sale to a government contractor. “They used a drone to record a spot for a new Humvee; it was a phenomenal video. Since then, I’ve seen a lot of cool videos taken by drones. Most of the major universities—including Penn State and the University of Nebraska’s HuskerVision—are using them.”

In addition to the education market, McPherson currently works with drone customers ranging from mom and pop videographers to the New York Mets, and houses of worship to communications firms and many amateur video artists. Most clients are interested in how drones can help them stand out from the competition.

Recently, VSA had a top-of-the-line drone project for a parks department that wanted to gain insight as to the health of its various parks without having its employees walk around the parks for hours, or even days. Using drones, the staff was able to see what upgrades and additions were needed in a matter of minutes or hours, and the collected data was readily available.

“From the AV integrator’s point of view, drone technology is something they are probably preparing for,” McPherson said. “Most Fortune 500 companies will partner with integrators when these types of projects come up for maintenance and other needs. Those who integrate and install production equipment, though, already know how drones can benefit the end user.”

So, what's next from manufacturers in drone technology? Intel, for one, is taking drone technology to the next level and generation of products and solutions.

“We see drones as a valuable tool to capture data safely, accurately, and efficiently,” said Cindy Ng, head of marketing, Intel Drone Group. “Our focus for the next generation of drone technologies is increased automation of both the data capture, and, more importantly, the data management and analysis. Managing and inferring insights from these large data sets is driving the digital transformation and will aid in the business decisions of enterprises across industries such as oil and gas, utilities, construction, and agriculture. We can expect to see emerging applications for this technology that help businesses automate everyday tasks and identify, analyze and predict issues in a way that could not be done before.”

Let’s Get Physical

If all new technologies engender a sense of anticipation and excitement, drones do so times ten. “Whenever you can interact with a product because of physical movement, it likens that product to playing video games with a lot of personal movement and direction,” Kelly said. “There’s a visceral feeling of linkage between the hand and eye control and movement. This visceral linkage, coupled with the growing awareness of economic and life-saving benefits drones deliver, will ultimately prevail in moving drones from the enthusiast era into the mainstream business of systems integrators.”

There are, of course, obstacles integrators face when adopting drone technology, he cautioned. “The challenges are some of the same ones that have challenged the development and advancement of every major technological innovation since the dawn of time; they include human resistance, human inertia, legitimate regulatory and safety concerns, licensing, and, yes, security concerns. Slowly, but inevitably, these challenges are being addressed in ways that are ensuring public safety and safety of operation. As they are being addressed, the concrete human and business benefits of drones are being discovered, tested, and proven in real world applications every day. It's this reality that is making drones an inevitable business component for systems integrators and this is becoming more apparent each day.”

The learning curve represents another obstacle for some integrators, McPherson said. “I haven’t seen a lot of marketing to integrators from manufacturers. If you’re like me, you have to have your hands on the product to get real world experience and learn how it applies to the industry and to your customers. As distributors or wholesalers we have to learn as we go. With so many manufacturers and with technology changing every day, I have to know a little about a lot of products.”

Typically, McPherson is on the phone with sixty or more clients per day, many of whom are communications professionals or videographers. “I bring up the advantages and disadvantages of drones in about 25 percent of these conversations.

Public opinion has been another factor challenging the industry, Kelly pointed out. “For the first year in which drones were a consumer product, it was all about privacy. Today, people talk about the economics of drones; they make money and save money. I know of an integrator who put together a drone system for Miami Beach lifeguards. The drones are equipped to fly a life preserver to someone in trouble and can reach the swimmer faster than a lifeguard can get to them.”

Real or Virtually Real?

As the use of various mixed reality technologies grows within the pro AV community, drones will take part in more and more solutions. “If you can program a drone to do something then that drone can be part of an even larger solution that includes VR (virtual reality), AI (artificial intelligence), and smart tech in general,” Kelly said. “In fact, this is a great example of how one radical new idea—drones—suddenly becomes a more mainstream component of even newer, more radical ideas, VR and AI enabled systems.”

And it’s the human imagination that creates the big new breakthroughs, then limits them through fear and inertia, finally liberating them through the creation of the next big idea, he noted. “This is the history of technology. It always has been and, I suppose, it always will be.”

As an AV techie, McPherson is excited to see what experiences VR will provide by drone footage. “We’ll see an increase in drones for AV as costs go down and more people obtain licenses to operate them. The increase will be in the corporate market and in real estate as realtors use them more and more to showcase video projects from various, difficult to photograph, angles.”

In an effort to give back to his alma mater, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Nic Dugger, president of Nashville-based TNDV: Television, has donated equipment to MTSU’s Department of Media Arts, one of several Bachelor's of Science programs offered by the MTSU College of Media and Entertainment.

The equipment package included: two DJI Inspire Series quadcopter drone systems—capable of transmitting live, 4K/HD video feeds from close to 1,000 feet in the air—and an Oculus Rift virtual reality system.

As one of the most extensive creative media production programs in the region, MTSU invested $1.7 million in 2016/2017 to build a new 40-foot Mobile Production Lab that students regularly use to learn about producing live TV shows, such as MTSU athletics, music concerts, and other special events.

Dugger donated the drones specifically to expand the mobile unit’s live production capabilities, including the capture and transmission of exciting live aerials and beauty shots, which can be combined with conventional tripod- and shoulder-mounted camera shots, and other live sources.

“As the owner of a mobile production company, we are frequently working with drone video feeds,” Dugger said. “I recognized that having this equipment on MTSU’s truck would give the students an opportunity to acquire the knowledge and hands-on experience they need to be more attractive candidates for entry-level broadcast production positions.”

While a student at MTSU, Dugger worked on the school’s previous HD truck, and has since built a successful career running a mobile production truck business of his own. TNDV has amassed a fleet of eight HD and 4K trucks, including MTSU’s original mobile unit now dubbed “TNDV: Inspiration”, and their latest 4K-capable 53-foot flagship unit, “TNDV: Exclamation”.

“I observed that MTSU did not have drone capability on their HD truck. So, to really give back to the program that benefited me, I wanted to give them not one, but two drone systems to future-proof their curriculum,” Dugger said. “And since the department is also developing a new virtual reality program, I included the Oculus Rift VR gear as a little icing on the cake.”

The DJI Inspire drone system integrates a live HD camera, multiple remote controllers, battery charging devices and video transmission. With a flight time of about 25 minutes, the quadcopter drone flies at speeds of about 90 to 100 kilometers per hour, while relaying 4K/HD 30fps (H.265) encoded video in real-time. The Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Platform includes all the hardware and software necessary to create an immersive VR experience.

Dugger presented the equipment to MTSU Chief Engineer Marc Parrish and MTSU Assistant Chief Engineer Mike Forbes at the end of the spring semester, in mid-May 2018, to give the faculty members ample time to become familiar with their operation before the students returned for their fall semester.

Stampede announced that company President & COO Kevin Kelly will be a featured speaker at Integrate 2018, taking place in Sydney, Australia from Aug. 22-24, 2018 at the ICC Sydney Convention Center.

Kelly will speak on the “AV Applications of Drones and How AV Integrators Can Benefit from Adding Them to Their Portfolio” on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2018 in Room 5.4. The hour-long presentation will run from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“First responders, broadcast news journalists, security guards, real estate sales agents, land surveyors, filmmakers, and more — unmanned aerial vehicles can and being used in all of these fields,” Kelly said. “They are improving the accuracy of information collection, accelerating the speed with which information is collected, eliminating risk to human life, dramatically reducing traditional operating costs — and creating an entirely new field for professional UAV operators. My presentation will cover the range of opportunities this new product category presents to AV integrators and their customers.”

Globally, the UAV market is projected to grow from (USD) $13.8-billion in 2016 to (USD) $48.9-billion by 2023. Integrators are strategically positioned to profit from this opportunity, but to do so they need to be able to develop a strategy and create a plan that meets the specific needs of individual vertical markets, according to Kelly.

The future of unmanned aerial vehicles and innovative display visualization will be at the top of the agenda when Stampede takes its 2018 Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series to Minneapolis, MN on Thursday, April 26. The day-long event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

“Minneapolis’ rich roots in healthcare startups are leading the Midwest in terms of venture capital funding for other developing technology startups and industries in the area,” Stampede president and COO Kevin Kelly said. “Minneapolis offers an existing technology community willing to nurture talent growth in the area and is strategically placed to take advantage of the talent pool from across the upper Midwestern states. This, along with the cities growing economy, presents Stampede with the ideal platform to host our Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series.”

The day will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a dealer panel discussion, followed by the Tech Showcase Exhibit where attendees and manufacturers will meet one-on-one to discuss the latest products, systems, and services. A complimentary breakfast will also be served during the showcase.

The Samsung Experience Demo Room will feature guided tours beginning at 10:00 a.m.; the tours will run every 30 minutes for the duration of the event.

The day will also feature an information-packed overview of the drone/UAS Industry, led by dean of the School of Flight Training at Unmanned Vehicle University, Paul Dragos.

“Unmanned aerial vehicles and direct view LED displays are two of the hottest and fastest growing product categories in the industry today,” Kelly emphasized, “and the Minneapolis stop is going to focus on the many business opportunities both categories offer.”

Every attendee of the 2018 Big Book of AV Tour & Conference Series will receive a $500 Stampede credit, a $50 American Express gift card, and will be entered into a drawing for the chance to win a DJI Drone.