Commercial Drones FM

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The commercial drone industry is projected to be worth more than $20 billion in the next 10 years. Commercial Drones FM is the podcast for the drone industry. Your host, Ian Smith—a helicopter pilot and international drone operator—guides you in discovering the people who power the drone industry, t…

Ian Smith

  • Apr 6, 2020 LATEST EPISODE
  • infrequent NEW EPISODES
  • 32m AVG DURATION
  • 99 EPISODES


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Latest episodes from Commercial Drones FM

#099 - Skydio 2

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2020 51:22


Skydio CEO, Adam Bry, joins the podcast to discuss the company's newest product, Skydio 2—the world's smartest drone. Bry explains the big differences between R1 and Skydio 2, the underlying technology, and commercial applications from partners like Ware, who build on top of Skydio 2 to automate warehouse inventory tracking. In the second half of the episode, Host Ian Smith is joined by Guillaume Delépine, Skydio's Public Safety Lead, to discuss the company's focus on public safety and first response.

#098 - DroneInsurance.com with Dr. Ernest Earon

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2020 28:08


Dr. Ernest Earon is EVP of Artificial Intelligence at REIN, AKA DroneInsurance.com.

#097 - Impossible Aerospace

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2020 32:25


Impossible Aerospace is a US startup that manufactures an all-electric, high-endurance multirotor drone called US-1. The drone platform is marketed mainly towards first responders—law enforcement, firefighters, and more. US-1 boasts a flight time of 78 minutes on a total vehicle weight of 17 pounds. Keenan Johnson, one of Impossible Aerospace's co-founders, joined me on this podcast that was recorded at AUVSI's 2019 XPONENTIAL Conference in Chicago, IL.

#096 - PrecisionHawk with CEO, Michael Chasen

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 13, 2019 27:54


Ian Smith is joined by Michael Chasen, CEO of PrecisionHawk. The two discuss the latest from PrecisionHawk and the drone industry as a whole.

#095 - Heavy Lift Drones with Parallel Flight Technologies

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 24, 2019 36:07


Joshua Resnick is CEO of Parallel Flight Technologies. Parallel Flight Technologies make hybrid powertrain, heavy-lift drones for commercial applications. Joshua is an ex-Tesla engineer who worked on their semi-truck. He created an incredibly novel powertrain for drones that gives hours of endurance.

#094 - Multispectral Drone Cameras For Agriculture with MicaSense

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2019 28:23


Drew Baustian, Business Development Manager at MicaSense, joins Ian to explain the finer points of multispectral drone cameras and imagery for precision agriculture. The pair discuss data capture, the science behind the tech, and use cases where multispectral imagery has been a difference-maker for agriculture end users. MicaSense recently released their Altum multispectral sensor.

#093 - How LAFD Uses Drones

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2019 28:36


LAFD is one of the largest fire departments in the world. Derrick Ward, a firefighter with 30 years of experience, is spearheading the use of drones as Lead UAS Pilot at LAFD. As Derrick reveals, there are many ways to use drones in fighting fires and on search and rescue missions. But the way to truly supercharge them is by sticking thermal cameras on them. Enter FLIR: the world leader in thermal imaging technology. Ian Smith, along with Randall Warnas, Global sUAS Segment Leader at FLIR, travel to LAFD Station 80s at LAX to discover how Derrick Ward and his team are using drones and thermal cameras to help save lives.

#092 - Fly Your Drone Over People (Legally) with ParaZero

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2019 25:27


Hear from Avi Lozowick, VP Policy & Strategy at ParaZero, on how to conduct drone operations over people, legally, with ParaZero's drone parachute systems.

#091 - Airbus Urban Air Mobility

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 4, 2019 26:00


Travis Mason is VP and Head of Certification & Regulation, Urban Air Mobility at Airbus. Travis most recently was MC at AUVSI's XPONENTIAL Conference 2019—the largest global gathering of unmanned systems technology in the world. Travis previously was Chief of Staff at Google X and worked with the Wing team on delivery drones. He's passionate about policy—and that's key—as he is charged with helping Airbus' Urban Air Mobility (UAM) technology launch globally. You may know UAM from other popular terminologies, such as but not limited to: flying cars, eVTOL, air taxis, passenger drones, and many more. The UAM challenge touches nearly all facets of policy, technology, society, and even ethics issues (what happens if a passenger-carrying eVTOL aircraft has to choose between saving the souls onboard or bystanders that might be on the ground?) Travis and Ian discuss a variety of issues and challenges around drones, on-demand urban aerial transport, and even the omnipresent urban scooters.

#090 - AirMap with David Hose, CEO

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 9, 2019 32:23


AirMap is a California-based startup that has raised $43.6M to help companies coordinate and scale drone operations in ever-changing airspace conditions. David Hose is AirMap's current CEO. Ian and David discuss: AirMap's history and current offerings LAANC, BVLOS, Remote ID, UTM DJI replacing AirMap with PrecisionHawk's airspace product AirMap's stance on Federal vs. municipal/local regulation and much more

#089 - Indoor Drone Inspections with Patrick Thevoz

Play Episode Listen Later May 22, 2019 37:41


Indoor drone inspections have become an enormous ROI booster for energy companies who own and operate industrial assets. Patrick Thevoz is CEO of Flyability, a Swiss company who specializes in building indoor inspection drones. Their latest drone, Elios 2, is an impressive feat of engineering. Patrick joins Ian to discuss the value that indoor inspection drones are bringing to their large enterprise customers. He also explains the engineering designs and decisions that went into the making of Elios 2.

#088 - Commercial UAV Expo

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2019 24:24


You’re about to hear an in-the-field, or rather, “around-the-pool” compilation of quick-take interviews with people with different backgrounds from 15 drone companies at Commercial UAV Expo 2018. The UAV Expo it’s a great place to be in October and perfectly situated and spaced 6-months from AUVSI’s XPONENTIAL so if you wanted, you can hit those two shows every year and then call it a day. This audio is from the Poolside Happy Hour from Commercial UAV Expo 2018. A big thanks to everyone who chatted with me (sorry if I butchered the spelling of your name! Was hard to transcribe from the audio): Ed Hine - Hazon Solutions/PrecisionHawk Sylvester Greg Krutzinger - Scholar Farms Dani Feller - Scopito Mai Lynn Trong - Reigl David Young - Drone Launch Academy Hannah Marshburn - HyPack Don Burchoff - True Weather Solutions Lisa Ellman - Commercial Drone Alliance and Hogan Lovells Joshua Trujillo - Oakland Police Department Ungid Singh - Pix4D Jared - Texas Drone Company Joshua Resnick - Parallel Flight Technologies Oliver Jesus Garcia Romeo Durscher - DJI Jeremiah Karpowicz - Commercial UAV News

#087 - DroneDeploy's Drone Mapping Software with Jono Millin

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2019 44:39


Jono Millin is co-founder and Chief Customer Officer (CCO) at DroneDeploy, a software company that specializes in building solutions for mapping business assets with drones. Jono goes in-depth into how DroneDeploy is leveraging computer vision, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to augment their in-house photogrammetry pipeline, Map Engine. DroneDeploy is a series C stage, venture-funded startup founded in 2013. The company has pioneered many technologies for aerial mapping and drone operations including Live Map (and Thermal Live Map), a new Counting A.I. module, and the hosts the world's largest App Market platform for drone data.

#086 - Flying Cars & eVTOL Aircraft

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2019 23:05


Can you imagine yourself buzzing around the urban landscape in a flying car in 2025? Bell—and companies such as Uber and Airbus—really want you to be. Whether you call it a flying taxi, a flying car, eVTOL aircraft, passenger drone, or air taxi, it all means the same thing—the future of urban mobility is approaching and it will manifest in electric aviation. Bell, one of the world's largest helicopter manufacturers, showcased their Nexus prototype hexacopter eVTOL aircraft (flying car) at CES 2019. I was there with Scott Drennan, Vice President of Innovation at Bell to have a chat about Bell Nexus and our destiny of advancing urban air mobility.

#085 - Drone Insurance with Brandon Packman of SkyWatch.AI

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2019 27:45


All about on-demand, risk-based drone insurance, featuring Brandon Packman, Head of Business Development at SkyWatch.AI. SkyWatch.AI is an innovative startup offering customers a new twist on drone insurance.

#084 - Drones At Skyward, A Verizon Company with Mariah Scott

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2019 24:23


Why did Verizon, a $30+ billion telecommunications company, acquire Skyward, a 4-year-old drone startup out of Portland? Mariah Scott, President of Skyward, joins Ian to discuss exactly that—the decision behind the Verizon acquisition, her thoughts on the direction of the drone industry in 2019, and why the future of UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) is so critical. "UTM is a concept—it's a system of systems. It's like the internet, it's going to grow up over time. From Skyward's point of view, what we really want to see is global interoperability." - Mariah Scott, President, Skyward, A Verizon Company

#083 - CNN Air with Greg Agvent

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 18, 2018 32:43


Ian is joined by Greg Agvent, the Senior Director of CNN's Aerial Imagery and Reporting Unit—known as CNN Air. When evaluating drones for business, it's easy to think of all the things they can replace. For aerial journalism and newsgathering, helicopters are the first thing that come to mind. But if you think national media organizations are going to fire the helicopters in place of drones... think again. Drones aren't replacing traditional manned aircraft any time soon. The pair discuss how CNN is using drones in their Aerial Imagery and Reporting Unit; the types of hardware and software they use, when it's best to use a drone (or a helicopter), and getting the first waiver allowing the team to perform flights above people in the U.S.

#082 - Kespry Drones & Software with CEO George Mathew

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 15, 2018 31:18


Join Kespry's CEO, George Mathew, and host, Ian Smith, for a deep dive into Kespry's enterprise drone hardware and software offerings and outlook on where the industrial use of drones is heading. And would you like to know what the CEO of one of Airware's direct competitors thinks about them going out of business? Listen on and find out.

#081 - 2018 Drone Market Trends And Analysis with Colin Snow

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 25, 2018 40:53


Colin Snow, AKA "The Drone Analyst", joins the podcast for the 3rd year in a row to talk about his company, Skylogic Research's, annual report on the drone industry for 2018. Colin and Ian dive into five topics and key insights: • DJI's complete domination of 70%+ market share • Customers are buying more expensive drones • Drone service providers are reporting little revenue • High-accuracy mapping techniques are not being adopted quickly • Drone fleet sizes are small and number of flights are lower than anticipated

#080 - senseFly's Newest Drones - eBee X and ANAFI Work

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2018 34:53


In September 2018, Parrot Group's senseFly released some exciting new professional drones - the eBee X and the ANAFI Work - along with several new camera options. Jean-Thomas Célette, Chief Strategy & Product Officer at Parrot Group, joins Ian to provide an overview of the new drones and camera options from senseFly. New senseFly products include: eBee X drone ANAFI Work drone Aeria X camera Duet T camera S.O.D.A. 3D camera

#079 - Expedition: Too Hot For Snot

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2018 27:24


Experience the story behind the expedition to capture the world's first thermal, radiometric images of humpback whales' blowholes with drones. This is Expedition: Too Hot For Snot. Host Ian Smith takes you aboard the R/V Cachelot, a research vessel operated by Ocean Alliance. With drones and thermal cameras in tow, Ian—along with Dr. Iain Kerr, the Ocean Alliance crew, and Randall Warnas of FLIR—depart from Gloucester, Massachusetts in search of humpback whales.

#078 - Kittyhawk, Round 2: $5M Funding For Drone Operations

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 17, 2018 34:51


Josh Ziering (JZ) and Josh Pruitt of San Francisco software startup, Kittyhawk, join Ian for a roundtable discussion. The trio chat about recent drone industry news like Section 336, the company's recent $5 million funding, and what the future has in store for Kittyhawk and the drone industry as a whole.

#077 - A Drone Industry Perspective from Drone Radio Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 1, 2018 47:04


Ian Smith, host of Commercial Drones FM podcast, joins Randy Goers' Drone Radio Show as a guest to talk about what has happened in the commercial drone industry over the past 2-years from 2016 to 2018.

#076 - Drone Services with DroneBase CEO, Dan Burton

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 19, 2018 43:46


DroneBase is one of the world's largest, professional drone service provider networks. Think of it as "Uber for drone pilots". If you need a drone operator to come accomplish a mission for you, chances are, you can get one through DroneBase. Dan Burton is CEO of DroneBase and has been leading the charge at the Southern California-based company since its inception. The company has grown to become a premier name in the DSP (drone service provider) space and represents an approach that can truly scale as the industry grows. DroneBase is also taking experimental approaches to software with an AR (augmented reality) app.

#075 - Drone Industry Review: Q2 2018

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2018 22:04


The drone industry report for Q2 2018, brought to you by Commercial Drones FM. Get briefed on the most important and newsworthy happenings from the previous quarter in the drone industry—all in less than 20-minutes. Covered topics include drone hardware, drone software, regulations, drone delivery, funding, mergers and acquisitions, and more.

#074 - Drone Inspection Software with Ken Falk

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 21, 2018 24:12


Drone-based inspections are rocketing in popularity. Businesses are employing drones en masse to help analyze the health of their assets. As onboard sensors and hardware improve, the software that facilitates many of the actual visual inspection activities continues to advance. Ken Falk is CEO and founder of Scopito, a software company from Denmark specializing in helping their clients accomplish efficient drone-based inspections. Ken and Ian speak about why drone inspection software is critical, advancements in A.I. for automatically detecting anomalies in images, and much more.

#073 - All About Drones from The Drawing Board

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2018 28:40


Hear host Ian Smith answer questions about drones on a podcast instead of always being the one asking them. This week's episode of CDFM is a syndication of Udacity's, The Drawing Board podcast, titled, "All About Drones." Ian is joined by Adam Bry, CEO of Skydio where the two talk... all about drones.

#072 - Why Ford Is Building Drones with Adi Singh

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2018 40:49


Why is Ford, a legacy automobile company, building drones? Adi Singh, Principal Scientist for UAV Systems at Ford's Silicon Valley office, explains all the ways that Ford is researching and planning on using drones in their global business. And it's not just flying cars.

#071 - Security Drones with Jack Wu, CEO of Nightingale Security

Play Episode Listen Later May 10, 2018 29:49


Nightingale Security is a robotic aerial security company - not a traditional drone company. But they do make robotic aerial security platforms (drones) and fleet management software that their clients deploy to help protect their assets and integrate with their existing security teams. Jack Wu is the co-founder and CEO of Nightingale Security.

#070 - Fully Autonomous Drones with Adam Bry, CEO of Skydio

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 25, 2018 44:55


Skydio is a very special drone company with a thought-provoking inaugural product. R1, the company's first drone, costs $2,499, is fully autonomous, and it's marketed mainly to hobbyists. So why does a startup's initial product, targeted for consumers, have me so excited? Well, the answer is not what their technology is currently capable of, but what it represents for the future of commercial drones. When designing R1, Skydio took a unique philosophical approach to what's currently available on the market. R1 is different than other drones - it flies itself and doesn't even come with a controller. Adam Bry is CEO and co-founder of Skydio. He graduated from MIT, was one of the early team members of Google X's delivery drone initiative, Project Wing, and then started Skydio. I sat down with Adam to learn about what's possible right now with the powerful onboard processors and AI that guides Skydio drones, unscathed, through crowded, obstacle-laden environments. We discuss the design inspiration behind R1, a future Skydio platform and SDK, and how commercial drones will continue to evolve.

#069 - Drone Industry Review: Q1 2018

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 11, 2018 24:07


The drone industry report for Q1 2018, brought to you by Commercial Drones FM. Get briefed on the most important and newsworthy happenings from the previous quarter in the drone industry—all in less than 20-minutes. Covered topics include drone hardware, drone software, regulations, drone delivery, funding, mergers and acquisitions, and more. Get the full Q1 2018 drone industry review episode transcript below.

#068 - DJI's New Payload SDK with DJI, FLIR, and SLANTRANGE

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 28, 2018 53:17


Today, March 28th, 2018, DJI have announced the availability and launch of their Payload SDK. This is important news for the drone industry since it now means that different sensors, regardless of manufacturer, can now integrate directly into DJI drone platforms, as if they were native. Previously, sensor manufacturers had to essentially bolt their products directly onto the drone, meaning that the sensor itself wasn’t even able to access critical metadata from the flight, like altitude, heading, or GPS location, and couldn’t even be controlled by the drone’s software. OEMs are still literally embedding an entire secondary autopilot into sensors because of this. Now, sensor OEMs can ditch the extra weight of the added, redundant components, and just plug into the DJI drone and piggyback directly off of the drone’s existing flight controller and IMU. Operators can now even control the 3rd party sensor directly from DJI’s own app. Of course, this is all tailored to and made possible by DJI’s large, projected 70%+ holding of market share. But that’s not a novel situation these days and by and large, DJI continues to make the most user-friendly, easiest-to-adopt drones on the market. ------ On this exclusive interview, you’ll hear directly from DJI and two of their sensor partners, FLIR and SLANTRANGE, who both have adopted DJI’s Payload SDK and integrated their products with it.

#067 - The "Just Drone" Problem with Michael Cohen

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 14, 2018 27:57


Michael Cohen is CEO of Industrial Skyworks, a Toronto-based drone inspection software and services company. Michael teaches Ian about the "just drone" problem, where if you provide industrial inspection services (or nearly any remote sensing services) with *just* a drone and don't pay attention to how to actually deliver, present, and derive value from the data, the entire mission and final deliverables can essentially be rendered useless to the customer. Michael and Ian also discuss valuable lessons learned in scaling drone services and growing a drone business that caters to demanding industrial customers.

#066 - Drones In A Box with Percepto's Dor Abuhasira

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 1, 2018 33:14


What is a drone in a box and why is it important? A drone-in-a-box is essentially a drone that lives inside of a box (stay with me here) and the box is deployed in a specific area, out in the wild, for an extended period of time. The box may have a power source hooked up to it or use solar panels to store power for recharging the drone. The drone, which, of course, lives in the box, will make scheduled flights and fly out of the box automatically to fly a mission and then return to charge its batteries when the mission is complete. Rinse and repeat as desired. This is "getting the human out of the loop." Percepto is an Israeli company who manufacture a full drone-in-a-box system. Dor Abuhasira is the CEO of Percepto, an Israeli company. Dor joins Ian to discuss the technology behind automating these types of drones and what the future holds for drones in a box.

#065 - Drone Solution Selling with Topcon's Dave Henderson

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2018 20:23


Commercial Drones FM podcast brings you Dave Henderson, Director of Sales, Geospatial Solutions, for Topcon Positioning systems. This episode covers drone solution selling and an overview of Topcon's drone hardware and software products. Dave Henderson’s career in the positioning business spans three decades. Prior to joining Topcon Positioning Systems, Dave held several industry positions as a District & Regional Sales Manager of Surveying, GPS & GIS mapping products. Henderson’s primary focus at Topcon is sales and business development of unmanned aerial systems and LiDAR mobile mapping for the Americas. Throughout his career, Henderson’s focus has been to specialize in assisting businesses, organizations and individuals to implement technology into existing workflows, thereby increasing their productivity and becoming more competitive in the current marketplace. Henderson has become both a knowledgeable resource and a trusted advisor to businesses and organizations throughout the initial discussions, implementation and ROI of adopting positioning technology such as vehicle mobile mapping and unmanned aerial systems.

#064 - AUVSI's Role In The Drone Industry with Brian Wynne

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2018 28:56


Brian Wynne is President and CEO of AUVSI (Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International), an international nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and supporting the unmanned systems and robotics industry through communication, education, and leadership. Believe it or not, AUVSI was founded in 1972 when the use of target drones as reconnaissance assets during the Vietnam War prompted a group of U.S. Air Force officers and contractors in Dayton, Ohio to form the National Association of Remotely Piloted Vehicles (NARPV), which would later become known as AUVSI. Throughout these 46-years of existence, unmanned systems have changed a lot. Brian and Ian discuss a plethora of topics from drone data security, the dichotomy between commercial and military drones, how blockchain technology can be used to help with drone integration and safety, and what AUVSI's role is as we move towards the future of the commercial drone industry.

#063 - Drone Industry Review: Q4 2017

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2018 15:35


The drone industry report for Q4 2017, brought to you by Commercial Drones FM. Get briefed on the most important and newsworthy happenings from the previous quarter in the drone industry. Covered topics include drone hardware, drone software, regulations, drone delivery, funding, & more.

#062 - FAA UAS Integration with Major General Hoot Gibson

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2018 30:59


Major General Marke "Hoot" Gibson was Senior Advisor, UAS Integration at the FAA during a critical, two-year period of explosive growth for the drone industry. Very recently, Hoot has moved on from his FAA role and settled into being the first CEO of the NUAIR Alliance, a UAS test site in Syracuse, New York. During his time at the FAA, Hoot drew from his vast wealth of experience as a decorated A-10 Warthog pilot in the U.S. Air Force to advise the Administration on integration efforts of drones into the National Airspace System (NAS). Hoot and Ian discuss the FAA's recent Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) program and how it positively affects not only commercial drone operators, but the way that the FAA fundamentally does business. The two additionally explore plenty of other initialisms; Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), UAS Integration Pilot Program (UASIPP), Counter UAS (cUAS), Remote Identification, and more.

#061 - An Exclusive Conversation With DJI On Drone Data Security

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2017 43:43


DJI is, by far, the world's largest drone company. Recently, there have been a slew of controversial reports and conversations about the Chinese drone giant in the media, across social channels, and in boardrooms. From allegedly sharing data from U.S.-based drones with the Chinese government, to potential legal action against a security researcher who was part of their bug bounty program. Choosing Commercial Drones FM as the channel in which to further discuss these topics, Michael Perry, Managing Director of North America for DJI, sits down with Ian to provide unscripted background and insight into all of the latest news surrounding DJI.

#060 - 2017 Drone Market Trends And Analysis with Colin Snow

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2017 37:52


2017 was a banner year for the drone industry. While the drone market as a whole grew, plenty of assumptions were proven false. Colin Snow, The Drone Analyst, is CEO of Skylogic Research, who recently released an 88-page report titled, "2017 Drone Market Sector Report". Colin's report shows proves things that we already knew, like DJI having 72% global market share on drone sales, but also shows surprising developments, like the vast majority of all people (68%) who purchase drones above 250 grams intend to use those drones for some kind of professional (commercial) use. Ian and Colin discuss these facts and much more from the latest Skylogic Research report.

#059 - Drone Inspections for Enterprise with James Harrison

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2017 37:57


Sky-Futures, founded in 2009, is one of the oldest drone service businesses that exist. The company specializes in providing drone-based inspection services to global industrial enterprises. James Harrison is Sky-Futures' CEO and has been with the company since the beginning. James and Ian speak about the demanding requirements of enterprise clients who request drone services, U.K. drone regulations, the drone hardware the company has used historically, and much more.

#058 - Intel's Drone Ecosystem with Anil Nanduri

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 8, 2017 39:03


Intel is a global, multi-billion dollar public company and they have their hands in all areas of technology. As a legacy Silicon Valley juggernaut, they've found that innovation is key to survival. Anil Nanduri, GM of the Drone Group at Intel, joins Ian to explain Intel's strategy around drones. From acquiring a multirotor manufacturer (Ascending-Technologies), a fixed-wing manufacturer (Mavinci), a computer vision chip manufacturer (Movidius), making their own entertainment drones, and even creating impressive technology like RealSense, Intel knows more than anyone how important it is to diversify and create a thriving drone ecosystem.

#057 - Airbus Aerial with Jesse Kallman

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2017 33:33


Airbus is a global aerospace company who have a wide variety of divisions and assets. Besides their airliners, Airbus also has access to a huge cache of up-to-date, high-resolution satellite imagery—so it was only natural that they create one of their newest companies, Airbus Aerial. Airbus Aerial is a startup that, according to their website, leverages the most advanced aerospace technologies to collect and deliver only the data and services that matter most to your organization. Our guest, Jesse Kallman, is the President of Airbus Aerial, leading the team to enable a future of digital services via satellites, high altitude, and small low altitude UAVs.

#056 - Drone Industry Review: Q3 2017

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2017 22:14


Drone Industry Review is a special, quarterly podcast series brought to you by Commercial Drones FM. It briefs listeners on the most important and newsworthy happenings from the previous quarter in the drone industry. Covered topics include drone hardware, software, regulations, funding, M&A, delivery drones, and how drones affected various industries in that quarter. This is the third episode in this series where we conduct the Drone Industry Review of Q3 2017.

#055 - Tethered Drones with AeroMana

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 28, 2017 30:49


AeroMana is a startup that provides tethered drone solutions. A drone that is tethered means that it is attached by wire to the ground, presumably to an external power source, giving the drone potentially "unlimited" endurance. AeroMana's CEO, Jon Miller and CSO, Manuel Lombardini, join Ian to discuss how tethered drones provide unique flexibility for specific types of operations by enabling them to fly for hours, not minutes. Making all of that data useful is the next big challenge so AeroMana also provide proprietary analytics software for applications from sports to firefighting to surveillance. The trio also explore the regulations around tethered drones and give their opinion on whether they should (or shouldn't) be treated the same way as non-tethered, "traditional" drones.

#054 - Aerial Drone Cinematography with Brian Streem

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 14, 2017 35:54


This episode of Commercial Drones FM focuses on aerial cinematography and the business behind it. Brian Streem is CEO of Aerobo, a nationwide drone service provider who claim to have shot more live telecasts than any other drone company in the world. Aerobo operates drones internationally for their clients, working on the News, TV, Sports, Advertising, and Cinema segments of multimedia. They also provide inspection services. Brian explains the ins and outs of high-end, Hollywood blockbuster drone cinematography, detailing what it's like to be working on movie sets for the likes of Steven Spielberg—and how much pressure there is to "get the shot". And pressure should definitely be expected when Aerobo can charge their clients anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000 per day. Be sure to check out the podcast website to view two of Brian's coolest drone films, “At The End Of The Cul-de-Sac” and "CHROMATICITY".

#053 - Drones In Construction with Todd Wynne

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 30, 2017 28:53


Drones are incredibly useful in the construction industry. Giving construction companies the power to get high-resolution, aerial views of their job sites every single day and the ability to increase safety has undeniable ROI. Todd Wynne, a construction veteran, nerd, and co-founder of Project Atlas joins Ian to deconstruct how drones are revolutionizing the way construction projects are now being completed. Todd explains how even though technology has advanced rapidly in the past 20-years, so much of the way construction is conducted today is still stuck in the past. Project Atlas, the company, bills itself as a mapping engine for projects—essentially, Google Maps for the construction industry. Project Atlas is officially launching their service on October 9th, 2017. To donate to the GoFundMe for the team using drones to map Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, go to http://bit.ly/hurricane-drones

#052 - Cisco's Drone Program with Biren Gandhi

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 16, 2017 28:24


This is how a business with nearly $50 billion in revenue views drone technology. Cisco is a publicly-traded network equipment company, but its reach extends much farther beyond just servers and wireless access points. Biren Gandhi is a Distinguished Strategist in Cisco’s Corporate Strategy Office, focused on identifying key technology trends and accelerating their adoption through acquisitions, development, or partnering. And he's got his eye on drones.Biren and Ian discuss the future of connected drones and how these flying robots could essentially be boiled down to IoT devices which will soon be networked within a Biren and Ian discuss the future of connected drones and how these flying robots could, in the future, essentially be boiled down to IoT devices that are networked within a blockchain, becoming just some of the active cogs inside of a distributed fog computing machine. Yeah, pretty amazing. Biren Gandhi will be presenting at Drone World Expo on October 3-4, 2017 in San Jose, CA.

#051 - How To Get One Million Dollars For Your Drone Startup Idea

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 3, 2017 25:57


A skydiver, a Ph.D., and an incubator director walk into a drone podcast... This is the story of Genius NY, an unmanned systems startup incubator based in Syracuse, New York, and two startups that they've funded. Genius NY director, Jon Parry, brings Jimmy Halliday, Aviation Director at AutoModality, and Sasi Viswanathan, co-founder of Akrobotix—both Genius NY portfolio companies—to the Commercial Drones FM podcast. The group discuss how companies are winning millions of dollars by participating in the Genius NY startup competitions, what they're doing with their cash winnings, and how New York state is contributing to the proliferation of the commercial drone industry.

#050 - Oil And Gas Inspection Drones with Cyberhawk's Chris Fleming

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2017 38:40


Cyberhawk, a Scotland-based drone inspection company, has logged over 18,000 flights and accomplished 25 world firsts with drones since their founding in 2008. The nine-year-old company has done the first drone oil rig inspection, wind turbine inspection, transmission tower inspection, and even the first internal chimney inspection. Cyberhawk CEO, Chris Fleming, joins Ian for an uncut interview where the two dive deep into how Cyberhawk accomplishes industrial drone inspections for massive, global companies. Chris explains how using drones for flare stack inspections can save oil and gas companies $1.5 million per day in recovered production costs, showcasing how much is really at stake when providing services to their multi-billion dollar clients. This is just one of the reasons that helps understand why, "if your hands aren't shaking, you aren't flying for Cyberhawk."

#049 - Drone Industry Review: Q2 2017

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2017 21:08


Drone Industry Review is a special, quarterly podcast series brought to you by Commercial Drones FM. It briefs listeners on the most important and newsworthy happenings from the previous quarter in the drone industry. Covered topics include drone hardware, software, regulations, funding, M&A, delivery drones, and how drones affected various industries in that quarter. This is the second episode in this series where we conduct the Drone Industry Review of Q2 2017.

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