Local Company Puts Drone In Pittsburgh’s Sky
Kym Gable
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Flying robots circling the skies above Pittsburgh?
It may sound futuristic, but the widespread use of unmanned aerial vehicles, known as drones, may only be a few years away.
Commercial drone use is still illegal, though the FAA continues to draft regulations.
That agency has set a new implementation date of 2015. Micah Rosa and Brent Vaccaro of Shoutside Media showed KDKA’s Kym Gable how their drone works. It’s a model called the DJI Phantom 2.
“They’re going to have to do something,” said Rosa, the company’s CEO. “But in the meantime, we have to do something.”
While they wait on final government regulations, the team has already launched start-up ventures and projects in the private sector.
“This is a whole industry that’s being created over a short period of time,” said Vaccaro. “It’s not all about missile strikes. It’s not all about privacy issues. We’re not trying to spy on anybody. We’re trying to do stuff for our clients, bring them into a new digital world.”
Once it syncs up with GPS satellites, the drone can soar to a regulated height of 400 feet.
Shoutside says, eventually, systems like this will be widely used in the entertainment and sports industries, for disaster relief, search and rescue, farming and in Television News. They purchased their drone for about $1,000.
“That’s why it’s unstoppable. For the price point, you’re not going to keep it at bay and we don’t want to be kept at bay,” Said Rosa
http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2014/02/11/local-company-puts-drone-in-pittsburghs-sky/
