New Solo Features: Multipoint Cable Cam and Follow w/ Free Look

Colin Guinn 3DR

We designed Solo so the drone you buy today will just get better. This latest software release is a big one, and it does what we want all of our releases to do: It makes every Solo out there a better Solo.

The new Smart Shot functionality in this release — Multipoint cable cam and Follow with Free Look — extends the platform’s four existing Smart Shots. The release will be available this spring to all Solo users in a free wireless update.

Multipoint Cable Cam

Multipoint cable cam extends cable cam’s original automated beginning-to-end design. Now you can design cables that run between an unlimited number of keyframes. This allows you to set shots looking in any direction from multiple points in space. Solo automatically adds spline curves to each keyframe for a smooth approach and exit, so your camera movement will feel professional and polished.

Solo also saves every cable cam that you create right to your app. Browse by date, location or names you give them. And cable cam’s new Timed Travel feature offers even more control. Adjust the time of your cable flight in the app to put the camera exactly where you want it, exactly when you want it there.

Free Look turns Follow into an interactive experience. When you enter Free Look you uncouple the camera from your Follow subject, but the copter keeps following. Take control of the camera whenever you want, panning and tilting to look around freely while remaining completely confident in the copter’s position and directional heading.

Follow with free look

3DR developed the first “follow me” drone. The new Free Look feature turns Follow into an interactive filming experience. In Follow, Solo follows a subject and keeps the camera trained on it wherever it goes. When you enter Free Look the copter keeps following the subject, but you have full control of the camera. Pan and tilt the camera to look around freely while remaining completely confident in the copter’s position and directional heading. It’s like the Hollywood motion control of a camera boom on the back of a truck:

Virtually leash Solo to one subject, then swivel and tilt the camera manually to track even the most spontaneous movements of another subject.

New software will also include air safety zone information integrated with the Solo app. 3DR was the first drone company to announce a collaboration with an airspace information company — AirMap.io — which will enable the Solo app to pull flight zone information in real time. This helps users make safe and informed decisions about where they fly.

We’re also launching another educational software tool, the Solo flight simulator app. The app connects to your controller so that the “sim Solo” you see on your screen responds to your control stick movements just like the copter would in flight. Get a good feel for both flight and camera control without putting your Solo in the air. Plus, you don’t need to connect to Solo to use the simulator; all you need is the app and the controller. Practice flying anywhere.

Made for Solo accessories 

The Solo platform will also expand on the hardware side to include an official line of new accessories developed through 3DR’s Made for Solo partnership program. The open gimbal and accessory bays, together with the processing power of Solo, enable any company or individual to develop new hardware for the platform, efforts that 3DR encourages and supports with Made for Solo. New Solo hardware accessories in development include a Kodak 360-degree virtual reality camera; aerial lighting from Fiilex with lights that users can tailor in the Solo app; new Ribcage modified GoPro cameras and camera kits from Backbone with custom weight kits to work with the Solo Gimbal, and more.