Measure Expands Drone Services for Broadcast News Teams
Measure, a leading provider of drone services to enterprise customers, today introduced the industry’s first training, equipment and support toolkit designed for broadcast news organisations that want to use their own camera crews for drone- based news gathering. The toolkit joins Measure’s turnkey broadcast news service, giving media and broadcast companies the option to outsource all drone operations to Measure’s expert pilots or instead leverage the toolkit to capture their own footage.
Both options relieve news crews and production managers of drone-related responsibilities ranging from hardware and software selection to airspace permitting, regulatory compliance, insurance coverage, equipment maintenance and repairs, and everyday troubleshooting. The value of the service is reflected in the adoption of Measure’s turnkey service by major cable and broadcast news organisations since its launch more than a year ago, providing broadcast-quality aerial footage of Hurricane Matthew, the 2016 presidential election and other major news events around the world.
The toolkit extends these benefits to media organisations that want to fly drones with their own staff. The package bundles:
- Broadcast-ready drone and camera hardware, including the DJI Inspire 2 and DJI X5S Micro 4/3 camera with interchangeable lenses. Equipment can be either leased or purchased directly from Measure.
- A LiveU Bonded Cellular Uplink enabling live footage to be transmitted directly to the customer’s production booth without dependence on a satellite or microwave truck.
- A pilot training program specifically designed for news gathering and taught by former U.S. military flight instructors, training news crews to minimise risk while flying in challenging environments.
- Pilot, flight operations and equipment tracking, enabling customers to monitor pilot behaviour for potentially dangerous flight operations that compromise safety while also capturing flight logs, project meta data and equipment usage that helps determine maintenance schedule.
- Maintenance and repair support from Measure drone engineers, including assistance in the event of a mishap.
- Preferred insurance with significantly discounted premiums as well as optional extra coverages for special events
- Regulatory support to ensure that news crews know when and where it is safe and legal to fly.
- Help desk assistance via phone or web portal, reducing media company workload by allowing questions about flight operations, regulatory compliance or mechanical issues to be addressed to Measure pilots, flight instructors, drone engineers and regulatory experts.
“Drones are now an essential newsgathering tool, but media companies face major challenges in bringing drone newscasting to their operations. You need to be an expert in everything from drone flying to state and federal regulations,” said Jon Ollwerther, Measure Vice President of Media, who has held executive positions in the drone services industry since its inception three years ago. “With our turnkey service, any news organisation can be up and flying today. Now with our toolkit, media organisations can leverage drone technology for reporting purposes while using their own news crew and safely be building an in-house capability.”
Measure’s unique broadcast news toolkit is part of a broader expansion that also includes the launch of new services for the solar energy industry, also announced today, and the opening of new offices in Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles.
More information on Measure’s services for the media sector is available at www.measure.com/newsdrone or at newsdrone@measure.com.
About Measure
Measure is the nation’s leading Drone as a Service® company, providing turnkey solutions to acquire, process, and deliver actionable aerial data and media to enterprise customers. The company has pioneered drone applications in telecom, construction, energy, disaster response, live media coverage and other sectors, utilizing best-in-class drone technology, highly trained pilots and experienced data engineers to execute safe, legal and insured missions that help customers achieve new cost and operational efficiencies. For more information, visit www.measure.com or follow the company at www.facebook.com/MeasureUAS/ and on Twitter at @droneasaservice.
