What if you could have a camera filming in the ground and moments later have that same camera take to the sky and provide aerial imagery?
A couple of years ago, in order to be able to acquire great footage from different angles would require a ground crew and an aerial crew to take aerial footage. In some instances you need a still camera, a rolling camera attached to a vehicle or rail cart, attached on a crane and have a flight crew of a helicopter and/or airplane, which its costs can be extremely high.
What was unthinkable in the past decades is now at hand. However, that is not entirely so in the United States and that is because of the legislative hold the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other government agencies have on the integration of Remote Piloted Aircrafts (RPA) into the National Airspace (NAS). Unlike the United States, European countries have more flexible regulations to the use of RPA’s and one of the companies that started using 4K technology on RPA’s is Spider UAS Operations Ltd, which is homed in England. The flexibility and quality of image of their platforms and the footage they are able to acquire is almost priceless and the company is going to be an example for future companies.
In the meantime, some agencies in the United States are providing limited authorization to allow certain individuals to conduct flights. Many companies and organizations are looking towards the use of RPA’s and some of them are beginning to create awards for their imagery and footage such as the New York City Drone Film Festival (NYCDFF). The awardees and participants are RPA enthusiasts and professionals who are taking imagery and footage to a different level. The NYCDFF is one of the new organizations that are motivating RPA pilots, companies and individuals to get involved into the RPA industry.
