WASHINGTON—Following a visit to a test site in Texas to review cutting edge demos of drone and counter-drone technologies, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan is highlighting the agency's efforts to implement President Trump’s proposals to achieve “American drone dominance” and has announced that the FCC is working closely with U.S. drone and UAV companies to carry out the administration’s policies.

As the next major step in the Commission’s work, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) and the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) issued a public notice, seeking input on an array of reforms the Commission might take to achieve U.S. supremacy in drone technology, manufacturing, and operations.

“President Trump has been clear that the Administration will act to secure our airspace and unleash American drone dominance,” Carr said. “As the President’s national strategy outlines, the production, deployment, and export of American drones are core elements of U.S. national security, technological sovereignty, and global competitiveness.”

“At the FCC, we are doing our part to promote U.S. drone leadership by cutting red tape, modernizing obsolete regulations, and securing a domestic drone supply chain,” he added. “Today’s public notice is the next major step in that effort. We are seeking comment on a range of important actions, including modernizing experimental licensing, creating new drone innovation zones, and ensuring more spectrum for drone operators. I look forward to continue working alongside the all the relevant federal departments and agencies, in implementing President Trump’s strategy to secure American drone dominance.”

The Public Notice called “Unleashing American Drone Dominance” seeks input on “an array of reforms the Commission might take to unleash American drone dominance,” the agency reported.

As previously reported, it comes at a time when the U.S. has banned the sale new models of many popular drones made in China and other countries outside the U.S.

Late last year, following an Executive Branch national security determination, the FCC added foreign-produced unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and UAS critical components to its Covered List of items that can’t be sold in America.

Subsequently, following another national security determination the FCC removed some of these devices from the Covered List. Even so, most foreign-produced UAS and UAS critical components are still prohibited from receiving authorization for the U.S. market and the FCC is expanding its efforts to support the deployment of drone technology in the U.S.

The FCC said it has been working to speed up the application process for UAS and Counter-UAS experimental licenses. Since January 2025, the Commission has granted 227 UAS experimental approvals, and, for the first time ever, 8 Counter-UAS experimental approvals.

These include experimental licenses for use by the Department of War as part of the implementation of President Trump’s Unleashing American Drone Dominance executive order. Compared to the previous four years, from 2021-2024, approvals granted by the FCC for UAS conventional experimental licenses have increased by 68%.

In the new public notice issued April 1, the FCC’s WTB and OET is seeking input on a variety of issues. The agency described those issues as follows:

• Alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens that frustrate drone deployment, including Commission rules or policies—such as siting or device certification—that may create friction for the growth of a competitive, secure, and innovative domestic drone ecosystem.
• Ensuring that American drone manufacturers and users have access to sufficient spectrum for drone testing and operations, including services to the public.
• Facilitating and encouraging American firms’ investment in drone capabilities, developing infrastructure, and offering innovative and advanced capabilities.
• Ensuring that U.S.-based manufacturers and trusted suppliers have the regulatory clarity and technical access needed to scale production and secure investment.
• Coordinating more effectively with other federal agencies to align spectrum policies with national security imperatives and reduce the risk posed by untrusted foreign-origin UAS operating in U.S. airspace.
• Streamlining the FCC’s experimental licensing rules to facilitate more agile testing of UAS communications systems—including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) links, command and control (C2) systems, detect-and-avoid (DAA) technologies, and secure navigation tools—across a broader range of spectrum bands.
• Establishing additional dedicated drone innovation zones or testbeds, in partnership with federal, state, academic, or private entities, and whether streamlining authorizations to help spur early-stage experimentation and commercialization.

The Public Notice and other information on the topic can be found here.

(Editor’s note: UFL action begins tonight on Fox with the Birmingham Stallions taking on the Louisville Kings at 8 p.m. EDT. First week matchups continue Saturday, March 28, with the DC Defenders taking at the St. Louis Battlehawks at noon EDT on ESPN; the Houston Gamblers vs. Dallas Renegades at 4 p.m. EDT on Fox; and the Colombus Aviators at Orlando Storm on ESPN at 8 p.m. EDT.)

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Drones over the field, cameras embedded in helmets and chest pads and Steadicam operators running on and off the field during games are only a few of the television production technologies and techniques pioneered last season by the United Football League—better known as the UFL—owned in part by Fox Corp. and Disney.

No wonder then that the league is willing to push the envelope a bit when it comes to exploring ways production technology can enhance the viewing experience. While many of the same elements used last season will return for the 2026 campaign, both Fox Sports and ESPN will be relying on important enhancements behind the scenes to advance this season’s coverage, which begins tonight.

Fiber and 5G
Signal acquisition from the field and around the venues as well as contribution back to the sports broadcasters’ respective remote production centers will benefit from enhanced tech.

Fox Sports is expanding its use of a private 5G wireless network this season, according to Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports.

“We've been at the forefront of private wireless networks, and we're going to deploy them this year full time on every one of our shows” said Cheney. “We are working with CP Communications and Verizon to do that, and we're really excited to see that in daily operation every single game for us across the UFL season.”

The success of last season’s trial use of a private 5G wireless network for camera acquisition proved successful with respect to reliability and ultra-low latency, leading the broadcaster to expand its commitment to the technology.

This season, it will deploy the private wireless network to support 1080p HDR video acquisition from three cameras, including two RF handhelds and its Megalodon camera, as well as 15 wireless comms packs. Each 5G camera transmitter is “roughly the same size and weight” as its traditional COFDM counterpart, said Cheney.

Cheney noted that even though Fox Sports is deploying its own private 5G network at each UFL venue, the wireless network still exists within the broader 5G footprint of the carrier in general and more specifically of the public wireless networks at the various league venues. That fact at the moment limits how many wireless cameras the broadcaster will use on its private 5G network.

“Obviously, the cell networks in the U.S. have been built around download—somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% download and 20% upload. Carriers are slowly changing that. But as that is done, it affects the people and the frequencies around you,” he said.

“The closer you get to 50-50, or inverting it to 80% [upload] and 20% [download], that's when things start affecting other things around you.”

“That's a really dynamic piece of the puzzle. The No. 1 thing we have to work on in every single venue is understanding the other cell networks around us,” said Cheney. “We’ve spent a lot of time mapping out these stadiums to figure out these things and make sure we can provide extensive coverage, not just coverage on the field.”

Cheney noted that for now, other wireless cameras—especially specialty cameras like pylon and player-worn cameras—will remain COFDM because there is no pressing need to re-engineer existing off-the-shelf traditional wireless camera backs simply to accommodate a miniaturized 5G alternative.

Like Fox Sports, ESPN is entering this UFL season with an eye towards how it can best produce games. Several new venues will be used this season. Six, including those in Washington, D.C., Orlando, Fla., Houston, Frisco, Texas, Louisville, Ky., and Columbus, Ohio, are used for professional soccer.

“A lot of these MLS [Major League Soccer] stadiums don't have the same robust fiber infrastructure that, say, an NFL stadium might have,” said Eric Kimmel,  supervisor of remote operations at ESPN.

ESPN, along with Fox Sports and the UFL worked together in the offseason to ensure sufficient fiber-optic resources would be in place prior to tonight’s season kickoff, said Jim Birch, senior manager of remote operations at ESPN.

“A lot of this planning started well in advance of the season—months in advance—doing site surveys,” said Birch. “The league, Fox and ESPN got together and looked at the infrastructure of these new venues to establish a foundational infrastructure.”

Those surveys identified a pressing need to build out the fiber infrastructure in place for the broadcasters’ UFL productions. “The league did a lot of installs,” said Birch. “It seems like we put in thousands of strands of fiber [in the aggregate] across all of these new stadiums to prepare them to produce our games.”

ESPN will make best use of available fiber bandwidth to support its REMI productions with the help of new encoding technology it first used last fall. “For the past college football season, we utilized new transmission encoders from Appear,” said Kimmel. “They were a great success.”

The encoder enables ESPN’s A Crew to transport 23 paths of HEVC-encoded 1080p HDR video back to its REMI control rooms in Bristol, Conn., and its B and C Crews to use 20 paths, he said.

School of Hard Knocks
One notable addition to the production was the use of wireless cameras embedded in select players’ chest pads. The results were mixed.

“Frankly, we learned from the chest camera last year,” said Bryan Jaroch, vice president of sports production at ESPN. “They [the league] thought it would be able to take the impact of hits, and they tested it. There were times when it did crack, or it didn’t work as well as we all had hoped.”

That lesson directed ESPN to try a different approach this season. “The chest cam cannot take that impact,” he said. “We actually tested the POVORA camera on kickers a couple of weeks ago in Arlington.” The POVORA tilt control CapCam, which ESPN used last college football season and has been nominated for a George Wensel Technical Achievement Emmy Award, may be used in other applications.

“We may try to put that on coaches or players on the sidelines. But in terms of the impact, that was one of the shortfalls with MindFly [used during the 2025 UFL season], where it could not take those hits. We’re going to work with POVORA to see what we can do with their CapCam like put it on some referees,” said Jaroch.

“They also have a BodyCam version of their cameras, so we’ll try some new technology there.”

The Ramifications
The UFL’s willingness to try innovative technologies and production techniques attracted the interest of other sports leagues throughout last season, and the efforts of Fox Sports and ESPN to implement them paid off, both broadcasters agreed.

ESPN’s Jaroch pointed to the ACC’s decision to give the sports network greater access to its replay command center during some 2025 ACC football action as an outgrowth of what the broadcaster accomplished last season with the UFL replay command center.

Fox Sports, too, points to various tech deployments during the 2025 UFL season that influenced how sports were covered in other leagues. “The automated first-and-10 setup is something the NFL did this season,” said Cheney, adding that it is one of the most visible examples.

Another is drones. “Our use of the drone at UFL games has definitely driven access across all sports,” he said.

Only time will tell how this year’s new tech deployments will influence sports production beyond the UFL.

For more information on the 2026 season, visit https://www.theufl.com/

WASHINGTON—In an important development for news organizations and video producers using drones, the Federal Communications Commission updated its Covered List of banned products to remove four Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS). The agency made the move after the Department of War (DoW) determined they do to not pose national security risks.

The Covered List is a listing of products that can not be sold in the U.S.

In December of 2025, following an interagency determination of unacceptable national security risks, the FCC added all UAS and UAS critical components produced in a foreign country to the Covered List, preventing them getting approval for the import or sale of new models in the U.S.

The agency stressed that the ban is on the sale of new models and products that have not been approved. Owners of existing products from DJI and other manufacturers who were put on the Covered list can still be used and operated, though getting parts to repair them could pose problems.

In January of this year, DoW made a further determination that (until Jan. 1, 2027), three types of UAS and UAS critical components do not pose security risks and the FCC removed them from Covered List.

Those three types are: (1) UAS and UAS critical components included on DoW’s Blue UAS Cleared List; (2) UAS and UAS critical components that qualify as “domestic end products” under the Buy American Standard; and (3) UAS and UAS critical components that receive “Conditional Approval.”

On March 18, the FCC received its first batch of Conditional Approvals and updated the Covered List accordingly to exempt “devices which have been granted Conditional Approval.”

The four exemptions are:

• SiFly Aviation, Inc. Q12 Uncrewed Aircraft System
• Mobilicom SkyHopper Series / M Band / Tactical Data Link, Various Controllers, and ICE, OS3 Security Software
• ScoutDI Scout 137 Uncrewed Aircraft System
• Verge, Inc. X1 Uncrewed Aircraft System

WASHINGTON–The Federal Communications Commission has revised a ban on the importation of new foreign-made uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) or drones by removing some models and components from the FCC Covered List of items that can’t be imported to the U.S.

In the wake of an executive order from President Donald Trump and a determination by an executive-branch Interagency body that foreign-made drones pose “unacceptable risks” to U.S. security, the FCC updated its “Covered List” of banned technologies and products in December 2025 to include all new foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and all UAS critical components.

The move effectively banned the sale of new drones and components by the Chinese manufacturer DJI, which dominates the U.S. drone market, and other foreign makers.

The newest revision issued on Jan. 7 followed a National Security Determination from the War Department that certain “UAS and UAS critical components included on Defense Contract Management Agency’s (DCMA’s) Blue UAS list do not currently present unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or to the safety and security of U.S. persons. This determination includes UAS and UAS critical components included on the Blue UAS list now and until January 1, 2027. Additionally, until Jan. 1, 2027, the DoW has determined that UAS and UAS critical components that qualify as ‘domestic end products’ under the Buy American Standard do not pose unacceptable risks to the national security of the United States or to the safety and security of U.S. persons.”

Reuters has reported that the list of imported drones that are now allowed for import until the end of 2026 includes models from Parrot, Teledyne FLIR, Neros Technologies, Wingtra, Auterion, ModalAI, Zepher Flight Labs and AeroVironment. It also reported that critical components for drones produced by “Nvidia, ModalAI, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung and ARK Electronics” can be imported.

The exemptions do not, however, include DJI, which provides many drones used in video production.

Users can however continue to use previously purchased drones from DJI and other manufacturers. In issuing the original ban and in the Jan. 7 announcement exempting some models and manufacturers, the FCC stressed that being on the Cleared List does not impact a consumer’s ability to continue using drones they previously purchased or acquired.

“Nor does today’s decision prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market device models approved earlier this year or previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process,” the agency said. “By operation of the FCC’s Covered List rules, the restrictions imposed by today’s decision apply to new device models.”

More information on the changes by the FCC are available here.

WASHINGTON—In the wake of an executive order from President Trump and a determination by an Executive Branch Interagency body that foreign made drones pose “unacceptable risks” to U.S. security, the Federal Communications Commission has updated its “Covered List” of banned technologies and products to include all new foreign made unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and all UAS critical components.

The move effectively bans sales of new drones and components by the Chinese manufacturer DJI, which dominates the drone market in the U.S. and other foreign makers.

It does not, the FCC stressed, impact a consumer’s ability to continue using drones they previously purchased or acquired. “Nor does today’s decision prevent retailers from continuing to sell, import, or market device models approved earlier this year or previously through the FCC’s equipment authorization process,” the agency said. “By operation of the FCC’s Covered List rules, the restrictions imposed by today’s decision apply to new device models.”

The move comes at a time when drone have become increasingly important in TV production, particularly for news and live sports. In 2025, for example, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accepted Sinclair’s Declaration of Compliance for Operations Over People. That, Sinclair said, made it the first broadcaster authorized to fly drones over people and vehicles for newsgathering without a waiver from the government regulator.

As previously reported, the potential ban on new foreign drones, which has been brewing for months, has raised widespread concerns about the impact of any ban on new products or components.

“I welcome this Executive Branch national security determination, and I am pleased that the FCC has now added foreign drones and related components, which pose an unacceptable national security risk, to the FCC’s Covered List,” said FCC chair Brendan Carr in a statement. “Following President Trump’s leadership, the FCC will work closely with U.S. drone makers to unleash American drone dominance.”

By way of background, the FCC’s Covered List is a list of communications equipment and services that are deemed to pose an unacceptable risk to the national security of the U.S. or the safety and security of U.S. persons. Under the Secure and Trusted Communications Networks Act, the Commission can update the Covered List only at the direction of national security authorities. In other words, the Commission cannot update this list on its own and is required to implement determinations that are made by our national security agency experts.

Equipment on the Covered List (“covered” equipment) is prohibited from getting FCC equipment authorization. Most wireless devices require FCC equipment authorization prior to importation, marketing, or sale in the U.S. Covered equipment is banned from receiving new equipment authorizations, preventing new devices from entering the U.S. market.

In making the determination to ban new foreign-made drones, national security agencies referenced, among other things, concerns that that foreign-made UAS could be used for attacks and disruptions, unauthorized surveillance, sensitive data exfiltration, and other UAS threats to the homeland. Additionally, the determination noted that reliance on such devices unacceptably undermines the U.S. drone industrial base, the FCC reported.

The full Public Notice on can be found here.

December is the month and the 23rd is the day.

You’ve probably been hearing a lot about DJI drones and the process that will ban the sale of any of their drone products in the United States.

I thought I might dive into the ban and try to make some sense of it. Of course, the beautiful part of it is that as radio engineers, we can all kind of relate to what is going on in this technology-adjacent industry because the FCC is involved in it and we’re familiar with their processes.

The overarching concern with DJI and the United States government is that they are a Chinese-based technology company and most sources confirm that there is little to no air gap between the information that the company collects and the Chinese government.

I know it sounds conspiratorial, but every drone flight that occurs gets documented with video, photographs and also carries with it an incredible amount of metadata that could be useful to any government, including our own, as a means to determine vulnerabilities in areas that we might consider trivial, but can be woven together to create a fairly detailed tapestry of information.

It reminds me of the time that my wife and I purchased our first robot vacuum. For whatever reason, I thought that the model I purchased was WiFi-enabled (it actually wasn’t), but in preparation, I downloaded the app from the company so that we could control it.

When I registered my address, the app immediately showed the layout of my house. Huh? I had not even received the unit yet and my house layout was already there. How much information could they glean after it was connected to my WiFi and had had a chance to run through the house innocuously cleaning my floors a couple of hundred times?

We live in the information age, and we give so much of it away for free without a thought to how valuable a commodity it really is.

To be honest, I generally don’t think in terms like this, and I don’t think anybody is interested in where my shoes always end up on the floor, but if leaders in our government place a premium on the data, you can bet your bottom dollar that other governments do as well.

Drones can end up giving you so much more data than that robot vacuum ever could. The key is that the drone, via its hyper-accurate GPS and telemetry chips, knows its height and coordinates on the planet down to the fraction of an inch at any given time interval, and that is a lot of extra data attached to the media it produces.

In a process known as “photogrammetry,” drones can be programmed to fly in a patterned grid while taking a 4K picture at each location.

All the pictures can then be loaded up into services that can stitch together each shot into a super high-definition compilation shot of the entire area that the drone flew over. If you were inclined, you could take that same picture with all the included metadata and begin to pull things like topological surveys using GIS tools (easily available in any municipality or state) and a host of other information.

In fact, there are dedicated business models that use this from pre-programmed flights to increase workplace safety and even to check on contractors to make certain they are doing right by their customers.

It isn’t that other companies like Autel, Fimi, Hubsan or Parrot can’t do the same thing. The issue with DJI, to put it simply, is that they are the absolute best. In the “prosumer” and commercial spaces they occupy, they have about a 75% market share. They have been doing it longer than most, and their ecosystem is better than any of the manufacturers that are out there.

A parallel company that might bring a clearer picture to mind of what DJI is to the industry is Apple. From top to bottom, their infrastructure allows you to upload your material to their server, use their tools to easily edit videos and pictures, and their product quality always seems to be about 1 year in front of almost every other manufacturer.

So, what happens when this ban takes effect on Dec. 23?

Unless a cyber security review occurs over DJI’s entire infrastructure before that date, and there doesn’t seem to be any on the horizon, the FCC will no longer provide signal approval to any new drone models placed before it by DJI. This means no new models will be available to any consumers within the United States and it will be illegal to procure them from other countries as well.

The ban also will allow the FCC to retroactively remove previously approved signals if they determine that they are a cybersecurity risk.

To give an example, DJI’s latest drone models in 2025 are the Mavic 4 Pro and the Mini 5 Pro. These products are already on store shelves and have been previously approved by the FCC so they currently wouldn’t be banned, but the FCC could come along in the future and begin the process of removing their approved signal status.

Of course, this is where our knowledge of the FCC comes into play.

In order for them to do this, they would have to post a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the removal of the status of one or both of these drones. Then the standard 60-day period for public comments would allow anybody to give arguments for or against the proposed rule changes.

If the FCC moved, then, for a retroactive ban to occur on either of those two previously approved products, they would then be pulled from store shelves and would be illegal to fly. Up until that time, both models can continue to be made and imported by DJI in their current form.

This obviously puts a clamp on any new drone innovation coming to the United States from DJI.

The ban does not affect your ability to fly any DJI drone that you already have in your possession, as all of them have already received signal approval from the FCC. So fly, fly like the wind.

It is hard for me to imagine that retroactively banning any other of DJI’s drones will happen, but I’m also not certain that I would risk spending $1,500 to $5,000 on a new model that may not be able to be used a year from now.

So many of their previous models are used by all levels of government for public safety and other uses like search and rescue operations. Private companies including my employer use them to inspect properties, farmers use them for dusting and verifying their crops. Our company has DJI Phantom 4 Pro Plus and Mavic Air 2S units which are incredible, but the Phantoms are also getting older.

What are we to do? My personal DJI Air2S is an absolute hot rod, and I love it, but it is also about three years old. Obviously, both models are probably outside of the FCC’s security concerns, but replacement of either of the units with ones that as capable as either of them would be a real stretch.

Generally, we aren’t affected by the ban until we want to replace our aging units with new ones or any that we own potentially end up being retroactively removed from the approved signals list. Let’s pray for that not to happen because I really do enjoy flying drones, especially when they are the best of the best.

This originally appeared TV Tech's sister brand, Radio World.

TORONTO—Sometimes in sports, as in life, it’s the little things that matter, and that aphorism will be on full display tonight when the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Los Angeles Dodges in Game 1 of the 2025 World Series—at least when it comes to Fox Sports’ production of the game.

“We’re in a place with those smaller, portable cameras where they match exactly with everything else,” sa Brad Cheney, vice president of field operations and engineering at Fox Sports. “They just look like another part of the puzzle of what we're doing.”

(The 2025 World Series begins tonight on Fox. Games will also be streamed on Fox Sports platforms, including Fox One, the Fox Sports app and Fox Deportes. Sportsnet will air the series in Canada. Fox pregame coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET. All games start at 8 p.m. ET.)

Camera Coverage
The camera complement Fox Sports is deploying for the Series is quite familiar for large events. In addition to the 20 operated cameras—including 10 high-speed systems—the network will deploy two RF MOVI units, three point-of-view (POV) cams, a Flycam (at Dodger Stadium), two Phantom high-speed cameras, a drone cam (two in Toronto), DirtCAM and an Ump Cam.

What’s different is the smaller cameras have caught up with the broadcast cameras, not only in terms of the images they produce, which now are native HDR, but also when it comes to control. “As time goes on, we get smaller and smaller, better and better cameras,” he said.

Cheney pointed to new robotic cameras deployed in the batting tunnels in the locker room areas as an example. “We’re talking little, tiny robotic heads the size of your two fists with Proton cameras,” he said. “We’re seeing great images out of them,” he says, adding that because of their placement in the batting cages, the units occasionally get hit by a bat.

Shots from these cameras help Fox tell better stories, Cheney adds. “As we get into these [post-season] games, we’re starting to see things you don’t necessarily see a lot in the regular season, like batters coming in for one at bat,” he explains. “These cameras give us a good view into that.”

Ump Cam, Drones and AR
Augmented reality (AR) enhancements have contributed to the broadcaster’s postseason coverage.

For the World Series, Fox Sports is premiering AR graphics combined with drone shots. “We’ve done a lot of work with Major League Baseball to do AR on top of the drone inside the building,” Cheney said.

During the postseason, MLB permits drone flights inside venues when teams are not on the field. Fox Sports has built a full AR graphics package that will be used occasionally during those times to “do all kinds of different graphics to show what’s going on” as the drone flies above and beyond the scoreboard, he said.

“We spend about half an hour every day tracking the drone around in different spots to make sure that we can visually lock that in, and then we work with MLB and the Bolt6 [optical tracking] team to actually drop those graphics in,” Cheney said.

Another new AR application for postseason coverage has been the Ump Cam with pitch tracking. “We’ve seen some amazing shots from the Ump Cam the entire run—watching the tilt of the umpire’s head following a homerun ball,” he says. “Now, we’re seeing pitch tracking on it that actually gives the viewer another detailed point of view of how difficult it is to hit some of those pitches.”

Relying on the knowledge base of MLB Statcast data and optical tracking, Fox Sports lays its AR graphics with full tubes tracking the ball through the strike zone on shots from Ump Cam. The broadcaster also adds pitch sequencing to the same AR set from behind the plate, he adds.

Base Size
When it comes to audio, it’s all about that base—size, that is. MLB approved a plan to make the bases bigger beginning with the 2023 season. Increasing the size of first, second and third base from 15x15 inches to 18x18 inches has had an unexpected broadcast benefit: better sound.

“When you listen to the World Series, you really do hear players moving around the bases a lot more than we ever have before,” Cheney said. “To a large extent, that’s because the bases are larger. You’re getting more sound quality coming out of them, not because we put bigger mics in them. It’s the same system in there, but because there’s more movement of air and more size to it, we’re getting a better sound of what’s happening.”

The larger size means the bases are not as tightly compacted when players are standing on them, and that extra space makes all the difference when it comes to sound quality, he says.

For the Series, Fox Sports is deploying a total of 53 effects microphones as well as three parabolic mics.

Home and Away
With the Series involving the Blue Jays, Fox Sports travels back to Toronto, “not a place we’ve been in nearly 10 years,” Cheney said. Aside from requiring a little more logistical work to get into Canada, though, “it’s been a really great experience up there,” he said.

Fox Sports is relying on mobile production units from both Game Creek Video and NEP with their full complement of cameras. It is also working with Canadian broadcaster Sportsnet, which will provide shots from its drone outside Rogers Centre as well as shots from its Ronin rig. Both Sportsnet’s Ronin rig and Fox Sports’ two MOVI rigs are outfitted with Sony FX6 4K full-frame sensor cameras.

As it has done in the past, the broadcaster will use additional replay and graphics resources in Los Angeles to augment its on-site coverage of the Series. In total, it will have 142 replay records and 32 playouts at its disposal. For graphics, it will leverage two Vizrt systems and a FoxBox for on-screen score graphics.

As it did for the American League Championship Series, Fox Sports will also integrate its large Los Angeles studio into coverage. “That was phenomenal to see [during the LCS] and led us to collaborate a lot more with the L.A. facility, sending extra feeds and coordinating interviews with the team on-site,” Cheney said.

“So, we’re excited to see the studio join us this time back on the road, and we’ll see them for Game 1 on Friday.”

WASHINGTON–As the Federal Aviation Administration considers a notice of proposed rulemaking on regulations governing the use of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAVs), the News Media Alliance has published an extensive analysis of the proposals and how they might affect news organizations.

On Aug. 7, the FAA released an NPRM called “Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations.”

The NPRM does not specifically address news operations, stating simply that newsgathering falls into a category called “aerial surveying" that also includes videography and photography.

“This action proposes performance-based regulations to enable the design and operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) at low altitudes beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and for third-party services, including UAS Traffic Management (UTM), that support these operations. The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 directs the development of this proposed rule,” the FAA reported.

“This proposed rule is necessary to support the integration of UAS into the national airspace system (NAS),” it added. “This proposed rule is intended to provide a predictable and clear pathway for safe, routine, and scalable UAS operations that include package delivery, agriculture, aerial surveying, civic interest, operations training, demonstration, recreation, and flight testing. TSA proposes to make complementary changes to its regulations to ensure it can continue to impose security measures on these operations under its current regulatory structure for civil aviation.”

Comments on the NPRM are due Oct. 6.

NMA, which is backed by over 2,200 publishers in the U.S., has provided a detailed breakdown of the proposals here.

Highlights of that analysis include the fact that newsrooms must continue to seek permission to operate drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). Those permits would be valid for 24 months and have “less FAA surveillance,” than in the past, the NMA reported.

In addition newsrooms would not be permitted to have more than 25 active UAS in a fleet capable of BVLOS operations and the UAS could weight as much as 110 pounds, up from the current 55 pound limit.

More details about the impact and the proposals are available here.

INDIANAPOLIS—When Fox Sports Executive Vice President of Technical and Field Operations Michael Davies reviews his organization’s inaugural Indianapolis 500 production from May 25, he does so with a mix of satisfaction, anticipation about what to do differently in 2026 and a degree of humility.

“The whole experience was humbling,” he said. “You know, when you go into something and you really don’t know what you’re getting into, you have to figure out a lot of it as you go along. “You only get a finite amount of those [first-time major broadcasts] in your career, and that was one of them.”

[Also Read: Fox Sports Preps for ‘Mini Super Bowl’ of Motorsports in Indianapolis]

This year’s 109th Indianapolis 500 was the first time Fox Sports produced the race under a deal announced June 2024 awarding exclusive media rights for the 2025 NTT IndyCar Series races to the broadcaster. Fox Sports took over video production of the race from NBC Sports, which had held rights to the iconic motorsports event since 2019, following a 54-year run on ABC.

Working with Indy Motor Sports Productions on the production of the race contributed to the broadcaster’s first-time win at Indy. “We linked arms with Indy Motor Sports Productions and they were fantastic. I can say from this experience that it was that cooperation that made this Indy 500 a success,” Davies said.

Three In-Car Enhancements
To Davies, three enhancements—one each involving video, audio and augmented reality (AR) graphics—in cars stood out as production innovations that made watching the race more engaging for fans.

“The inside-out view from the driver’s eye cameras really shows just how fast these cars were going,” Davies said. “As fast as they go in NASCAR, the 240 miles per hour they go at Indy is flat-out ridiculous.”

The cameras embedded into the helmets of six drivers at this year’s race were a success overall; however, a couple of them experienced “some small technical issues,” he noted, adding, “I think we’ll get better at using them.”

Fox Sports’ use of a head-up display (HUD) to present real-time telemetry for the cars “in a way that hadn’t been seen at Indy” added a new element for Indy 500 race fans, Davies said. “We kind of borrowed that idea from Formula One, but it worked great for Indy, too.”

To enhance the audio from the cars, the broadcaster placed microphones on each side of the Indy cars to “make it sound even better,” he says.

Drones and Ghost Car
Fox Sports strategically deployed two drones to enhance its two-hour prerace show and coverage of the race. Beverly Hills Aerials, which partnered with the broadcaster, piloted a modified DJI Inspire drone outfitted with a paintable broadcast camera and an FPV racing drone, which Fox Sports uses widely in its NASCAR coverage.

“When you’re talking about drone coverage, you add this in-between layer,” he said. “You’ve got ground coverage cameras, hard cameras and on-board cameras, the RF cameras. Then there’s the aerial, which is vital, because it shows strategy. Drones deliver an intermediate type of shot that shows racing caution, laps and pit stops in a totally different way.”

The broadcaster also used the drones during its prerace show with different sets. “We were able to fly around to the different talent locations to show the Indy Motor Speedway and the kind of vast edifice it is and set the tone for the race,” Davies recalls.

Overall, drones have contributed significantly to the broadcaster’s coverage of Indy. “The use of drones in IndyCar—not only at the Indy 500 but on the Road Course—is one of the single biggest things that I think Fox is doing for the sport,” Davies said.

Like drones, which Fox Sports began using in NASCAR a decade ago, the broadcaster brought its virtual Ghost Car to the Indy 500 to add another dimension to its coverage of the qualifiers. “I think adding in the competitive aspect of showing a car as it was racing and placing something that doesn’t exist [the Ghost Car] and making it exist through the art of virtual technology was a fantastic addition,” he said.

“Zac Fields [Fox Sports senior vice president of graphic technology and integration] is the master of doing this stuff,” Davies says. “I think virtual graphics on Indy motorsports is kind of the next frontier of enhancement.”

Nip and Tuck for 2026
Shortly after the race, Davies and his team began the process of doing postmortems on coverage while the event was still fresh in their minds. “There are always ‘nips and tucks,’ but we were really happy with the coverage,” he said.

Davies has already begun to think about what those “nips and tucks” entail for next year’s coverage. Top of mind is the addition of a third drone, more driver’s eye cameras and additional data-driven features to convey more about what is going on with the cars as they circle the speedway, such as the temperature of tires.

“We’re going to get better at getting at things like tire temperatures, which are really important for oval track races,” he said.

Leveraging artificial intelligence to record, organize and catalog conversations between racers and their teams is in development and may be ready for the 2026 edition of the race. The broadcaster is also at work on an AI-driven application that makes driver audio clearer, so it sounds less like a radio transmission and more like a digital microphone, Davies said.

Another effort that may change how the broadcaster covers the race is the deployment of a private 5G network. “We’re looking at this with our two major motorsports partners to figure out how we can use a private network to enhance what we do—not just for broadcast, but for everything, including cameras, communications, telemetry and bidirectional,” he said.

“You know, you always find a million things that you’d want to do better—a million things that you could have enhanced,” Davies said. “But at the end of the day, if you walk away from the Indy 500 looking to build on what you’ve done instead of change what you’ve done, then you know you’ve had a success.”

SAN DIEGO—Sony Electronics has commercialized its AS-DT1 LiDAR depth sensor, a 1.14-inch wide by 1.14-inch high by 1.22-inch deep unit, excluding protrusions, that leverages miniaturization and optical lens technologies from Sony’s machine vision industrial cameras for applications where space and weight constraints are paramount.

The 1.76-ounce LiDAR depth sensor uses Direct Time of Flight (dToF) LiDAR technology, which delivers fast and accurate measurement, distance resolution and measuring range. The proprietary dToF ranging module, equipped with a Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) sensor, uses multiple ranging points for distance measurement and can accurately measure distances in three dimensions: length, width and depth, the company said.

The AS-DT1 can measure distances to low-contrast subjects and objects with low reflectivity, which are more difficult to detect with other ranging methods. This enables accurate measurement of distances in diverse environments, it said.

The sensor's compact, lightweight design and rigid aluminum housing allow for integration into a wide range of devices, Sony said.

Sony’s proprietary dToF ranging module, equipped with a SPAD sensor, achieves highly accurate measurements and distance resolution. It can measure at various distances. For example, at about 32.8 feet, it delivers with a margin of about two inches, both indoors and outdoors, it said.

The company expects to make the AS-DT1 available in spring 2026. A prototype will be exhibited first in the United States at Xponential in Houston, May 20-22.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LOS ANGELES—Thirteen years ago, I set off to turn my dual-fascination with flying drones and filmmaking into a career. But as I started to fully explore the potential of this idea, the FAA started doubling down on regulations surrounding drone use, including making it mandatory to possess a “333 exemption” for commercial drone operation—which requires a full pilot’s license.

Unwilling to give up on my ultimate dream, I began flying for about a dozen drone companies a little over a year later. What I learned from that experience, combined with my own creative thinking for close proximity flying, led to what today is Beverly Hills Aerials—where we push the boundaries of aerial cinematography through innovation, efficiency and our unique talent.

When it comes to the cinema drones themselves, DJI has always been our preferred manufacturer. The brand not only provides reliable and accessible products, but each generation of their Inspire series drone includes substantial upgrades to the camera quality, sensors, and features that improve our workflow efficiency.

My experience with DJI dates all the way back to the first generation of DJI’s Phantom drone— the Phantom 1. These drones have played a substantial role in my journey to becoming Beverly Hills Aerials’ Chief Pilot, along with developing our business and our filmmaking practices and processes today. Our company has truly grown with DJI as they release new and improved cinema drones.

DJI Inspire 3
We use DJI’s latest iteration, the Inspire 3, for production most often right now—it’s both the most capable and versatile drone here at Beverly Hills Aerials. One of the most important upgrades of the DJI Inspire 3 for us is its camera sensors. With nine visual sensors, it provides a robust omnidirectional sensing system and comprehensive protection for flying.

Additionally, the DJI Inspire 3’s dual native ISO is extremely helpful for filming during the night or in darker settings. It allows our footage to be sharper than before, making for really beautiful low-light video. Its custom lens adapters also make it compatible with several lenses for different landscapes and conditions to capture a variety of settings.

The drone’s larger field of view is also particularly helpful for filmmaking, as it lets the pilot get closer to the subject, allowing for increased precision and confidence. The DJI Inspire 3’s O3 Pro video transmission system also lets the drone fly further without losing signal, getting shots we haven’t been able to before like unique air-to-ground clips. The drone is also compact and we can travel with it in a single case—ideal for when we have jobs outside of the Los Angeles area.

The DJI Inspire 3 has been instrumental when a smaller footprint matters for flying through tight spaces, around talent or when there are multiple location changes. For example, it’s been particularly useful when shooting content centered around automotives, and we’ve used it to produce several car commercials, including for Audi.

Spider-Man Noir
When filming longer-form productions including TV series and movies, the DJI Inspire 3 remains a top choice for us—you just can’t beat it. In fact, we use DJI’s Inspire 3 in nearly every TV show we shoot, including recently for Sony’s “Spider-Man Noir” and “9-1-1.”

Perhaps our most exciting use of the DJI Inspire 3 has been for the production of “Happy Gilmore 2”, which is set to release this year. We used it filming for the movie last fall, and its adaptability and ability to travel well made it a great choice for the New Jersey-based set.

DJI drones have truly been a game-changer throughout my journey and allowed me to bring my visions to life through exceptional footage. Due to their versatility and advanced features, they’ve been a dependable choice and will continue to be a key asset for us.

More information is available at www.dji.com.

BALTIMORE—The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has accepted Sinclair’s Declaration of Compliance for Operations Over People, making the company what is believed to be the first broadcaster authorized to fly drones over people and vehicles for newsgathering without a waiver from the government regulator.

“This approval represents a significant step forward in our ability to deliver high-quality, innovative journalism,” said Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news at Sinclair. “By incorporating expanded drone footage, we enhance our coverage of breaking news, local events, weather and community stories—offering our audiences more compelling and dynamic storytelling. Our ongoing partnership with Virginia Tech has been instrumental in ensuring the highest safety and training standards.”

All Sinclair drone pilots are trained at Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP), an FAA-designated Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) test site. The training ensures pilots are equipped with advanced skills and knowledge in drone operations and safety procedures, Sinclair said.

“We have worked for years with Sinclair, helping to train their pilots, and I have always been impressed with their professionalism and commitment to safety. We were proud to build on that theme by using our FAA-approved test method to test a modified drone that allows Sinclair's pilots to meet the FAA's stringent safety requirements for operating over people or traffic,” said Tombo Jones, director for the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership.

The FAA’s authorization allows Sinclair to operate specially modified drones while adhering to strict safety protocols and procedures that meet federal requirements, the broadcaster said.

Sinclair launched its UAS program in 2016. The station group operates across 50 newsrooms nationwide and has completed over 40,000 logged flights to date. The program includes 148 FAA certified pilots and 540 trained visual observers, it said.

“Our dedication to safety is paramount and this achievement is the result of more than a year of extensive preparation, testing and collaboration with industry and government partners. We’ve also conducted community outreach meetings in each market where we operate drones, engaging with first responders, Homeland Security, education officials, local government agencies and the FAA,” said Jeff Rose, Sinclair’s UAS Chief Pilot.

More information is available on the Sinclair and MAAP websites.

DAYTONA, Fla.—The Fox Sports production of this year’s Daytona 500 will see the addition of a few new tech elements and the continued unfolding of the broadcaster’s quest to realize additional workflow efficiencies while enhancing quality.

(The Daytona 500 begins Sunday, Feb. 16, at 2:30 p.m. EST. It will be broadcast live on Fox and the Fox Sports app. Live streamers can watch via YouTube TV, Sling TV, Hulu + Live TV and Fubo.)

As it did during the Super Bowl on Feb. 9, Fox Sports will introduce Cosm super-wide-angle cameras into its race coverage, working with the entertainment dome experience specialist on where best to place them around the 2.5-mile track. The broadcaster, which also plans to add a heavy-lift drone with a full-size camera and lens, will rely on new optically generated tracking data from NASCAR to drive its SportsMEDIA Technology (SMT) graphics, Michael Davies, executive vice president of technical and field operations at Fox Sports, said.

This Sunday’s race, the first time Fox Sports will cover the Daytona 500 under a new seven-year contract with NASCAR, “doesn’t change that much in what we put on air,” Davies said. It does mark the beginning of a new chapter that will see Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports carry all 38 NASCAR Cup Series races through 2031. (The Feb. 2 Busch Light Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is regarded as a preseason race.)

The deal divides distribution among the entities. “On any given weekend, you’re going to have Fox on [NASCAR] Cup; Amazon on practice and qualifying; The CW Network on the Xfinity race; and [TNT Sports] doing the in-cars,” Davies said. (Fox Sports and NBC Sports will each carry 14 NASCAR Cup Series races. Prime Video and TNT will split the 10 remaining midseason races.)

Fox Sports, which will produce its coverage in 1080p high dynamic range (HDR), in some instances will produce the shows for other networks and in others will hand off various feeds. “In a raw technological sense, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference when you are sitting in the truck and actually producing the show,” Davies said. “It’s really just the downstream proliferation of everything that’s going to be different.”

The Spectacle
The Daytona 500 is considered a spectacle because it’s the biggest race in NASCAR with fans and dignitaries, such as former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, often in attendance. “If you look online, President [Donald] Trump may or may not be at this one as well,” Davies said.

Regardless, Fox Sports will treat the production like a spectacle, erecting a stage just as it does for the Indianapolis 500 and Super Bowl. “Daytona commands a real pregame presence that we don’t do for other races,” he said. “You’ve got the grand marshal, the national anthem and the flyover. It’s a big buildup, not unlike the Super Bowl. We won’t do six and a half hours of pregame programming like the Super Bowl, but we’re doing quite a bit with our own stage and crew focused on pregame.”

Newly added Cosm cameras will help the broadcaster capture that spectacle for viewers. Unlike at the Super Bowl, the super-wide angle of the cameras’ shots may not simply be used after being de-warped and selecting a 16-by-9 area of interest for TV viewers, Davies said.

“Maybe some of these cameras look good as they are. I think this is just one of those wait-and-see items. We might be able to use them in a couple of ways,” Davies said during an interview conducted midweek before the race.

One of the ways he is considering taking advantage of the cameras’ wide viewpoint is to capture as many as six or seven pits in the same shot. While the broadcaster normally uses a traditional broadcast camera with a wide-angle lens to capture pit stops, the extra-wide angle of the Cosm camera’s viewpoint will enable the broadcaster to capture more, he said.

“One of the things I like about working with those guys is it’s never a totally separate production [one for Fox and one for presentation at a Cosm Dome in Dallas and Los Angeles],” Davies said. “There’s always the middle of a Venn diagram—the crossover—where both of us can enjoy what we’re putting out.”

The heavy-lift drone, another new addition, will complement the FPV and other drones deployed to cover the race. “We’ve done it before on some races, but we’re going to employ the heavy-lift drone with a big-boy camera and real lens at Daytona to get additional coverage that adds into the fact that this is a bigger race,” he said.

One significant technical change viewers will not notice on-air is NASCAR’s use of a new system based largely on optical technology rather than GPS to gather accurate tracking data for Fox Broadcast graphics. “We’re still going to use the SMT to render those graphics, but under the hood is something completely different,” he said.

Production Efficiencies
For this year’s “Great American Race,” Fox Sports has rolled eight trucks to the Daytona International Speedway, fewer than in the past and a continuation of a downward trend, Davies said.

“Ten years ago, there were 10 additional trucks in the compound to do, roughly speaking, what is happening now,” Davies said, adding that ESPN was also involved at the time.

“It was a massive compound,” he said.” You had the shared resources and RF trucks right in the middle. Then on one side you had ESPN land and on the other side Fox land,” pointing out that those shows were produced in 720p, not 1080p as will be done this year.

The point, however, isn’t simply to reduce the expense of on-site production trailers, but also to streamline workflows and save on the expense of certain personnel, who can work remotely on race coverage.

“I’ll give you several instances [of remote personnel working on the production],” he said. “We have replay people working both in Pittsburgh and in California. We have some graphics people in Pittsburgh. We also have racing radio editors and producers who work from their homes. And we have our race editor working from home as well.”

An edit room equals about one-quarter of a production trailer. The space needed to edit racing radio takes up another quarter. These and other reductions begin to add up and enable the broadcaster to remove entire trailers or downsize to a smaller vehicle, as Fox Sports is doing this year by replacing a trailer dedicated to graphics with its remote personnel and those working in the van devoted to SportsMEDIA Technology graphics, Davies said.

Among the biggest reasons Fox Sports has been able to reduce how many OB vehicles it sends to produce races is the availability of fiber-optic connectivity at NASCAR tracks, eliminating latency concerns, he said.

“[For a time], not all [the tracks] were fiber,” he said. “But we spent some money and got them all fiber. Obviously, we’re now reaping the gains from that.”

From more than 200 feet off the ground outside of L.A.’s iconic Dodger Stadium, a camera gives viewers of Game 5 of the World Series a charming mood shot of the stadium’s exterior to accompany a break in the action. Sports fans have seen similar shots a million times over the years, right? Not like this.

On this night, the shot begins to track into the venue as the camera, attached to a remotely piloted drone, soars between the flagpoles atop the stadium’s main entrance and then rises into the sky, revealing a breathtaking view of the Los Angeles skyline amid the stunning glow of a lavender sunset. Visuals like this, that bring a cinematic atmosphere into the production of major live sporting events, help broadcasters bring viewers at home closer to the action. And, increasingly, they’re doing it with shots that only drones can capture.

Dynamic Shots
“The coverage that we get with a blimp and the helicopters is great, but typically speaking, they’re quite high in the air … 3,000 feet or higher,” said Michael Davies, senior vice president, technical and field operations for Fox Sports, which has covered some of the world’s most-watched sporting events, including the World Series, NFL football and NASCAR. “What that means is you get that very typical shot we’ve seen for 40 years, just circling around. What the drone does is add some dynamics to those kinds of shots. They can be especially useful flying in areas and in conditions that blimps, planes or helicopters can’t fly.”

Fox isn’t alone in its use of drones and other new toys, of course. The past decade has seen a meteoric rise in the use of small, lightweight cameras attached to just about anything, delivering incredible access to sports viewers. Cameras are now routinely worn by on-field officials and players, implanted in playing surfaces (think golf’s “bunker cams”), attached to speeding cars, baseballs and the list goes on and on. But drones, with their unique ability to access tight spaces in a hurry—and get out of the way just as quickly—provide opportunities that dramatically change the nature of the coverage.

“We’ve been working with drones since 2015 and, at the time, we weren’t entirely sure what drones would bring to the equation,” Davies continued. “Over time, we began to say, quite honestly, ‘The more we can make our live sports coverage look like a video game, the better, right?’”

This unorthodox take on injecting creativity into the coverage of sports not only speaks to the storytelling power of new technologies but also the changing appetites of an audience that is inundated with information and seemingly always wants more.

Learning the Craft
Using drones to cover live sports beyond exteriors and wide cover shots, though, is very much tied to physics and reality, unlike video games. High-end cameras and lenses typically used in big-time sports are extremely heavy. Getting such equipment up in the air on a drone isn’t easy and isn’t something you necessarily can buy off the shelf.

As a result, even the most experienced sports production teams rely on outside expertise when perfecting their use of these new technologies. In the case of Fox Sports, it has been working with Beverly Hills Aerials, an Emmy Award-winning drone production company out of California, for more than 10 years.

“We spend quite a bit of time customizing our drones—it’s very much a ‘right tool for the right job’ situation for us,” explained Michael Izquierdo, founder and chief pilot at Beverly Hills Aerials (BHA). “Once we understand what is available to us in terms of access, flight restrictions and other safety and security concerns, we can go to the production crew and say, ‘Here’s what we can do.’”

From there, the BHA team gets to work outfitting the appropriate machine with the appropriate equipment, including, in some cases, using the exact same camera and coloring equipment used throughout the rest of the production. There are many considerations and calculations including overall weight of the rig, speed, number and type of cameras, where it will be flying and how long it needs to be in the air. Izquierdo estimates his company has accumulated north of 1,000 drones over the years because of the customizations required.

“We work with an outside firm like Beverly Hills Aerials for two main reasons,” Davies explained. “First, they’re incredibly creative and they’re the experts in the use of these tools and what can be accomplished. Sometimes, our crew will just ask them to ‘give us something’ and it’s up to the pilot and camera operator to serve up some things. Second, they’re just extremely good with the paperwork and they’ve got tremendous relationships with some of the governing bodies for the airspace. These types of companies have become synonymous with following the rules and avoiding surprises and those are the two big things that are table stakes for drones.”

“We probably spend more time working out logistics, approvals and clearances prior to a production than we do at the actual event,” Izquierdo confirmed.

Caution Overhead
The use of drones to cover live game action, though, can be very tricky. For starters, government regulations around the use of drones can be very restrictive, especially in crowded venues. And for good reason. Just weeks ago, hundreds of Boston Celtics fans were gathered in Boston’s City Hall Plaza celebrating the opening of the 2024-25 NBA season at a watch party when a drone shooting aerial visuals of the event crashed into the crowd. Fortunately, none of the injuries sustained were life-threatening, but the incident highlights the need to proceed with caution.

When asked if this incident had an impact on the professional drone community, Izquierdo replied: “I hope it did. Too many people think drones equipped with cameras are just toys that anyone can put up in the air and start using.”

“I don’t know the details of what happened in Boston but I know preventing things like that is why we spend so much time in the planning and preparation stage,” he added. “Flying drones is all we do. Our pilots are highly skilled and some are champion flyers from the Drone Racing League.” Izquierdo also offered that his company has never had an incident like what occurred in Boston.

The future for drones in sports coverage is seemingly very bright. In addition to Fox, ESPN, CBS and others have all incorporated the technology into their coverage to lend a more cinematic look to their coverage. Dazzling shots of the coastline at Pebble Beach and a visual tour of one of the world’s most beautiful cities during the Paris Summer Olympics add to the splendor of the games being played and give the sports storytellers the chance to further engage their audience.

“When we first started, drone coverage was really considered a low-quality, low-cost thing,” Izquierdo said. “With our partners, we’ve been able to continue improving and add a level of creativity that was never possible before.”

So, what’s next for drones in sports? Fox has pushed the envelope with its coverage of the UFL, a football league partially owned by the network. During UFL games last summer, for example, drones hovered within the field of play, very close to the field, and were able to move alongside players to capture angles that simply aren’t available using any other technology. Having nearly unfettered access to the game certainly helps Fox in flexing their creative muscles in the UFL. What about for other leagues like the NFL?

“I think that, as you go up the line, usually the popularity of the sport and the speed at which new technology is implemented are inversely proportional, There’s a lot at stake,” Davies concluded. “Obviously, we don’t want to do crazy stuff that is going to impede the action or somehow get in the way. But now I think that all the partners we have are coming to the table and asking us what’s next and are happy to be pushed.”

Using Drones for Tower Inspections

Using drones in broadcasting is not just limited to content; AEVs have also proven to be invaluable in tower inspections, reducing costs and increasing the safety of tower crews.

TV Tech recently spoke with Jason Schreiber, managing director for Sixarms, an Australian-based RF consultancy that uses cutting-edge drone technology to provide efficient and cost-effective RF measurement solutions for broadcast, telecommunication, and defense industries.

Their unique approach combines industrial drones equipped with RF measurement instruments, specialized automation, and advanced analytics. This allows Sixarms to rapidly and accurately characterize RF transmission infrastructure, such as antennas, surpassing the limitations of traditional ground-based methods.

Sixarms works with major U.S. television networks to analyze broadcast antenna performance and identify installation or manufacturing defects that impact signal quality.

TV Tech: What are the biggest challenges in using drones for tower inspection?Jason Schreiber: Sixarms' unique position as a provider of cutting-edge drone-based RF measurement services presents a distinct set of challenges. Key areas requiring attention include:

Navigating Regulatory Complexity: Drone regulations are constantly evolving and vary significantly across jurisdictions. Maintaining compliance with these regulations, including securing necessary permits and adhering to airspace restrictions, is crucial for operational efficiency.

Ensuring Data Integrity: Maintaining the accuracy and reliability of drone-collected data is paramount. Factors such as weather conditions, electromagnetic interference, and equipment calibration can all impact data quality and require rigorous quality control measures.

Developing and Retaining Talent: Operating specialized drone equipment, analyzing complex RF data, and maintaining safety standards demands a highly skilled workforce. Attracting and retaining qualified personnel with expertise in both drone technology and RF engineering is an ongoing challenge. This includes skilled and experienced drone operators capable of safely navigating challenging environments around TV towers, guy wires, and high RF energy fields.

Addressing Public Perception: The use of drones in public spaces can raise privacy concerns. Sixarms proactively addresses these concerns through transparent communication and professional conduct, ensuring that public engagement is handled with sensitivity and respect.

TVT: Are there unique challenges when using drones that pertain to certain industries (i.e. cellular vs. traditional broadcast tower)?
JS: Higher RF powers (1MW vs. 50W) and taller structures (2,000 ft. vs. 120 ft.) are the main differences and challenges between cellular and broadcast infrastructure.

TVT: How many pilots do you have and what is the extent of their training?
JS: Sixarms operates on a global scale, empowering a network of Certified Operators in Australia, Europe, the US, Central America, and Africa. These highly trained professionals utilize Sixarms' cutting-edge equipment and drone technology to deliver high-quality RF measurement services worldwide.

(Also: Using Drones to Verify FM Antenna Performance)

Ideal partners include established companies already serving the telecommunications, broadcast, and defense industries who are looking to enhance their capabilities with advanced drone-based solutions. However, Sixarms also collaborates with experienced drone operators who possess a strong interest in RF technology and are eager to expand their skillset.

TVT: How have regulations in the U.S. changed over the years in terms of making drone tower inspections easier to do (and possibly more affordable?)
JS: While regulations remain consistent, advancements in drone technology have significantly reduced the cost of both industrial drones and RF measurement solutions. This translates to more affordable service offerings compared to just a few years ago. Furthermore, the increased sophistication of RF data gathering software and automated programming has streamlined operations, leading to greater efficiency and ultimately lower prices for clients.

PARIS—Intel has announced that its plans for the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 will include using artificial intelligence technology powered by Intel processors and software to create new experiences and to help create 8K live productions of the Paris games. 

“The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the world’s biggest showcase for the best athletes to push the boundaries of possibility and do things we never thought possible,” said Sarah Vickers, leader of Intel’s Olympic and Paralympic Games Office. “This summer, Intel will accelerate its mission of bringing AI Everywhere using Intel solutions at Paris 2024, showcasing the powerful potential of technology and AI to create immersive and interactive experiences at the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 for millions around the world.”

Intel reported that key AI implementations of technology will include: 

• An immersive sports experience that will allow fans to experience innovative technology used to measure athletic potential.
• The first Olympics to showcase an end-to-end 8K live streaming experience.
• Advancements in universal accessibility at selected Olympic and Paralympic facilities.

Paris 2024 is set to be one of the largest events ever organized in France, with close to 15,000 athletes, millions of spectators and billions of viewers worldwide across linear television and digital platforms. 

As part of the games, Intel reported that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will embed Intel AI platform technology throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games experience. 

One of those experience will be what Intel is calling a "revolutionary 8K live OTT broadcast workflow delivery and tailored viewing for fans."

Paris 2024 will be the first edition of the Olympics to utilize Intel Xeon processors to showcase an end-to-end 8K livestreaming experience, providing a visible pathway for the future of low-latency, 8K resolution livestreaming over the internet. 

Broadcast servers powered by the latest Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel Deep Learning Boost technology will encode and compress the live signal produced by Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) at 8K/60FPS/HDR “More/Faster/Better Pixels” (48 Gbps RAW to 40-60 Mbps distribution using VVC standard) in milliseconds. An 8K over-the-top (OTT) signal will be delivered to the latest Intel-based PCs and laptops connected to 8K TV to selected locations worldwide in just seconds. This will pave the way for viewers around the world to enjoy future Olympic action through a high-resolution livestreaming experience with the highest broadcast-grade quality.

Intel also reported that AI automation will enable broadcasters to bring more customized digital content to viewers faster than ever. Olympic Broadcasting Services Automatic Highlights Generation, trained on the Intel Geti platform, can package tailored highlights across multiple disciplines and distribute to fans instantly, creating efficiencies in production and editing.

Intel technologies will also power what the company is calling "first-of-its-kind on-site immersive AI experiences."

AI applications powered by Intel processors and software solutions will demonstrate the potential of technology to benefit athletes, coaches and spectators leading up to and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Intel will also create an interactive, AI-powered fan activation to take spectators on a journey of becoming an Olympic athlete. Trained on Intel Gaudi accelerators, running on Intel Xeon processors with built-in AI acceleration and optimized with OpenVINO, Intel's AI Platform Experience, in collaboration with Samsung, will use AI and computer vision to analyze athletic drills and match each participant’s profile to an Olympic sport, Intel said. 

During the Games, Intel’s technology will also be driving advancements in accessibility for the visually impaired throughout the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024. Leveraging AI built on Intel Xeon, 3D models of both the Team USA High Performance Center in Paris and the International Paralympic Committee headquarters in Bonn, Germany, allow indoor and voice navigation via a smartphone application.

In addition, Intel also will be working to help continue the legacy of the Olympic Games with neural object cloning that will transform video of Olympic collections into 3D digital artifacts. This solution, developed by Intel’s Emergent AI Lab, is being tested to enable the Olympic Museum to bring some of its collections into interactive digital environments where viewers can rotate and explore pieces of Olympic history, as if they were in their hands.

Intel also reported that it will continue to develop and roll out new implementations of AI technology in the lead-up to the Olympic Games, with additional activations expected in the coming months.

Intel said that these technologies build on a history of innovation at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, using 5G, VR, drones and AI technology platforms to enhance the experience. 

This began with the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, highlighted by the Intel Shooting Star drone display, and continued at Tokyo 2020 where Intel Premium drones took to the sky to symbolize global solidarity following the pandemic. Intel also introduced 3D athlete tracking and VR training in 2020, while helping enable the first live broadcast over 5G at Beijing 2022.

“Our partnership with Intel has propelled us into a realm where emerging technologies, powered by artificial intelligence, are reshaping the world of sport for spectators, athletes, IOC staff and Partners,” said Ilario Corna, chief information technology officer at the International Olympic Committee. “Through their AI-powered solutions, Intel has enabled us to deploy AI faster than ever before. Together, in Paris 2024, our collaboration will create an Olympic experience like never before, embodying our shared commitment to building a better world through sport.”

The Olympic Games Paris 2024 will be July 26 to Aug. 11, 2024. The Paralympic Games will take place Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.

MT. OLIVE, NJ—At the 2024 NAB Show, April 14-17 in Las Vegas, Vislink Technologies will unveil its smallest transmitter yet, the DragonFly V. The  ultra-compact HEVC HDR COFDM transmitter weighs less than 55 grams, making it one of the lightest and most portable transmitters on the market, according to Vislink. It delivers high-definition HDR video transmission with low latency and supports video formats up to 1080P-50/60 HDR.

 “With the launch of DragonFly V, we are redefining the boundaries of live broadcast technology," said Mickey Miller, CEO of Vislink.. "This tiny yet mighty device exemplifies Vislink's commitment to delivering innovative, high-performance solutions that our customers have come to expect. DragonFly V is the epitome of advanced engineering, designed to empower broadcasters and content creators to capture the world from angles never before possible.”

DragonFly V offers HD/SDI or HDMI input options and caters to a myriad of applications, from sports and entertainment to public safety. Its energy-efficient design ensures extended operation times, critical for remote and dynamic live broadcasting environments, the company said.

Key features include:

• Innovative Miniature Design: DragonFly V offers unparalleled portability and ease of use without sacrificing quality or functionality.
• HEVC HDR Encoding: capable of handling up to 1080P HD video, it provides crisp, clear images that are essential for modern broadcast workflows.
• Flexible Connectivity: equipped with either HDMI or SDI inputs, it ensures compatibility with a wide range of cameras.
• Ultra-Reliable Transmission: with a 50mW COFDM output power, DragonFly V enables stable and secure video even in the most challenging conditions.
• Low Power Consumption: for efficient and extended use.
• Comprehensive Control: features like Wi-Fi control and RS232 remote control add convenience and flexibility to operations.

Vislink will be in Booth W3632 in the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

LOS ANGELES—Technology and sports have gone hand-in-hand at least since KDKA in Pittsburgh broadcast the first live sporting event—a boxing match—more than 100 years ago.

Since then, the two have become so enmeshed that it’s hard to think about one without the other. But the new United Football League (UFL) plans to take things to a whole new level, building its foundation with technology as the cornerstone.

“The UFL is a league defined by technology,” says Brad Cheney, vice president for field operations and engineering at Fox Sports. “That’s what the board wants. That’s what the league wants, and that’s what the broadcasters want.”

While Fox Sports plans to use some new production technology and apply a bit of “one-upmanship” on technology used for the past few years, he says, much of the tech will be what the broadcaster has developed over the past 30 years covering the NFL and nearly 20 years of college football.

“The real benefit is we are going to give the viewer the access they desire. Quite honestly, we know what that is now,” says Cheney.

UFL, tech and the viewer
The UFL, which begins inaugural play March 30 with four games, is the new league formed by the merger of the XFL and USFL. Fox Sports and ESPN share the UFL broadcast duties. 

(Editor’s note: TVTech asked ESPN about its plans but as of publication has received no reply.)

The league’s emphasis on technology is a strategy to differentiate itself and produce dividends for the fans, the teams and the league. “By leveraging technology, you get to be part of an R&D-oriented environment with the goal being to make the players better, which makes the play better, which makes the games more exciting,” he says.

One tech improvement viewers will notice immediately is the use of an automated first down system that keeps the game moving and running at the pace the players want.

“Imagine a long drive with a little bit of time left on the clock,” says Cheney. “You're running down the field. The last thing you want to do is let the defense reset itself while you're pulling the chains out.”

Instead, Fox Sports will use an optical ball-tracking technology that relies on data from multiple static cameras in the stadium and cloud processing to determine exact ball positioning within three seconds, he says.

“As the official places that ball on the field, it is laser-marked exactly by the optical system. The system tells us exactly how many yards that ball moved from the last time it started and from where the first down was,” he explains.

Audio Enhancements
The broadcasters will mic coaches and key players as well as rely on an array of parabolic mics to enhance audio.

Not only will fans be able to hear what coaches and quarterbacks are saying when the Fox Sports production team thinks the audio will improve viewing, but the telecast’s on-air crew will be able to listen and step up their game calls and color commentary.

“That’s a piece of the learning experience we’re developing,” says Cheney. “Our talent will explain what a play could be before the snap [based on these communications]. Viewers will be able to start to really understand these exchanges as they hear them in our broadcasts.”

The wireless mics, transmitters and receivers needed to pick up these verbal clues are only part of the UFL audio story, however.

“We’re micing a lot of players as we have in the past. But you can only have so many wireless microphones out there before you run into RF problems,” says Cheney.

“The goal is to have the right players with microphones on and having a pool of parabolic microphones to really dig into that sound,” he says.

Fox Sports crews will have full access to coaches and players—not simply on and off the field—but also up and down the sidelines. 

“Not only does that access help us with capturing video, but it really helps in capturing audio. All of a sudden, the parabolic microphones we used to aim down the straight line when the teams match up are right there,” he says. “They’re much closer than they are in college and NFL coverage.”

Two parabolic mic operators on each sideline will have access to the edge of the playing field and won’t be forced to attempt to pick up audio from behind players on the sidelines, he says, adding that they will not be standing in front of coaches.

Video production
Fox Sports will produce the UFL in 1080p HDR. Some games will be upconverted to 4K HDR, says Cheney.

Unlike the USFL, which chose a handful of venues for game play with opposing teams visiting, thereby drastically reducing the number of production truck rolls needed, the UFL will employ the more traditional traveling-team, home-away model.

As a result, Fox Sports will roll OB trucks to each home venue and also will employ its Home Run Model production workflow. Graphics and specialized production elements will run from the broadcaster’s Vault facility in Los Angeles. Augmented reality will play a part in UFL presentations, as well, he says. 

The camera complement is extensive, totaling more than 50 cameras, including specialty cameras like a drone camera, a home and visiting team Helmet Cam from Action Streamer, umpire and side judge Hat Cams, Megalodon and Pylon cameras.

“A lot of these pieces will be used on a consistent basis to make sure we have all this material available to our production team to show off what’s going on,” says Cheney.

One familiar technology that will see less use for UFL coverage is Skycam. “Especially as you start to talk about Helmet Cams and the drone, you say, ‘Wait a second. If I've got a running back with a Helmet Cam, and I know he is going to run the ball, I'm going to rip the Skycam out of the way and watch him coming at me instead of trying to follow that ball through the zone,” says Cheney.

Beverly Hills Aerials will handle drone duties, deploying its fourth-generation Bumblebee drone system, a more agile unit that offers “a bit more movement in the gimbal system” and greater camera stabilization, says Cheney.

“We're going to continue to launch that throughout the season and give you that angle of being in the run, being behind these players as they move, tracking a ball as it's kicked, tracking a ball as it’s thrown and finding that new look,” he says. 

Beyond the immediate benefits these technologies bring to the UFL and viewers, their use gives other sports leagues and organizations an opportunity to see how they perform and could possibly enhance the television production of their games.

“We have been a very open book with the NFL and the power five conferences and the NCAA about us doing things that other people aren’t doing,” says Cheney. “We’re happy to show them and have them come down and see that what we’re doing is going to be beneficial for the sport.”

(Fox Sports coverage begins with a game between both leagues’ champions, the Birmingham Stallions and the Arlington Renegades at 1 p.m. EDT. Next up for Fox Sports is the St. Louis Battlehawks vs. the Michigan Panthers at 4 p.m. ESPN’s season kickoff coverage begins at noon EDT with the D.C. Defenders vs. the San Antonio Brahmas and concludes with the Memphis Showboats vs. the Houston Roughnecks at 3.pm EDT. Games will be aired on Fox, FS1, ABC and ESPN.)

ARLINGTON, Texas—Game 1 of the World Series tonight not only represents a milestone in the evolution of how Fox Sports uses drones as a production element for game coverage, but it may also prove to be the catalyst that pushes them into the mainstream of MLB game production.

This year’s coverage, which begins at 6 p.m. CDT on Fox, Fox Deportes and Fox streaming services, with the game scheduled to start at 7:03 p.m. CDT on October 27, marks the first time the sports broadcaster will use video from drones flying over the field during an MLB game that is not an exhibition contest. 

The sports broadcaster is deploying three drones custom-built and operated by Beverly Hills Aerials (BHA), including the Gimbal Bee, Hummer Lite and Hummingbird. Drone use will be confined to dead ball action, such as flying over the outfield to capture shots of a relief pitcher running to the mound from the bullpen or behind the pitcher as he walks off the mound after the last out of an inning, says Brad Cheney, Fox Sports vice president for field operations and engineering.

A Moving Perspective
The drone milestone follows the broadcaster’s use of a drone on the field for production of the 2023 MLB All-Star Game at T-Mobile Park in Seattle. However, MLB regards the All-Star Game as an "exhibition"—an important distinction when it comes to what the league allows.

“You get to do a lot more things in an exhibition,” says Cheney. “All the players wear microphones and all the IFBs and other things. You’re just allowed more leeway. “

Expanded use of drones to include shots from over the field is consistent with other production innovations like two-point wireline cameras going up and down the baselines that capture the fluidity of games, he says.

“It’s another perspective, a moving perspective,” he explains. “That’s the really great thing about baseball. It’s a moving experience. Everything that happens is a reaction to something else, and everyone is moving in concert,” says Cheney.

Successful drone use during this year’s World Series between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Texas Rangers, Cheney is hoping, will be the last step in the process to garnering the go-ahead for regular season use.

“By executing the All-Star Game drone use correctly, everybody feels good about it, allowing us to come to the postseason and roll this out,” he says. 

“What we’ve seen with a lot of technology at Fox in partnership with Major League Baseball is that you do some testing—whether during spring training, the All-Star Game or other exhibition—and then slowly get it into postseason. You get a good run at it, and everybody agrees it went well at the most important games of the year.

“Then, we’ll start bringing that new technology into regular season game coverage as will our other partners at Turner, ESPN and MLB Network.”

That’s not to say, however, that broadcasters will deploy drones for every regular season game—at least initially. However, as with other technologies, such as the two-point wireline cameras, drones will become a regular part of coverage over time, he says.

Drone Use
Fox Sports began integrating drone footage into its live productions in 2015 when it used a DJI Octocopter during the Indianapolis Supercross pre-event. Since then, drones have played a role in its coverage of a variety of NASCAR races, including the Daytona 500 and Talladega, and MLB’s Field of Dreams games.

The three drones to be used during coverage of the series won’t be airborne at the same time. Rather, different drones will be used in different circumstances, says Cheney.

Each will be operated under the control of a team from Beverly Hills Aerials. The small drones will be piloted by operators wearing First Person View (FPV) goggles. Spotters working with the pilots will watch the flight space, providing critical flight information to the pilots to ensure safety. 

The three drones to be used in Arlington and at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix are equipped with a 4K camera, although the games are being produced in 1080p, says Cheney.

In general, the drones will fly about 25 feet off the field; however, at times they may descend to capture certain shots. As of this writing, it remained undecided whether video transport from the drones would rely on 5G, conventional RF or a combination of the two. However, 5G will be used to link the pilots with the drones for control, says Cheney.

Video signals from the drones will be transported back to the goggle system, which in turn will output it for transport over the broadcaster’s fiber network to its OB vehicles for integration into game coverage, he adds.

Drones and More
As with its coverage of other high-profile events, Fox Sports will rely on a cornucopia of other technology to put its production mark on the games.

That technology includes UmpCam, which made its postseason debut during the American League Division Series, 52 cameras, FlyCam, three DirtCams, 13 Super Motion cameras, three RF cameras and more than 100 microphones.

Still, the 2023 World Series from a video production point of view will likely be remembered for on-field drone use—not just for the series itself but as the mover behind getting drones into coverage of regular season play.

“We're super excited to go ahead with this and figure out what's going to be the next steps and how this becomes a regular part of our production process,” says Cheney. “That's always been our goal here—to apply technology when it actually benefits the fan. And we know this benefits the fan.”

“We really believe this is going to be something that five years from now is not going to be a conversation because everyone's going to have it. It's just going to be another tool and everybody's tool belt.”

More information about the drones is available online.

MILWAUKEE, Wisc.—With the 2024 Presidential Election shaping up to be one of the most expensive and hotly contested races in history, Fox News (FNC) is pulling out all stops for its coverage of the first Republican President Debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday August 23, with plans to have 310 people on site and to deploy of a host of new technologies. 

Technology for the coverage included building an innovative new set, plans to use drones in its pre- and post-coverage, setting up 500 screens on site for the production, and the deployment of several miles of fiber to produce and distribute content from over a dozen live shows before and after its live coverage of the debate. NEP’s Supershooter 6 IP-based mobile unit and ST6 support unit will serve as an engineering hub.

FNC’s tech efforts will also be aided by the fact that it is using most of the Milwaukee Buck’s relatively new Fiserv Arena and campus, which offers advanced connectivity for the production. The area will provide space not only for the debate, but also for spin room and a newsroom for journalists work.  

“I don’t want to compare this to the Super Bowl, but you can compare it to the scale of the effort we put into large scale sporting events,” said senior vice president of field and production operations, Scott Wilder in a lengthy interview with TV Tech. “This is the first debate. It is an event that is really important to the entire country. People are talking about it and will be talking about it. We want to highlight the discussion in general with our coverage of the debate and use the worlds of technology and creativity to tell that story and show people what’s happening in the arena and around Milwaukee.”

To capture the scale of the event, FNC is using drones in its pre-debate coverage. The drones will not fly during the debate. 

Wilder noted that FNC and the Fox-owned stations have long had an extensive and award-winning drone program.  But for the debate they wanted to provide a first person view flying perspective from the drones, which is something their own unit doesn’t do. 

So FNC will also be teaming up with Beverly Hills Aerial, an FPV drone company, that will fly both outdoors in the Deer District surrounding Fiserv Forum and inside the debate hall in their pre-debate coverage. 

“The Beverly Hills aerial vendor that we're partnering with builds their own drones and proprietary technology for this,” he said, which will allow them to swoop in and around the arena to provide a sense of scale and to give a wider view of Milwaukee. 

“As you know, with anything drone related, it's a lot of choreography, a lot of planning, there are a lot of rules and we're really really careful and make sure we follow all of them, as we are doing live TV and have drones flying across the plaza and out of one building into another,” Wilder explained. 

An early video of the pre-debate coverage using drones is available here. An example of the work Beverly Hills Aerial has done with Fox Sports can be found here. 

Another notable part of their production effort was the creation and design of a new 60 foot-long set that is designed to be used for this debate and at upcoming events. 

The set was designed by Jack Morton and constructed by Mystic Scenic Studios, Wilder said. 

“Concept of our set in general was to have it used in multiple locations, for multiple debates and to be used for town halls and other events,” Wilder said, which created a number of challenges. 

“It has to be not only visual and pretty, it has to be television ready and capable of being easily taken apart and moved to a different space or even put outdoors,” he said, adding that the final results were both very visual and practical in terms of its mobility. 

In terms of the debate, Wilder noted that the NEP unit “has nine cameras associated with it. There will be several cameras focused on the candidates. We have two cameras focused on our moderators. And then of course some some jibs, a high wide and we also have a steady cam.” 

One of the most notable features for viewers and candidates will be an LED screen that will display a clock to countdown the time each candidate has to answer questions. That screen will switch from green to yellow to red based on remaining time.

“The candidate has a certain amount of time to answer and they need the warning both when they need to start wrapping up their answer,” Wilder said. “So it goes from countdown clocks to color-coding monitors that are in all of their view, to eventually an audible alert, a chime of some sort to notify them it is time for them to stop speaking.”

That screen will also be used as a video screen for candidates to see questions being asked by the Young Americans Foundation (YAF) students and will serve as a visual set element when not being used for the other purposes.

For the coverage before, during and after the debate, FCN is using NEP trucks as an engineering hub. 

NEP’s Supershooter 6, an IP-based mobile unit capable of 1080p, HDR or 4K, and its support unit, ST6. will both be at the arena.

The Supershooter 6 equipment includes Grass Valley Kayenne X-Frame switcher, Adam Intercom System, Sony cameras (HDC3500, HDC5500 and HDC1500R models), Canon lenses, NEP TFC IP Router, Calrec Apollo 64 Faders, Bluefin 2 High Density Signal Processing Module, a variety of EVS products for record and playback and other equipment.

Overall, this tech setup will handle four days of programming originating from Milwaukee:

Monday, August 21st

3 PM/ET – The Story

6 PM/ET – Special Report

Tuesday, August 22nd

3 PM/ET – The Story

6 PM/ET – Special Report

Wednesday, August 23rd 

6-9 AM/ET – Fox & Friends

9-11 AM/ET – America’s Newsroom

3 PM/ET – The Story 

5 PM/ET – The Five

6 PM/ET – Special Report

8:30-9 PM/ET – Countdown to the Debate

9-11 PM/ET – First Republican Presidential Primary Debate

11 PM-12 AM/ET – Hannity

Thursday, August 24th

6-9 AM/ET – Fox & Friends 

9-11 AM/ET – America’s Newsroom

Fox Business Network will simulcast FNC’s special live coverage while Fox News Digital will offer nonstop coverage on the FOXNews.com homepage with a continuously updated live blog. Fox News Audio will provide multi-platform coverage featuring hourly updates and breaking news coverage of the debate.

LAS VEGAS—Imagine flying behind 12 of the world’s top snowboarders as they make dangerous, remote runs through deep, fresh powder in the mountains around Revelstoke, British Columbia, Canada, and doing it live with cinematic flair. That was the vision Uncle Toad’s Media Group brought to the production of the Natural Selection Tour, a demanding backcountry snowboarding competition through some of the most challenging terrain imaginable.

Jordan Velarde, Uncle Toad’s founder and executive producer; Chris Steblay, also an executive producer and creative director at the media group; and Ben Boriss, vice president at RF Wireless Systems, discussed the production during their “Racing Drones and Live REMI Production” session at the NAB Show in Las Vegas last week.

“We kind of invented a lot of ways of doing things because—for lack of a better term—we didn’t know any other way to do it,” Steblay said.

Potential Dangers
In practical terms, that meant modifying airborne racing drones to capture 1080p 59.94 stabilized video of snowboarders from above and behind the athletes as they made their way down the mountain. 

It also meant setting up a base of operations 20 miles from civilization in snow that in places was waist-deep, beaming live video via satellite to a centralized production control room in Santa Monica, California, for a classic remote integration model (REMI) production.

The remoteness of the location required all video gear and crew to get to the site via helicopter, Steblay said. The potential danger of the surroundings also required those on-site to don avalanche survival gear, he said. 

“When we first started visiting some of our locations, we realized you’d need 50 cameras,” Steblay said. “You’d have to fly in trucks … [and] drop them in in the summer. The budget did not allow for us to cover it like we would all be used to.”

“We really wanted to bring that big show to the mountain, so that’s where we kind of realized we needed to be wireless,” he said. “We could do a small setup on the mountain and transmit to an area where we can do the production.”

Maintaining wireless connectivity with the drones to transmit live video from the aircraft was particularly challenging.

“My mind was really kind of blown for a long time while I was really trying to understand the vision,” Boriss said. 

Two Different Drones
Using drones to follow the snowboarders on a field of play that was massive, delivering live video from wherever they went, combined with the presence of snow-covered treetops, boulders and other obstacles, compounded the challenge of the project for RF Wireless systems, he said.

Uncle Toad’s had a total of six racing drones prepared for coverage. At any given time, one was in the air and two others were flight-ready to take over in the event the drone in use was lost. 

The company developed two different types of drones. One was a heavy payload model for the “gimbalized” lens drone. The most recent iteration of that drone was a DJI Inspire drone. The other type was the racing drone, Steblay said. 

The biggest challenge the REMI team in Santa Monica faced was getting connected to the Uncle Toad’s crew in the mountains, said Velarde.

“Usually, when we go to a venue, if there is a problem I’ll run to Ben at the venue and talk to him,” he said. “But we had to wait each morning for them to get to the location, for them to fire up the satellite, for them to then check all of the audio paths. … We had to go through that checklist before we could even talk to them.”

While a challenge, it worked well, enabling Velarde to speak with the team on the mountain “like they were in the other room,” he said.

The REMI production created another challenge for Velarde and others in the production control room: They had no firsthand knowledge about the layout of the field of play.

“Our true understanding of the venue—I saw what you guys saw,” Velarde said, alluding to those attending who watched clips of the production during the presentation. “It was a challenge to really understand it.”  

© NAB 2023

PORTLAND, Maine—JS Engineering has partnered with Shulins’ Solutions to offer drone-based temperature measurements and visual inspections at RF sites.

Traditionally, these services are performed by trained tower technicians who carefully climb a tower to inspect its physical elements and make repairs.

“While nothing can fully replace a physical inspection, sUAS inspections bring new technology and capabilities, allowing for inspections that can be made more frequently, less expensively and, in many cases, with more detail than a physical inspection — often finding problems not obvious from the ground,” said Shulins’ Solutions on its website.

Leading the charge on this offering are two broadcast and RF consultants: Paul Shulins, president at Shulins’ Solutions, and Jim Stenberg, owner of JS Engineering.

“We obtain the necessary clearances and arrive on site to completely profile your tower and its antennas and transmission lines with both visible and infrared cameras,” said Stenberg in a LinkedIn post. “The high-power zoom visual camera provides details that even a knowledgeable tower climber might miss.”

The infrared profile is then reviewed on site and areas of concern can be highlighted and further studied, said Stenberg.

“By viewing all the antennas/transmission lines on a particular tower, and by performing several tower studies on one trip, we can efficiently share the costs of the service amongst a number of owners, tenants and services,” he said.

JS Engineering, based in Portland, Maine, was originally formed in 2005 to provide RF equipment field service and system testing to the broadcast industry. After a years-long hiatus, in which Stenberg worked for American Tower Corp., the company re-opened, offering its services to broadcast and wireless clients on a contract basis.

Shulins’ Solutions, based in Wickenburg, Arizona, provides monitor, control and protection solutions for transmission sites and broadcast antennas and sUAS drone-based tower inspections, among other broadcasting consulting services.

Click here for more information on the companies’ sUAS drone services.

This article originally appeared on TV Tech sister brand, Radio World. 

DJI has introduced Ronin 4D Flex, a new way to use the Ronin 4D professional cinema camera platform. 4D Flex allows operators to separate the Zenmuse X9 gimbal camera from the main body, reducing handheld weight and size to achieve professional footage with even more flexible camera movement, the company said.

Ronin 4D Flex features seamless compatibility with the 4D Hand Grips and Main Monitor, effectively transforming a camera operator into a one-man cinema unit, according to the company. Also announced today is the DL PZ 17-28mm T3.0 Lens, DJI’s first-ever cinema-grade zoom lens, allowing for 100% native focus and zoom for a new level of image quality into the Ronin 4D system. Finally, an activation license key for the Apple ProRes RAW codec on Ronin 4D is now available for purchase at the DJI Store, making it even easier to integrate Ronin 4D footage into cinema productions.

“Ronin 4D reimagined what a single cinema camera can do by achieving a new standard of versatility, cinema quality, and image stability in one piece of equipment,” said Paul Pan, Senior Product Line Manager at DJI. “4D Flex and the DL PZ 17-28mm Lens show the expansive capabilities of this platform to allow cinematographers to capture footage in completely new ways. With these products, we want to express that when it comes to what’s possible with DJI Pro, we’re only getting started.”

Ronin 4D Flex provides creators with a more flexible and efficient camera movement system and a unique creative experience. Solo operators can separate the X9 gimbal camera from the main body, reducing the handheld weight of Ronin 4D to just 1.8kg, letting them shoot for long durations more easily in mobile situations like events and documentaries. 4D Flex also makes the X9 gimbal camera compatible with a variety of rigs and let professional crews shoot footage that was previously extremely difficult or even impossible, such as cinema-quality through-shots and dynamic camera interiors, the company said.

Connecting Ronin 4D Flex to the main body is a 2m ultra-thin coaxial cable, supporting lossless transmission of up to 8K. This allows high-speed signals from the camera sensor to reach the main body instantly, and also control and monitoring signals to be delivered in real-time. This solid cable connection lends 4D Flex unprecedented flexibility of camera positions, no matter how limited the space. It also allows the Zenmuse X9 gimbal camera to be used as an ultra-small cinematic-grade remote head.

Ronin 4D Flex is compatible with the ever-growing Ronin ecosystem of professional cinematography solutions. Native compatibility with Ronin 4D’s Hand Grips and the Main Monitor provides cinematographers with a whole set of solutions, including cinematic imaging, 3-axis stabilization, LiDAR focusing, and professional monitoring and control. The result is a convenient and efficient creative experience unparalleled in the industry today, according to the company. 

Switching between Flex and the integrated configuration on set is fast and no tools are required for this transition, providing greater versatility. For static shots, the standard Pan Axis Quick-Lock with accessories pushes the limits of the gimbal’s payload, supporting telephoto, cinema zoom, and anamorphic lenses to give users wider freedom of choice for the shot they envision.

DJI’s First Cinema Zoom Lens
The DL PZ 17-28mm T3.0 Lens is DJI’s first-ever cinema-grade zoom lens and features precise back focus control and native system calibration, with more accurate autofocus, manual focus and automated manual focus (AMF). Mounted on Zenmuse X9, this lens delivers ultra-high resolution from center to edge while covering ultra-wide to wide-angle focal lengths with a minimum object distance of 0.19 m.

Constructed of aluminum magnesium alloy, the DL PZ 17-28mm T3.0 Lens weighs approximately 520 g, providing a size-to-weight ratio that is a perfect match for the X9 gimbal camera. The internal servo zoom motor delivers a smooth and reliable zoom that eliminates the need for an external focus motor or lens calibration. And the DL PZ 17-28mm adjusts zoom without requiring re-balancing.

Price and Availability
Ronin 4D Flex is available now from authorized retailers and at www.store.dji.com for USD $929, and includes Ronin 4D Flex, one Pan Axis Quick-Lock, two Ronin 4D Hand Grip Adapters, and 2 Hand Grip Adapter Cables.

The DL PZ 17-28mm T3.0 Lens will be available for purchase today from authorized retailers and at www.store.dji.com for USD $1339.

The Apple ProRes RAW license for Ronin 4D will be available for purchase today at www.store.dji.com for USD $979.

In addition to these, two upcoming accessories—the DJI Three-Channel Follow Focus and DJI Ronin 4D Expansion Plate (SDI/XLR/TC)—will both be available in May.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Fox Sports will deploy XtraMotion, its super slow-motion interpolation technology co-developed with EVS, on prem for the first time during a NASCAR race Sunday, Feb. 19 for its coverage of the Daytona 500.

(Coverage of the Daytona 500, aka "The Great American Race," begins on Fox and Fox Deportes at 2:30 p.m. EST. Coverage is also available on the Fox Sports app, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV and fuboTV.)

First deployed for the race in 2021, XtraMotion processing at that time was done offsite in the AWS Cloud where a theoretically limitless number of CPUs and GPUs created new video between frames shot at normal speed to synthesize slow motion. XtraMotion, in essence, turned every camera into a super slow-motion camera.

The downside, however, was depending on the cloud to interpolate the frames remotely. The distance introduced latency that required the broadcaster to be judicious about how it integrated XtraMotion footage into its coverage. 

Stoppages in the race due to crashes, for example, gave Fox Sports the time needed—as much as five minutes—to generate the synthesized super slow-motion footage and have it ready to insert into the production. Having XtraMotion processing available in a rack-mounted device on-site changes that.

“What's cool about having XtraMotion processing on site is that, when something happens, you send video to the XtraMotion processor, and then it turns back up in your EVS playlist as a 3x super motion clip, and it does that in five seconds,” says Michael Davies, senior vice president of field and technical operations, at Fox Sports.

Generating XtraMotion on prem also enables the system to treat incoming source video as a “growing clip,” which means there’s effectively no limit to the length of the super slow-motion interpolated segment.  

“It’s going to be amazing for in-car [cameras] because obviously we can’t do in-cars as super motion,” he says. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how often it gets used because of how quick the turnaround is.”

Helmet Cams
The Great American Race will also see the first use of video cameras integrated directly into the helmets of drivers to give viewers a driver’s eye view of the race rather than relying on vizor helmet cameras that were temporarily attached to the head protection, he says.

“Racing Force is the company behind Bell Helmets, and they have the knowledge to execute the integration of the cameras,” says Davies.

Fox Sports, which will shoot the Daytona 500 in 1080p HDR, will rely on an extensive complement of cameras (see Camera Map), including several drone cameras from Beverly Hills Aerials. 

“Beverly Hills Aerials, which we have worked with in the past, brings several different types of airships, each used for a different purpose,” says Davies.

Those include the small, lightweight Hummingbird drone that can fly around people with their permission, the FPV high-speed drone used in NASCAR straightaways due to its speed and a heavy-lift drone.

“The heavy-lift drone is a big, multiple rotor aircraft with a stabilized camera—a real 60- to 70-pound camera,” says Davies. 

Davies draws a distinction between how drones are used in race coverage when compared to other sports. “The interesting thing about racing is that unlike stick-and-ball sports where drones are basically used to generate glorified feature beauty shots, auto racing can actually use drones to as actual coverage cameras,” he says. 

The difference is the size and setup of the raceway, which makes it possible to fly the drones along large, unpopulated corridors to capture race footage without flying over people, says Davies, who adds that every year the industry is achieving more trust among regulators at the FAA by demonstrating drones can be used safely even when thousands of people are nearby in the stands.

Can You Hear Me Now?
Radios in NASCAR that let fans hear the drivers are nothing new, but efforts continue every year to improve the quality of this audio to enhance the experience of viewers, says Davies.

Doing so is a mix of technology and how personnel are allocated. On the technology side, audio compression helps make the conversations on the two-way radios clearer. When it comes to personnel, Fox Sports dedicates one person to a radio submixer whose only job is to “pepper in actual talk,” he says.

“Then we actually have a racing radios editor, who is actually in his home in Georgia. He listens to the radio and actually plays it back, depending on what the content is,” says Davies.

The Fox Sports senior vice president adds that work is underway on a project that sometime this race season aims to add captions to those conversations. “We’re working with Veritone on that project. It’s a difficult challenge. By the nature of radios not being that great of a source when it comes to quality, generating those captions is going to be a feat.”

Distributed Workflow
While there are 30 to 40 Fox Sports production personnel on site, NASCAR production has transitioned over the past few years to a distributed model workflow. The broadcaster will leverage production personnel in the Fox Sports Vault in Los Angeles, others in Pittsburgh and still others at its Charlotte, N.C., NASCAR studio. There is also a video editor as well as the racing radios editor and racing radios mixer who will be working from their homes, says Davies.

“This is the thing about NASCAR, every year for the last four years, I’ve lost an entire truck from our compound,” he says. “What you see today compared to 2018 is four fewer trucks, and we are doing exactly the same show, if not more.”

The main production vehicles on site are Game Creek’s Cleatus A and B units, which will be used by Fox Sports and NBC Sports throughout the NASCAR racing season. While an SDI-based truck, SMPTE ST 2110 is playing a big role on site for distribution although “the core is still good-old SDI,” he says.

What really drew attention to the decline in the number of trucks on site in Davies’ mind was a conversation he had with a younger crew member. “I was talking to one of the kids who hadn’t been here before, and I recounted the days when we had ESPN and DirecTV here—literally 20 trucks in the compound. But it’s not like that anymore.”

“At this point, I’ve kind of hit rock bottom,” Davies adds with a chuckle. “I wasn’t able to lose another truck this year.”

More information on XtraMotion is available on the EVS website.

More information on Bell Helmets is available online.

More information on video production drones is available on the Beverly Hills Aerials website.

More information on Veritone is available online.

OTTAWA—Recent changes to Federal Aviation Administration rules governing flight authorizations for drones (aka unmanned aerial systems/UAS or unmanned aerial vehicles/UAVs) now allow for expanded missions with less red tape. These changes, along with other recent positive advances, illustrate the advances that have taken place over the past decade as the use of UASs for TV coverage has blossomed.

More Trust from Regulators 
The responsible, disciplined approach to UAS pilot training and operations pursued by U.S. broadcasters has paid off. Impressed by their willingness to embrace the spirit of the law as well as the letter, the FAA has revised their rules to give the industry more flexibility. 

The new rules, “Remote ID and Operations Over People,” which the FAA published in December 2020, required UAS operators to be in compliance by September 2023 and signal a pathway to expanded flight operations, according to Jeff Rose, UAS Chief Pilot with Sinclair Broadcast Group. 

“With these new rules we now also have the ability to obtain LAANC authorizations [Low Altitude Authorization Notification Authorization Capability] for flying at night in restricted airspace,” Rose said. “This automated service allows near instantaneous authorizations for night flying in restricted airspace, which is a big benefit for newsgathering.”

Scott Wilder, senior vice president of field and production operations at Fox News, describes the FAA’s improved LAANC authorization application process as “the best advance that I can speak to on the regulatory front. What used to take 60 days now takes 60 seconds. It is a true game changer. The FAA is doing a phenomenal job with it.”

That’s not all: “The FAA has been working to make it easier to fly and easier to obtain permissions to fly in locations not previously available,” Wilder added. “The FAA is also proving to be 24/7. When we have waiver requests on a Sunday evening, we hear back in an efficient manner.”

Another area where the FAA is providing more leeway to responsible UAS operators is the “Operations Over People” rule applying to pilots who fly under Part 107 of the FAA regulations, according to Dr. Shaun Passley, founder of ZenaTech, developer of the ZenaDrone 1000 totally autonomous (self-flying) UAS. “This rule allows UAV pilots to operate at night under specific conditions and provided that they complete certain training or pass knowledge tests,” he said.

Remote ID Makes the Difference
The FAA’s more expansive attitude towards UAS operations is built upon its requirement for these aircraft to be equipped with Standard Remote ID (SRID) transmitters.

“SRID enables the transmission of the drone serial number, brand, GPS, geometric altitude, geometric location, velocity, time of the day, emergency status, and more,” said Claudio Lisman, president, CEO and founder of ProximaVision, a consulting firm specializing in drone and nanosatellite technologies. “UAVs must have their SRIDs operational from the moment of takeoff to shut down, broadcasting message elements at 1Hz [once per second], no later than one second after the measurement of position. In fact, the vehicle will not be able to take off unless it has transmitted all of the required message elements.”

Requiring UASs to carry and use SRIDs at all times makes it possible to integrate them into air traffic control systems alongside manned aircraft. As such, “making SRIDs mandatory in manufactured drones will enable much better traffic management, security, and new applications, such as flying over areas that have been restricted up to now,” Lisman added. “It will also allow flying UAVs over people, which in the case of news and production, is almost always required.”

The SRID requirement simply expands options, according to Wilder. “The SRID rule allows us more opportunities to have a drone in the air; most recently during Hurricane Ian, hours before the heart of the storm impacted the west coast of Florida,” he said.

“Remote ID also lays the foundation of the safety and security groundwork needed for more complex drone operations,” said Dr. Passley. “The rule provides crucial information to our national security and law enforcement partners and other agencies charged with ensuring public safety.” 

A New, Better View for TV News
Anyone who has been watching TV news the past two years knows how integral drone footage has become for covering stories effectively. Small wonder: Overhead drone footage can provide a framing context to a story unavailable to ground-based cameras. As well, the motion associated with drone footage makes any news story look better: it’s just more exciting to watch. 

These capabilities have allowed Fox News to cover stories in entirely new ways. Take for example, the influx of undocument immigrants at the Texas/Mexico border, where Fox News has been flying drones like the DJI Matrice with thermal imaging for over a year. This kind of high-tech capability “allows us to fly at night and show what looks like high-quality surveillance images of the migrant crisis,” said Wilder. “Every day we capture the surge of migrants happening that you can’t see from the same location on the ground. Our drone coverage on the border has changed the way that story is being told.”

That being said, what really makes UASs so useful to TV news departments is their ability to deploy extremely quickly and start capturing memorable footage fast. “A drone will almost always be able to arrive on the scene faster than a car or mobile unit,” Lisman said. “That is why drones are ideal for coverage of fires, demonstrations, war zones, and sports events applications in TV news and broadcast.”

These advantages explain why UASs are proving to be as significant an enhancement to TV news production as video cameras were with their instant access to recorded footage (compared to film), and satellite trucks for getting coverage out of anywhere fast. 

The result: “Local TV newscasts are using drone video daily for expanded storytelling as well as breaking news coverage,” said Rose. “Our viewers love drone video and have come to expect it regularly whether it is a compelling news story or just beautiful weather shots.” This is why Sinclair now employs 133 pilots across its station, many of whom carry a UAS with them as part of their kit. “This leads to fresh drone content daily,” he said.

BVLOS: The Next Frontier
As far as TV news UASs have come, there is still one frontier to be conquered: “Beyond Visual Line of Sight” (BVLOS) flight allows the ability to send UASs beyond the view of their operators, navigating their path by using video feeds from their cameras plus any onboard self-flying (autonomous) capabilities.

“Currently, the FAA provides waivers to professional pilots and certain organizations so they can fly BVLOS,” said Lisman; “however, those waivers are hard to obtain. The main limitation is the communication and range between the drone and pilot control. In addition, the latency needs to be very low when flying long distances. This is important, as the pilot needs real-time awareness of the topography and the terrain below.”

Historically, broadcasters such as Fox News have been “very conservative” in the kinds of UAS flight profiles they choose, an approach that has won them trust from the FAA and public alike.

“Safety is our number one priority,” Wilder explained. “I recently denied a request after thinking long and hard about it because I knew what was being requested would look amazing. But I also knew that a lower altitude safer version would be almost as amazing. We aren’t looking to impress anyone, we are looking to offer visual advantages that didn’t previously exist in the safest possible manner.”

The challenges of safe BVLOS flight are being addressed by UAS manufacturers and operators today. And when they are sufficiently resolved by SRID, onboard aircraft avoidance detection systems, and autonomous drones, expect TV news organizations to cross the BVLOS frontier in record numbers.

“In the future, when drones are flying everywhere for package delivery, there will likely be drones used for news gathering flown both with a pilot in the field as we do now and also piloted remotely from beyond visual line of site,” Rose predicted. “These BVLOS drone operations could potentially be piloted remotely from the TV station or pre-deployed as a ‘drone in a box’ at strategic locations. 

Rose said Sinclair will even use ATSC 3.0 technology as it becomes incorporated into drone flights, for greater precision and more accuracy. “The use of ATSC is 100 times more precise than GPS alone, allowing for more accurate navigation [from 3 meters with GPS down to 3 centimeters using ATSC datacasting],” he said. 

“Every day it gets better and better,” Scott Wilder concluded. “I think within several years every photographer will be a Part 107 pilot and have their own drone. That will be a big change to expect that every story assigned has a Part 107 photographer shooting the story with the ability to have aerial imagery.” 

MANASSAS, Va.—Thermal cameras and contactless spot thermometers are increasingly being used at the station level to safely check electrical wiring, power systems, HVAC equipment, and transmitters. Camera-equipped drones (aka unmanned aircraft systems or “UAS”), have been found to be incredibly useful in documenting tower-mounted equipment and providing a “first look” at suspected antenna, tower, or transmission line problems, saving tower crew cost and time.

At Cavell Mertz, we have found thermal cameras to be helpful in spotting transmission line problems (with bullet junctions and elbows being the usual suspects) since the line can be thermally scanned while it is being fed by the transmitter at full power (Fig. 1). A network analyzer may sometimes not “see” a problem until it significantly worsens since the network analyzer operates at very low power. A problem or failure that is happening while in operation or under load may not be apparent unless it’s being stressed at higher powers. 

Cost-Effective Solution
IR cameras are typically used at ground level for locations such as the inside of a transmitter building, along the transmission line trestle/ice bridge, at the tower base, and in the first few feet up the tower. Getting useful images further up the tower with ground-based cameras isn’t as feasible, as telephoto thermal lenses and camera equipment capable of providing usable, reliable information at longer distances (further up the tower) are extremely expensive to purchase or lease. Nevertheless, in the early days of doing IR scanning for clients, we leased nitrogen-cooled long lens systems in order to chase down problems on a tower that were evading diagnosis. 

As thermal cameras have become smaller, lighter, and (somewhat) more affordable, drone systems also became more reliable, precisely controllable, and able to lift heavier loads—all of which resulted in a “perfect marriage” of capabilities—airborne thermal cameras that can scan tower-mounted lines and equipment from more favorable vantage points.

Over the years, as we first built our own drones, then bought capable large commercial models to support our airborne antenna RF measurement work, we started experimenting with drone-mounted IR systems, finally settling on a camera system that provided dual IR/visual images while having lenses and sensors that permitted tower scanning from a reasonable distance from the tower. We ended up with three drones that can carry multi-use camera payloads. 

Plan Your Flight
Scanning a tower requires a bit of pre-planning and a careful preflight: guy wires, T-bars, and candelabra arms have to be avoided, and wind must be taken into account to prevent a collision (note: in a collision, the drone always loses, so inattention and distraction must be avoided during a mission). Some drones have a failsafe system, where it self-navigates to a safe place should it lose control telemetry.  Be sure that your ”fly-away” plan takes the drone out and away from the tower, and into a safe (guy wire-free) zone (Fig. 2).

Take a close look as to what is emitting RF energy on the tower, at what frequency, and at what power, especially in “tower farm” situations. Many drones don’t tolerate RF saturation or interference/overloading of their control and telemetry systems and some unlicensed microwave frequencies are close to the Wi-Fi telemetry frequencies used by drones. You could lose control and  have an un-commanded “fly away” event or crash.  

Since you want to see all systems being measured operate at full power for diagnostic purposes, plan to fly farther from the tower as the UAS flies through the elevations where high RF is expected. We typically fly close to the tower as we scan transmission lines, then back away to a calculated safe distance to transit a hot area (while still scanning the area of importance), then navigate back to the closer position once the UAV is out of the RF hot zone. Obviously, this is not a single operator event—you’ll want spotters to assist you. Understandably, this requires skill, planning, and satisfaction of certain FAA requirements.

Gathering and Analyzing Data
As for the practical side of gathering data, if your drone system doesn’t have the ability to record height as it ascends to correlate a height with a hotspot, look at the tower drawings and note vertical benchmarks, such as known guy wire and antenna heights. This way, if a thermal hot spot is noted, you can tell a tower climber to start checking for issues at a particular height range, saving some of their time.

Since the sun can thermally “load up” the tower, we prefer to do thermal scans at night, allowing time for the tower to cool down; otherwise, the solar loading can make temperature differences difficult to spot. Wind speeds and temperatures can differ, often significantly, as the height above ground changes. Having access to good weather information and on-board sensors can be helpful as you evaluate the resulting images and data.  

As for interpreting the information, training and experience are key. From a thermography standpoint, operating IR equipment from a drone is similar to operating IR equipment on the ground—the same data interpretation principles apply, even though the environment and considerations differ. Thermal camera suppliers such as FLIR have training programs and videos (including IR drone training) available. From experience, we know that small differences in temperature gradient generally are normal—it is the big differences that are telling. Reflected heat and light, paint color, and even material type and finish can give a false indication of high, or even normal, temperatures. 

Finally, if an anomaly is suspected from the imaging (Fig. 3), some people skills are needed to discuss what was observed and as a plan of further investigation is being developed. After all, thermal imaging is an interpretative art as much as it is a science. Approaching a possible problem in a non-confrontational manner with the suppliers and installers can go a long way toward gaining cooperation and a resolution. 

The broadcast industry is in the infancy stages of utilizing drones for sports, news, and production applications. Today, drones are increasingly being used for aerial shots of developing news stories and flyovers of sports stadiums, as their small size enables broadcasters to access tight spaces and fly at a low altitude at a fraction of the cost of using helicopters. Some drones are currently outfitted with 4K and 8K cameras, allowing them to deliver ultra-high-quality live video footage with embedded telemetry data. 

As the drone technology and its use cases evolve, it begs an important question. Can drones replace helicopters for producing aerial views? This article will examine some of the challenges and recent technology innovations for leveraging drones in the broadcast and other application environments, such as public safety and security.

Impacts of Beyond Visible Line of Sight on Long-Range Operations 
One of the greatest challenges broadcasters face is using drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) requirements mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The current license for commercially flying drones (i.e., FAA Part 107) mandates a maximum flying altitude of 500 feet and an all-flying time visual line of sight to the drone pilot.

In addition, the transmission of the drone controls and video must be within a certain distance to ensure superior video quality, reception, and preservation of command and control of the drone. 

Extending Visible Line of Sight With Wireless Networks and Nano Satellites
Broadcasters can overcome visible line of sight limitations with state-of-the-art technologies. Every drone has a transceiver that receives commands and sends video plus telemetry. If Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) pilots cannot physically see the drone, they are not compliant with current FAA rules, which are designed to prevent a drone from falling on a crowd or loss of control, due to failure of long-range communication with the drone.

Cellular networks and nanosatellites offer a solution. By using a cellular network or nanosatellite, broadcasters can create bidirectional communications with the drone beyond the line of sight and could therefore fly an unlimited distance as long as power and connectivity with cellular networks or nanosatellites are available. Achieving low latency rates, ideally of 50ms, is also extremely important, to ensure that the commands are received in near real time.

All that is required to accomplish long-range flying and controlling of the drone is maintaining a good connection between the drone and a cellular tower or nanosatellite constellation. In addition, to accomplish BVLOS flying distances requires using a more sophisticated small aperture antenna or a bonded cellular device onboard. Adding an antenna or built-in bonded cellular device will add weight to the drone. It’s important to note that FAA Part 107 currently limits the total weight at takeoff to 55 pounds. 

So why should broadcasters, public safety, and security forces use drones vs. a helicopter? The compact nature of drones enables them to fly over any type of event or terrain and provide live, almost real-time, coverage with highly accurate GPS and telemetry data that would be unavailable by other means. Moreover, there are technical, logistic, and economic advantages of using drones for video production and monitoring applications. 

To accomplish similar capabilities, helicopters require a tracking directional, or omnidirectional, antenna pointing toward a tower. The tower needs a receiver and a transmitter to act as a relay station to deliver the live feed to a receiving command and control facility. This is very costly, both from a hardware perspective and in terms of helicopter running costs. The expense of using drones is significantly less than helicopters, enabling broadcasters, public safety teams and security forces to deliver similar or better video quality at lower altitudes than helicopters are capable of. 

Conclusion
Wireless cellular networks and nanosatellites are transforming how the broadcast and public safety industries use drones for video monitoring and production beyond visual line of sight. In the future, the quality of video delivered by drones will keep improving, with 5G providing an outstanding amount of bandwidth and enabling clearer, more pristine pictures. 

As transmission solutions, camera equipment, and cellular networks continue to evolve, the result will be enhanced video quality, improved coverage, lower latency, increased bandwidth, reduced costs, and many more exciting capabilities for live monitoring and broadcast production.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y.—Tiffen has announced its 3-Filter Neutral Density Kit for the DJI Mini 3 Pro. The lightweight filters allow users to manage the camera aperture for ideal exposure without color shift and provides a simple, professional method of controlling the lighting conditions while operating this popular drone.

The Tiffen Mini 3 Pro 3 Filter Kit comes complete with three neutral density filters (ND8, ND16 and ND32) that reduce light passing through to the camera's sensor. The ND8 yields 3-stop reduction, the ND16 4-stop reduction and the ND32 cuts the light by 5 stops.

Tiffen Drone filters are made from optical glass with waterproof and scratch-proof multi-coating, which reduces reflection while maintaining clarity and color fidelity. The rectangular filter rings are built of lightweight and durable aluminum. The Tiffen Mini 3 Pro 3 Filter Kit also includes a protective carry case, and cleaning cloth at an MSRP of $69.99. 

For more details visit https://tiffen.com/pages/dji-mini-3-pro-edu.

IRVINE, Calif.—With the 2022 wildfire season getting an early and devastating start with record breaking fires in the American Southwest, Verizon has laid out some of its plans to be able to continue to provide crucial communications to communities and first responders during wildfire, extreme weather and other natural disasters

With the hottest and driest months of the 2022 wildfire season still ahead and experts predicting another active fire season, teams of Verizon engineers have been preparing by running emergency drills, testing fiber and cell site readiness, and ensuring recovery equipment is in place, the telco said.

Verizon Frontline and the Verizon Frontline Response Team also have been working to ensure that they can provide first responders on the front lines of potential disaster response efforts with portable gear that will allow them to maintain mission-critical communications.

Verizon said that it maintains a fleet of over 500 portable assets, including fully functional, generator-powered cells sites that can replace or enhance network coverage and capacity in a given area as well as drones and a fixed wing aircraft that can provide service from the sky above. 

Verizon also has 150 satellite-based portable network assets that can be used in case fiber connection is lost due to loss of commercial power or physical damage. Those assets include mid-Earth orbit and geosynchronous assets. All of those mobile assets are complemented by nearly a thousand portable generators and a comprehensive refueling program.

The use of battery and generator backup systems in critical locations such as macro cell sites, switch locations and network operations centers also serve to minimize the risk of disruption if commercial power is lost, the company said. All of Verizon macro cell sites have backup battery power and 78% have backup generators. 

Verizon engineers have also been preparing for the coming season by ensuring fuel levels are high on all generators at cell sites, testing battery back-ups at network facilities, positioning extra equipment in case additional capacity is needed, and prepping emergency crews to respond quickly to any network issue.

Verizon noted that in 2021, Verizon teams responded to 128 named wildfires, delivering more than 2,000 Verizon Frontline solutions to first responders in nearly 200 communities across 16 states.

Composed of many former first responders and military veterans, the Verizon Frontline Response Team is available 24/7 to deliver Verizon Frontline technologies including portable cell sites, drones, charging stations, WiFi hotspots, and other Verizon Frontline devices and solutions that enable communications and/or boost network performance, the company said. 

The telco also stressed that Verizon’s retail team stands ready to assist customers and ensure they have the right devices, accessories and connectivity they’ll need to prepare for extended power outages, mandatory evacuation orders, and other extreme circumstances. 

When wildfire risk is high, Verizon also issued these recommendations:

• Keep devices protected: While many phones today are some degree of water resistant, you still want to take some extra care to ensure phones, tablets, batteries, chargers and other equipment remain dry and accessible. Plastic zipper storage bags help shield devices, and there are weatherproof phones, phone cases and other protective accessories available.
• Keep devices fully charged: Make sure your device is ready when you need it by keeping phone and tablet batteries fully charged in case commercial power goes out.
• Get some backup: When power is out for an extended period of time, portable battery packs can be a game-changer to ensure you remain connected. Don’t forget your car chargers as well in case you need to evacuate.
• Create a list: Keep a list of emergency numbers in your phone so that you have them if needed.
• Be prepared for loss: Take pictures of valuables and other important belongings for possible insurance claims. And make sure they’re uploaded to the cloud so you have a backup.
• Review checklists: Review the wildfire safety recommendations and other resources from the American Red Cross.
• Download useful apps: There are plenty of free wildfire notification, weather, news, and safety-related apps available for download to your smartphone.

For businesses and government agencies, Verizon recommended:  

• Make sure you have contact information updated and readily available for all employees, including at-home information for remote workers and branch information for satellite offices.
• Stress-test primary and backup networks and shore up any weak areas
• Make copies of insurance documents, review insurance coverages and update as appropriate.
• Ensure employees working from home have documented all corporate equipment being used to work from home in case of damage or loss.
• Ensure backup plans are in place to shift work in case work-from-home employees in a fire-impacted area have to evacuate their home or their home loses commercial power for an extended period.

SASKATOON, Canada—As part of a deal with the Ukraine charity, Revived Soldiers, Ukraine (RSU), Draganfly has confirmed that the first of the humanitarian drones it is shipping to RSU has arrived in Europe. 

RSU will be using the drone to deliver insulin to hard-to-reach hospitals in Ukraine.

Overall, RSU has ordered 200 Draganfly Medical Response drones equipped with temperature-managed payload boxes that can transport up to 35 pounds of blood, pharmaceuticals, insulin/medicines, vaccines, and wound care kits. Because insulin is a temperature-sensitive product, quick and safe transportation of the hormone is a top priority.

There are roughly 2.3 million people living with diabetes in Ukraine, many of whom are Type 1 diabetics, who need multiple daily injections of insulin to survive. For those living in high-conflict areas of the country, access to life-saving insulin is limited or non-existent.

NuGen Medical Devices has donated the needle-free injection devices and 5,000 needle-free disposable syringes to be filled with insulin. Not only are life-saving medical supplies like insulin dwindling in Ukraine, but there is also an urgent need for many medicines across the country as hospitals have been under direct attack since Russia invaded on February 24th.

More information about Revived Soldiers Ukraine (RSU) is available at www.rsukraine.org, 

LOS ANGELES—In an interesting example of how news organizations are trying to use 5G, drones, data, advanced networking and even robotics to improve the way they operate, Verizon and the Los Angeles Times have announced plans to deploy advanced robotics, drones and other technology from Verizon to expand on the way news is gathered, shared and consumed.

As part of the deal, the companies will use 4G-connected drones, 5G-connected ground robots, 3D modeled data and other technologies to help redefine digital media and add dimensions to news reporting and storytelling. 

Such efforts would allow the L.A. Times to offer more video, which can produce higher ad revenues, but they could also provide a model for local TV stations seeking to improve their news coverage. 

“By combining Verizon’s network, edge computing and intelligent software technologies, with the innovative thinkers at the L.A. Times, we have the potential to transform the future of storytelling,” said Elise Neel, senior vice president of new business incubation at Verizon.

“Verizon is working with partners to innovate in their respective industries and this collaboration is an example of how we are using technology to drive innovation in the industry,” Neel continued. “Through the work we are doing with the L.A. Times, people from all over the world could have an opportunity to feel like they are immersed in the stories of Southern California.”

“At the Los Angeles Times, we’re always looking for ways to get closer to the news, explain what it means and illustrate the vital stories of California,” said Chris Argentieri, president and COO of the L.A. Times. “This collaboration with Verizon will allow us to build on our expertise in video journalism, data visualization and product design to create deeply immersive and immediate extensions of our reporting with their best-in-class technologies.”  

The companies said that the initial focus will be on:

• Providing a “see what the robot sees” experience through high-definition, near real-time video feeds from the robots both in the air and on the ground.
• Getting visuals from miles away through the use of drones to capture digital stills from onboard cameras in difficult-to-access areas.
• Giving context from multiple perspectives through the creation of digital twin models to add visual and location context in near real-time or for after-the-fact recreations.
• Robotics, in the air and on the ground, paired with data-driven technology running on Verizon’s wireless networks, including 4G LTE and 5G Ultra Wideband, will enable news gathering in hard to reach areas. This near real-time data will help the L.A. Times set new benchmarks in how breaking stories are captured and delivered.

HOLLYWOOD—Although drones have been an important part of film and television production over the past decade, the media & entertainment industry is looking to federal and state governments to help move the technology forward with improved guidance and regulation.

“We know regulation is coming, regulation has to happen, the industry’s too new not to be regulated,” said Vic Moss, COO and vice president of DSPA (Drone Service Providers’ Alliance) and owner of Moss Photography in Lakewood Colo. Moss was part of a SMPTE Hollywood webinar in October that provided a revealing glimpse into the state of drone technology and artistry.

FAA PART 107
A major element to drone regulation centers around the Federal Aviation Administration Part 107, detailing rules and regulations for small unmanned aircraft systems. Panelists agreed on the importance of having a licensed drone pilot on the shoot, and to have insurance.

“Why do I want to work with 107?” asked Moss. “The main reason is not the FAA that you’re going to have to worry about. The last thing you’re going to want to do is fly without insurance, or fly with somebody who doesn’t have a 107 [license], and have an incident. 

“If they don’t have a 107, and are flying without insurance, it’s going to fall on the insurance for the production company, and they are going to deny it,” Moss continued. “I can promise you the fact that they’re going to deny any claim because that’s an illegal flight. So if you have somebody on the set with a drone, make sure they have a 107 [license] and have their own insurance.”

Kenji Sugahara, chief pilot and co-founder of A-Cam Aerials, pointed to the safety record drones have in the entertainment industry. “The last time I talked to Global, which is one of the primary insurers, there have been incidents, but no fatalities. Drones have a very good safety record.” 

“There are drones that are coming out with parachutes, so if something goes haywire in the air, the parachute will deploy and make sure that nobody on the ground is hurt, Sugahara continued. They’re coming out with drones that are ‘frangible,’ which means when they impact with somebody, that they will just fall apart. There are also anti-collision sensors on many drones that are out there now.”

GIVE IT YOUR BEST SHOT
The discussion then turned to when a drone is the best solution for a particular shot, and when a different cine tool might be better.

“When drones started to get popular, everyone got a little trigger happy and started using drones for everything,” said Christopher Alvarez, licensed drone pilot and resident editor/cinematographer of creative services at The American Film Institute.

“But the one benefit I love [about drones] is the maneuverability. You’re able to go up and down, left and right at the same time. You’re able to mess with the axis, and get shots that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to, and wrap yourself around the subject in ways I wouldn’t have been able to before.”

Mark Bender of Mark Bender Aerials compared drones to Steadicam: ”It’s almost the same discussion. ‘This isn’t appropriate for a Steadicam, we’re going to need five takes, I can tell you that right now. Why don’t we get a proper dolly, and we’ll get in one or two takes?’” 

He noted that there are solutions such as composite drone work, “which is partially handheld, and then a takeoff is initiated.”

SONY’S AIRPEAK DRONE
Representatives from Sony Electronics discussed the company’s new Airpeak drone system, which was unveiled virtually at the 2021 International CES. A drone R&D team from Japan visited the Sony Hollywood lot several times, where they were able to demonstrate prototypes and talk with content creators and drone pilots about their needs.

Airpeak drones are built to carry Sony’s mirrorless Alpha series cameras. “[The Alpha cameras] are able to do S-Log3 gamma curve, which is the same gamma curve that the Venice [camera] can do,” said Daniel De La Rosa, vice president of Post Production for Sony Pictures Entertainment.

Airpeak utilizes a lot of the technology that Sony’s built over the years, said Gabriel Johnson, senior product marketing manager for mobile communications and Airpeak Drones for Sony Electronics. “[While the company’s imaging and image processing are well known] probably lesser known is the AI robotic technology,” Johnson said. “We’ve had a lot of these core technologies that we’ve built over the years, and now we’re able to put them into the air.”

Sony’s Alpha cameras provide a range of capabilities depending on what the content creator wants to shoot. 

“If you’re in need for high-quality video, slow-mo video, you want resolution, sensitivity, speed, whatever it is, we can fulfill it with our Alpha system camera line,” Johnson said. “And then with the Alpha lenses you’ve got a whole host of high quality lenses to choose from as well.”

He pointed out that early on, Airpeak’s developers assumed the drone operator would want all controls to go to a single pilot/cinematographer, but then they got feedback by which they learned the users might often want dual operators.

Moss offered this good citizenry piece of advice to close the SMPTE Hollywood virtual meeting: “Every time you’re in the air, you’re an ambassador for the drone industry.” 

BALTIMORE, M.D.—In a sign of how important drones have become to some local news organizations, Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. has announced that the company’s Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) drone program recently completed its 25,000th logged flight.

Sinclair’s drone program, which launched in 2016, operates across 45 of its newsrooms nationwide, with 119 FAA Part 107 certified pilots and 195 trained visual observers across its stations.

The 25,000th flight took place on August 23rd in Dayton Ohio, as WRGT pilot Lee Furry and visual observer Ryan Segda recorded weather images of the Dayton area, which then aired in the station’s 6pm newscast.

“As newsgathering evolves, Sinclair continues to be at the forefront of the integration of technology within our newsrooms,” said Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news for Sinclair. “Using live drone footage, we are able to visually enhance breaking news, general news, weather and community coverage, allowing our newsrooms to tell a more dynamic story,” 

In July, WBMA, Sinclair’s ABC station in Birmingham Alabama used drones to cover the funeral of Congressman John Lewis as he made his final journey across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. 

Another example of unique drone footage usage came from KOMO in Seattle, as the station aired a documentary, “Seattle is Dying,” which was heavily influenced by drone video. This program has been viewed over 10 million times on multiple platforms and won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award.

Sinclair and others also noted its safety record with no injuries in the 25,000 flights. 

"We commend Sinclair Broadcast Group on this exemplary UAS flight and safety achievement," noted Mickey H. Osterreicher, general counsel, National Press Photographers Association (NPPA). "As journalists we strive to be good stakeholders in the use of UAS for newsgathering and reporting. By reaching this milestone you have greatly contributed to public awareness of the benefits and safe use of drones in the national airspace.”

All Sinclair drone pilots are trained at Virginia Tech, part of the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, an FAA-designated UAS test site, ensuring all drones are flown responsibly with pilots taking proper safety protocols.

“Operating in National airspace and working closely with the FAA, we take our drone program and pilot training very seriously and pride ourselves on our safety record of zero injuries. We promote a positive safety culture which includes written procedures and checklists for all flight operations, with safety always the top-priority,” said Jeff Rose, UAS chief pilot, Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Across the group, Sinclair deploys a variety of drone cameras, including DJI’s Inspire 2, Mavic Pro, Mavic 2 and Mavic mini.

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—The Daytona 500 is the Super Bowl of auto racing, and like the actual Super Bowl, the race serves as a showcase for several new or improved production technologies that enhance viewer enjoyment—this year in the form of shots from multiple in-car cameras enhanced with interpolated super slow motion and a high-speed drone capable of bursting to speeds of 100 mph, says Michael Davies, senior vice president, field operations at Fox Sports.

“Daytona, as it is every year, is the biggest race of the year. It’s also the first race of the year, and this is no different in COVID times. You know, Daytona, even in COVID times, is the Super Bowl of racing—after the Super Bowl of Super Bowls,” says Davies with a chuckle.

(The Fox telecast of the Daytona 500 starts Sunday, Feb. 14, at 2:30 p.m. EST. Live streaming coverage will be available via Fox Sports Go. Clint Bowyer, a former Cup Series driver, NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon and play-by-play announcer Mike Joy will call the race.)

Fox Sports is deploying nearly 100 cameras, including a GoPro suspended from a racing drone and a Sony P1 from a heavy-lift drone, mirrorless DSLR-like Megalodon cameras from Sony and Canon and multiple in-car cameras per car, to heighten its coverage of the 63rd running of the race.

DRONES AND MEGALODON

Using drones to cover the race is nothing new for Fox Sports, but this year the broadcaster is expanding its airborne coverage, says Davies.

Fox Sports is turning for the second year in a row to Beverly Hills Aerials to capture footage from aloft. Last year, the company provided a racing platform it calls an “FPV,” or first person view drone, to capture dynamic shots of the race. This year, the company has taken its FPV drone to a new level, achieving sustained speeds of 70-80 mph and short spurts of 100 mph, says Beverly Hills Aerials chief pilot Michael Izquierdo.

“The FPV drone is able to accelerate to super-fast speeds and even track with the cars on caution laps when they’re going a little bit slower than 200 mph,” he says.

Beverly Hills Aerials’ custom-built heavy-lift drone carries a camera package that includes the P1 camera, batteries and microwave transmitter from Broadcast Sports International (BSI) weighing in at 25 pounds, says Izquierdo.

The drones may operate in a 100-foot-wide fly zone just off the track and away from the fans. “This keeps a nice buffer between us and all of the people on one side and the cars on the other side,” he explains. The only exception is when the drones are allowed to fly over the track at the very end of the race.

“Once the winner crosses the finish line and usually comes back to do donuts, we’re allowed to go on the track and get really close to the cars and the celebration,” he adds.

Fox Sports made a splash covering NFL end zone celebrations with its Megalodon camera system, and now it’s taking the rig to Daytona Beach for race coverage.

“What it is, is a somewhat inexpensive prosumer rig that involves Sony or Canon mirrorless cameras that look just like DSLRs,” says Davies. “We put it on some kind of stabilized rig, like a Ronin handheld, so they are super agile.”

For NASCAR race coverage, Fox Sports is attaching the camera system to a Red Rock Micro DigiBoom—a “sort-of high-end professional selfie stick,” says Davies. This configuration along with a wireless system gives the broadcaster a stabilized jib that it plans to use to capture shots that otherwise would be hard, if not impossible, to get.

“We’re hoping that we can get up to the pit boxes and maybe get over the wall and try to use that extra length [from the DigiBoom] on the camera to get some cool shots,” he says.

Davies, who says the name “Megalodon” is something Fox Sports invented because of inquiries from media and viewers, acknowledges this type of setup has been used for years but only gained notoriety because of a decision to outfit the rig with a wireless transmitter, making it possible to put live shots on air.

“We think we know what is going to make this thing shine and what's going to add to the broadcast, but until you really see it, you don't know. So it's really going to be fun to see what works in NASCAR,” he says.

IN-CAR AND EXTRA MOTION 

Fox Sports is enhancing in-car race coverage in a couple of ways—with more shots and more frames. Cars are outfitted with four cameras—on the roof, rear bumper, driver’s helmet visor and a driver shot from one of three positions pointed at the driver’s face, says Andy Jeffers, owner of Sports & Entertainment Media, which works with Fox to secure in-car camera sponsorships. As of Feb. 9, the number of in-car cameras stood at 32.

The “more” aspect of the shot count will come from equipping three cars with RF systems that simultaneously transmit feeds from two cameras. “One camera is always on the faces of drivers so we can see what their reactions are,” says Davies, “and another feed from the same car can be used at the same time.”

When it comes to more frames from in-car cameras, Fox Sports will deploy an experimental technology it’s been working on with EVS called “Extra Motion,” a sort of frame rate converter technology that takes 59.94 frame video and interpolates between frames to create new synthetic frames. When played to air, they provide super slow motion replay, says Davies.

To make Extra Motion work, video from the in-car cameras will be sent to the AWS Cloud where the processing needed to interpolate between frames happens. The video, including interpolated frames, will then be sent back to Daytona for integration into the show.

While not exactly real-time, the couple of minutes needed for the roundtrip and processing will ensure the footage is relevant when taken to air. “In NASCAR, if there’s a crash or some kind of stoppage that often means you have a fair amount of time to go back and look at those angles,” says Davies.

Initial iterations of Extra Motion used for pylon-cams during NFL coverage have seen substantially improved turnaround times, says Davies, adding that tests with file footage from in-car cameras “looks incredible.”

COVID-19 WORKFLOW

What won’t be apparent to viewers Sunday is the continuing impact COVID-19 is having on remote production. However, for Fox Sports the broadcasters will be “picking up where we left off back in the spring” [of 2020] as it put in place policies and workflows to protect the production crew from the virus, says Davies.

“We very quickly got together a temporary facility in Los Angeles to do some of the replay and graphics in our old tape vault,” he says. 

Since then that facility has been made permanent and another smaller production spoke in Pittsburgh has come online. Both will be used to augment production resources on site at Daytona and to reduce—if even in a limited way—the number of crew needed at the raceway.

“We are trying to limit the number of people in the truck by putting some of these things elsewhere,” he says. “Replay and graphics are going to be done on site, and they’ll also be done in L.A. and Pittsburgh.”

Replay and graphics operators working remotely from Los Angeles and Pittsburgh will take control of their respective EVS and graphics systems located in the production trucks at the track, viewing proxy video and controlling their systems via the internet, says Davies.  

Other crew members, including craft video editors, radio editors and a live radio mixer, will simply work from home.

However, in some ways Fox Sports is boosting its presence on site compared to last year. “We'll be there in the booth [with talent] and in the pits as we have been in years past,” says Davies. “We're also going to have the producer and director in the truck. Previously, the producer was also in Charlotte.”

Fox Sports coverage of the Daytona 500 is the culmination of a week of race coverage that started Feb. 9 with the Busch Clash at Dayton. More broadly, it’s also the beginning of a new season that will see Fox covering some different tracks like the Circuit of The Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas, and the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., says Davies.

“What we are looking forward to, to be quite honest, is an amazing season,” he says.

NEW YORK—CBS Sports is preparing to tee off its 64th consecutive year of covering PGA Tour golf, which will include a number of new elements being added to its production of tournaments.

Among the new features that will be added to CBS Sports' production is live drone coverage; enhanced capabilities and presentation for its SmartCart mobile production unit; and a constant mini-leaderboard graphic. The broadcast is also adding a dedicated PGA Tour rules official and new theme music.

Sellers Shy will oversee CBS Sports’ coverage of the season, having been appointed as the new lead producer for PGA Tour coverage. Shy is just the third lead producer in CBS’ 64 years of covering the PGA Tour, per ViacomCBS.

While some things change, Jim Nantz and Nick Faldo will continue to serve as the lead anchor and golf analyst, respectively, for CBS Sports’ golf coverage. They will be joined by analysts Ian Baker-Finch and Frank Nobilo, lead on-course reporter Dottie Pepper and the rest of the CBS golf announce team, which includes Mark Immelman, Trevor Immelman and Amanda Balionis. Andrew Catalon and Colt Knost are expected to join for select broadcasts as well.

For all PGA Tour events in 2021, CBS Sports’ full coverage will be available to stream live in U.S. markets via the CBS All Access subscription streaming platform (Paramount+ as of March 4). Additional coverage will be available on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports app and the CBS Sports HQ streaming sports news service.

CBS Sports will produce 20 PGA Tour events in 2021, kicking off with the Farmers Insurance Open from Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego on Jan. 30 and Jan. 31.

OTTAWA—In August 2016 the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented Part 107 of its regulations, which governed the use of commercial drones in U.S. airspace. Many of the nation’s TV broadcasters were quick to add drones to their newsgathering arsenal, while carefully training their staff in the legal, proper, and safe use of these remotely-controlled camera platforms.

Fast forward to today, with hundreds of drones now being owned by U.S. TV broadcasting teams, the aerial footage captured on these platforms has gone from being a visual novelty to an essential part of TV newsgathering.

Sinclair Broadcast Group uses drone footage daily in their newscasts, according to Jeff Rose, UAS Chief Pilot with the station group.

“We don’t just use drones for news stories,” he added. “Aerial bump shots of cityscapes, traffic and weather are used throughout the broadcasts.”

Sharri Berg, COO, News & Operations with Fox Television Stations and newly appointed president of Fox Weather, says it would be unusual for Fox to staff a news story without sending a pilot along with a drone. “It has found a place on the regular newsgathering equipment checklist,” she said. “When you go out the door, you make sure to take a camera, microphones, a streaming kit and a drone.”

Becoming an essential newsgathering tool is just one trend with respect to drones and U.S. TV broadcasters. Here are some others that are just as important.

WAIVERS PROVIDE MORE FLEXIBILITY

FAA Rule Part 107 imposes certain limitations on the use of commercial drones. These include only flying visual line of sight (VLOS) missions where the drone can always be seen by the pilot, and ensuring that flights are constantly monitored by an accompanying visual observer so that the pilot can aim and control the drone’s onboard TV camera.

Drones are also restricted from flying over people and at night, however, the FAA is willing to waive sections of Part 107 for operators who have proven themselves to be responsible and reliable, safety-minded pilots. Thanks to the U.S. TV broadcast industry’s consistent adherence to professional drone pilot training and operations, the FAA has issued waivers for night flights and closer-than-usual approaches to people in certain circumstances.

CNN received the very first waiver ever issued by the FAA for operations over people and has used it on several occasions for newsgathering, according to Greg Agvent, senior director of the CNN Aerial Imagery & Reporting unit, aka “CNN AIR.”

“However, because of our concerns over safety and the protection of people and property, the editorial bar has to be very high in order for us to fly directly over people,” Agvent added. “We would rather fly adjacent to them instead.”

Fox has also been able to obtain waivers due to enhanced training. “We provide extensive education and training to our pilots who fly night missions, which teach them how to use lights and navigate safely in this environment,” said Rebecca Kesten, Fox News coordinating producer and drone pilot. “We also train some of our pilots to fly indoor missions and flights over people, which requires additional skills and solid flight experience.”

Much faster ight authorizations have been a major trend in TV drone deployments, thanks to the FAA’s Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) program. LAANC is an automated process that allows private drone pilots to quickly receive permission to fly in “controlled airspace” (e.g. close to airports and other restricted areas), rather than take hours or even days to obtain through standard FAA channels.

“LAANC provides a grid map of the airspace around an airport that we can see on our smartphones,” said Agvent. “With this map, we can see what altitudes we are allowed to operate at—the closer you get to an airport, the lower the altitude that you are restricted to—and then file for that permission online. When it comes to drone-based newsgathering, this is an extremely signicant advance.”

PLANNING YOUR FLIGHT

Deploying a drone is not simply a matter of turning it on and taking off; safe departure and landing areas should be determined prior to departure. Flight paths should be planned out to take any obstacles and off-limits areas into account.

Providing this kind of support is where a company like Skyward (skyward.io, a Verizon company) comes in. Skyward makes software that simplifies the flight planning and approval process for broadcasters and other drone users.

“Skyward’s InFlight mobile ground control system was specifically designed with media organizations in mind,” said Ryan Wall, Skyward’s director of business development and strategic planning. “InFlight allows a news crew to request and obtain permission to fly a drone in controlled airspace at a moment’s notice via the FAA’s LAANC program.

“We have also updated Skyward’s InFlight mobile app to include three Automated Flight Modes for pre-planned missions and surveys: Survey, orbit and point-to-point,” Wall added. “Now, broadcast customers can fly automated missions to collect footage and automatically log their flights without ever leaving InFlight.”

COMPETITION ENDS IN THE AIR

With ratings at stake, TV news teams are expected to compete aggressively for the best camera angles and eye-catching footage. But this competition ends once these broadcasters’ drones get airborne. This is because there is no government-run air traffic control that manages multiple broadcaster drones operating in the same airspace. So when competing stations start flying drones close together to cover a news story, it is up to them to prevent mid-air collisions and debris fallout onto the ground below.

Fortunately, the trend in increased drone usage in U.S. TV news markets has been accompanied by a trend towards increased pilot cooperation as well. “The key word is ‘deconfliction,’” said Rose. “When you get multiple news crews flying drones in the same area, it has become common for pilots to get together and decide where each of their drones will be flying, and their flight paths to and back from those positions.”

The July 2020 funeral procession of Congressman John Lewis over the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Ala., was a prime example of such cooperation. “There were probably nine drones covering the passage of his flag-draped casket across that bridge,” Rose said. “The pilots from these organizations got together to negotiate their drone positions on either side of the bridge beforehand, so that everyone got the shots they needed safely.”

DIVERSE OPPORTUNITIES

The evolution of drone footage into an essential element of TV newsgathering has resulted in more staff being trained as pilots and visual observers. “The more people we’re able to train, the more missions we’re able to fly,” said Berg.

The need for more drone personnel has opened up career options for women and other groups who historically have not had the same access to opportunities as their white male colleagues.

A case in point: “At Fox we’re incredibly proud of the female pilots and visual observers in our division, and we want to give them the recognition that they deserve,” Berg said. “It is for this reason that we created the Fox Piloting Innovation Award, to acknowledge organizations that encourage women to disrupt and innovate within the UAS industry.”

The first recipient of this award was the Fox Flight team in 2019.

While an increasing number of viewers are tuning into television for news about the coronavirus pandemic, the advertising dollars have not kept up. In fact, total local advertising in the United States is expected to decline by 30% in 2020, according to one estimate.

As the pandemic slows companies around the world, many media outlets are struggling to meet the demand for high-volume, high-quality content in the face of tight budgets. One way to reduce costs is to incorporate drones into your news coverage. During a time of decreased advertising revenue, drones can save your news organization money, generate additional revenue and ensure you obtain the diverse video footage needed to support high-quality programming.

Drones can help cover breaking news by capturing aerial footage. They can gather data of all types, including infrared scans, topographical maps and 3D models. They can reduce costs as compared to flying and maintaining helicopters. And they can serve as a new revenue source when rented out to other businesses. It’s no coincidence that media adoption of drone technology has grown over the years. Indeed, the media and entertainment market for drones is valued at $8.8 billion, according to a 2016 PwC report, and the market is poised for continued growth. 

During these unprecedented times, drones are widely seen as a valuable tool for media organizations. The question is: Where do you start?  As you consider adding drones to your news coverage, here are six tips for launching a successful program: 

BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR GOALS 

During this time of social distancing, drones can prove useful by allowing crews to shoot video while remaining hundreds of feet away from their subject. Yet to prevent your program from stalling out, it’s important to identify where drones can create the most business value. Will you be using your drones for weather and traffic reporting? Gather news from above about unfolding disasters? Get live shots for sporting events? Improve your B-roll footage or ad production quality? And will you be renting out your drone services to other businesses, studios or stations? With so many options, it’s important to clarify your goals and the biggest ways drones can advance your business. 

DEVELOP THE BUSINESS CASE 

Before agreeing to the program, top-level executives will want to know whether drones are worth the financial investment—and convincing them requires analyzing both the costs and savings. A helicopter outfitted with cameras and broadcast equipment costs as much as $850,000 to purchase and about $500 per hour to fly. By comparison, a standard commercial-grade drone costs anywhere between $1,000 and $15,000. There are also savings in fuel and operations, especially if you bring your drone program in-house. While drones can’t completely replace helicopters, they can accomplish many essential functions. An accurate cost analysis will help you make the case.  

FIGURE OUT THE LOGISTICS 

As you get your drones up-and-running, you’ll also need to determine how you will manage your program. What’s your plan for abiding by privacy and regulatory rules? How will you check airspace information and flight restrictions? And how will you hold crews accountable in the field? With the right aviation management platform, you can plan, fly and log your missions. You can check controlled airspace to obtain immediate access in seconds. And you can easily manage flight crews on multiple flights, track all the drones and personnel in your fleet and view historical data and trends—all from a centralized location. 

UNDERSTAND THE REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS

If you’re operating commercially in the U.S., you need to comply with Part 107 of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations, the rules that govern commercial drone use. The FAA’s Part 107 sets requirements for pilot licensing, maximum altitude and airspeed, available airspace and much more. Commercial drone operators are generally not permitted to fly in controlled airspaces—including areas around airports, stadiums, national parks and other sites. They’re also not permitted to fly over people, over 400 feet above ground level or beyond the operator’s visual line of sight. As you incorporate drones into your news coverage, it’s critical that you understand and comply with all regulatory requirements, while knowing how to obtain any necessary waivers.  

TRAIN YOUR PILOTS 

Qualified, competent pilots are essential to a drone operation—not just for safety, but also to ensure you get the best possible footage. A drone pilot certification is much more accessible than a helicopter pilot’s license, with certification possible in a matter of weeks. Drone pilots in the U.S. are required to obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate by passing a knowledge test and obtaining renewal every two years. Although some testing centers across the U.S. have been shut down due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many have since reopened. A list of the reopened testing centers can be found at PSI Online. 

KEEP UP WITH NEW OPPORTUNITIES 

As you launch your program, realize that the opportunities are rapidly expanding. In the near future, for example, operators may be able to deploy drones to autonomously monitor traffic and weather patterns daily at the push of a button. And thanks to 5G cellular networks, they’ll be able to live stream high-definition video with virtually no lag. What’s more, regulations are being developed to lay the groundwork for connected drones and flights that go beyond the operator’s visual line of sight, allowing for longer flights into more remote areas. Future regulations may also pave the way for AI-powered drones that deliver better data faster and help with emergency situations such as assessing storm damage. By keeping up with new developments, you can plan ahead to achieve your goals—and continue to broaden your program over time. 

During a time of high news interest and tight budgets, drones can save costs, increase revenue and provide the high-quality footage that differentiates your news organization. By following these six tips, you can jumpstart your drone program—giving your media company the competitive edge it needs both now and into the future.  

To learn more, please see the Skyward “Media & Broadcast” webpage. 

Ryan Wall is director of business development and strategic planning at Skyward, A Verizon company. He enjoys collaborating with enterprises to help them stand up successful drone programs. For more than a decade, Ryan has served in the Air National Guard, where he is currently an egress systems craftsman.

RAYMOND, Maine—Dielectric has begun offering a TV antenna performance validation service that relies on data collected by a drone operating within a tower structure shield that is compared to a computer-derived prediction of antenna performance at a given height to confirm the antenna’s far-field elevation pattern and azimuth pattern. 

The service addresses a problem stemming from the length of time it takes for the Federal Aviation Administration to grant a waiver to allow drone operators to fly their aircraft at elevation several thousand feet from the antenna. FAA waiver applications can be stalled for up to 18 months, the company said. 

“FAA rules place several restrictions on flying drones for commercial use. There is a 400-feet altitude restriction on commercial drone flights, unless the operator can fly the drone within a 400-foot radius around a structure, and does not fly higher than 400 feet above the top of that structure,” said Dielectric Vice President of Engineering John Schadler.

“Unfortunately, waivers for these rules take many months to process, and may never be granted due to other restrictions. Our technique solves the problem of getting a waiver beyond the FAA shield. That means no need to create flight plans and safety simulations, among other requirements that lengthen the approval process,” he said.

The technique devised by Dielectric has an added advantage since far-field measurements are subject to signal reflections, multipath and interference, as are the more complicated ground-vehicle measurements, the company said.

Before a drone is deployed, Dielectric engineers construct a full virtual model of the entire antenna, including tower support structure, based on final antenna and tower drawings.

Using the company’s high-frequency modeling software with the virtual model produces a detailed prediction of azimuth and elevation data at a given distance from the tower—at or within the 400-foot FAA limit. That allows a comparison of the virtual model with the actual near-field measurement, which is, in fact, an unfocused representation of what the radiation characteristics look like in the far-field, Dielectric said.

After the drone collects data during its flight, Dielectric engineers plot the data over the virtual model. Once compared and confirmed, a report is provided to the end customer, which is typically a TV station engineer or a consultant representing the broadcaster, the company said.

Before offering the service, Dielectric verified the results of its comparison technique by conducting far-field drone measurements, said Nicole Starrett, an electrical engineer at the company.

“The added benefit is that the antenna characteristics can be quickly transformed to any distance, near or far, for comparison,” said Starrett.

Starret will present “Near Field Drone Measurements of Broadcast Antennas,” Oct. 15 at 10:45 a.m. CDT during the Wisconsin Broadcasters Fall virtual event and at the Radio Club of America Technical Symposium on Nov. 20.

More information is available on the Dielectric website.

WASHINGTON—The FCC has signaled absent some specific issue, flexible-use spectrum can be used to operate drones, but there is a "but."

That came in a report Aug. 27 concluding that the 5030-5091 MHz band supports use of the unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).

"Absent specific restrictions in the spectrum allocation or service rules, current law does not prohibit UAS communications in the flexible-use bands," the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau said in the report. But it also said that UAS do have the potential to cause harmful interference.

“We are optimistic about the use of flexible-use bands to support UAS operations,” said Ron Repasi, acting chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology, in a statement. “However, we recognize that drone operations on flexible-use spectrum may raise interference issues for co-channel and adjacent-channel networks, so we recommend further work on using these bands for UAS."

The report was required by Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. Look for NTIA and the FAA to weigh in on the drone spectrum, said the bureau, since Congress mandated reports from them as well. 

KANSAS CITY—QCommunications (QComm), an engineering project management and installation vendor, has announced the launch of its Airborne Division, which uses customized drones with proprietary RF software for safe and accurate accurate signal verification.

The company, which specializes in installation work on the current channel repack, has teamed up with Australian-based SixArms, which uses unmanned aerial vehicle technologies to provide efficient, accurate and cost-effective measurement solutions. The Airborne Division utilizes proven signal verification and coverage mapping technology to capture the characterizations of antenna systems. This system allows measurements of Horizontal Radiation Patterns (HRP), Vertical Radiation Patterns (VRP), Effective Radiated Patterns (ERP), polarization discriminations and many other specific modulation parameters while providing overall uncertainties in the order of 1-2dB. QComm’s Airborne Division will be one of just two SixArm certified “operators” within the United States.

Phil Larsen, one of leading subject matter experts in vertical inspection by way of UAV in a RF environment, has been appointed vice president of the Airborne Division and will be responsible for leading the QForce team, a group of specialists tapped to operate, service and support the new division. Larsen’s career dates back over a decade and includes extensive experience designing solutions and advising the telecommunication industry on the benefits of using UAVs. Larsen previously worked for the DoD, NSA, CIA, Navy and other governmental agencies globally, and brings with him an exceptional background and understanding of the safe, accurate and overall benefits this technology will deliver to QComm customers.

“The use of a properly designed and technologically equipped UA system can greatly enhance the real understanding and effectiveness of our customers’ products while bringing added security, safety and awareness to the geographical locations where these products reside, thus reducing assumptions and needless human climbs,” Larsen said.

QComm was established in 2006 and focused on working within the broadcast industry as a median between the FCC and station operators. To date, QComm has repacked more than 75 transmitters, providing services that range from initial form 399 and evaluation to installation and FCC true-up. 

DENVER—Rare footage of a tornado was recently captured via a drone by WeatherNation’s field correspondent Brandon Clement in southern Oklahoma. The drone follows the 35-mph tornado for several miles from a distance of 50 yards.

Clement used a specially-designed drone equipped for wet weather for the footage. “It’s been a shot I’ve been trying to capture for years,” he said. “Fortunately, it wasn’t raining and I had the wind on my side.”

The footage was part of WeatherNation TV’s coverage on April 30. WeatherNation partners with Live Storms Media to capture storm footage that aides in providing more detailed national and local U.S. severe weather forecasts.

Watch part of the video below:

CHARLOTTE, N.C.—Fox Sports together with Chapman Aerial Production unveiled its most advanced drone-camera to date for race coverage April 28 from Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.

The FreeFly Alta 8 drone using the newly developed FreeFly MoVi Carbon camera gimbal with five-axis stabilization is outfitted with a Fujinon 20-120mm lens, said Fox Sports. With the crop factor of the sensor, the focal range of the lens is elevated to 40-240mm.

The Fox Sports technical and production teams began executing on their vision of using drone cameras to enhance race coverage with early experiments three years ago that gave way to tethered drone use for the 2018 Daytona 500 and the broadcaster’s first untethered drone deployment at this year’s Daytona 500, said Brad Cheney, Fox Sports VP of field operations.

The drone at Talladega this weekend will “add dynamic views, not seen before in motor sports,” added Fox Sports director Artie Kempner.

Pre-race programming began with NASCAR Raceday at 12:30 p.m. EDT on FS1 and the FOX Sports App. At 1:30 p.m., coverage moved to the FOX broadcast network, followed by the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Geico 500 at 2 p.m.

NEW YORK—The sky isn’t the limit with the latest OTT channel that will be available on Syncbak’s SBTV, it’ll be the base. Morgan Murphy Media is producing a 24/7 drone channel that will be available on the OTT platform for viewers nationwide.

The footage will be accumulated from Morgan Murphy affiliate stations, which includes Spokane, Wash.-based KXLY’s “Air 4 Adventures” program featuring drone footage of local attractions, extreme sports and nature reserves. SBTV automatically ingests and formats the content into a custom, 24/7 ad-supported channel.

“Taking our drone footage OTT in a live, always-on channel required no additional time or effort on the part of our station,” said Brian Burns, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Morgan Murphy Media. He says more stations’ drone footage will be available through the channel soon.

OTTAWA—U.S. TV broadcasters have been flying drones with FAA permission since August 2016. By the end of 2017, 45 percent of U.S. TV stations already owned drones, and another 9 percent were planning to buy them, according to RTNDA Executive Director Dan Shelley, citing his association’s most recent research data. “Only 17 percent said that they were not involved in drones and had no plans to become involved,” he said.

By February 2019, Sinclair Broadcast Group (SBG) had logged its 10,000th TV newsgathering drone flight. The company currently has 108 FAA Part 107 certified drone pilots and 64 trained visual observers, and provides content for 45 Sinclair newsrooms nationwide.

The Fox News Flight Team is similarly impressive. A joint venture between Fox News and Fox Television Stations (local), the Fox News Flight Team has more than 80 FAA-certified pilots flying drones today. Working with visual observers who operate the drones’ onboard video cameras—and keep the pilots informed of potential hazards—these drones provide content to 13 Fox News bureaus and 16 owned-and-operated Fox TV stations.

Both SBG and Fox have been flying drones since the FAA approved their usage by broadcasters in 2016. ABC News has been flying them since 2015 (with FAA permission) and has about 60 drones serving the network and its station group across the U.S. with just over 100 FAA-certified pilots. ABC’s “Good Morning America” (GMA) has been a drone pioneer during this time period—flying drones over volcanoes (see “Drone Action Heats Up,” April 2015), into vast caves and up-close-and-personal with humpback whales out at sea.

With about three years’ experience under their belts, these broadcasters have learned many lessons about getting the most from drones. Here’s what they told us.

GREAT SHOTS REQUIRE TEAMWORK

GMA’s extensive use of drones—especially for live shots—has taught the network how vital teamwork is in shooting great images from these platforms.

“Even though camera drones are popular due to their technical abilities, we have seen firsthand that it’s the combination between the technician as the pilot and the creative, continuously evaluating camera operator that actually create these cutting-edge images; not the actual drone itself,” said Maria Stefanopoulos, GMA’s senior manager of operations. “So if there’s one thing we’ve learned and confirmed in the field, it is this: No matter how easy to use or autonomous these machines have become, one thing they can never be is as creative as the hands that are flying them; especially when they work together to get the best shots.”

MINIMIZE NON-SHOOTING FLIGHT TIME

Drones use batteries, and batteries have limited operating times before needing to be recharged. This is why GMA plans drone missions to minimize non-shooting flight times, so that it has maximum battery life available when shooting its video.

“You have to manage editorial requirements with battery life,” said Stefanopoulos. For instance, when GMA was shooting whales breeching out at sea, the network kept the ship that the drones were flying from as close as possible.

“Even then, we had to fly 1-3 kilometers to where the whales were breaching,” Stefanopoulos said. “A one-way flight consumed 10-15 percent of our battery time.”

SHARING INFORMATION

Communication between its many members is a top priority for the Fox News Flight Team. This is why these members talk with each other regularly via password-protected collaboration platform.

“One of the things we’ve seen over the last two years is the power of the collaboration between 100 pilots talking to each other, showing their work and sharing their experiences online with each other; plus anyone else involved in our drone program who offers feedback,” said Doug Evans, chief drone pilot (and reporter/meteorologist) for WAGA-TV, the Fox O&O in Atlanta. “Sharing ideas allows everyone to learn from each other, and raises our overall drone video quality level,” Evans said. “It’s a good approach to use.”

KEEP VISUALS INTERESTING AND EDITABLE

Drone shots are like any other form of video. Once the novelty wears off, one shot can start to look like another. In the same vein, editing together two sequences shot from the same height and position can look like a jump edit, rather than a proper transition.

This is why WAGA takes care to move its drones around. The goal is to keep live shots fresh and to enable the seamless editing of recorded material afterwards.

“One thing we learned early on was the importance of transitions from one shot to another,” said Neil Mazur, WAGA’s vice president of engineering and operations. “When we started out, we noticed that many of our shots looked identical to each other. Talking to each other on Slack, our team members discovered the importance of changing altitudes and positions, and using other techniques to make our drone shots more interesting and creative.”

ENGAGE EMERGENCY PERSONNEL BEFORE DEPLOYING

Jeff Rose has been Sinclair Broadcast Group’s chief pilot since the company started preparing to use drones a few years ago. Mindful that local first responders and government officials can be nervous about drones, he said SBG always hosts a “community outreach meeting” to explain the technology first before starting flights in that market.

“We invite everyone to the TV station that we might come in contact with,” Rose said. “We tell them about our safety program and how we’re going to operate in the field. Then we have an open discussion where we can communicate and share ideas with the audience. This goes a long way to winning their trust and cooperation afterwards.”

The Fox News Flight team has taken similar steps to establish good working relationships with local first responders and the general public. This pays off in the field: “We’ve had zero backlash from public safety and the public to our drones,” said WAGA’s Evans.

USE AIR TRAFFIC RADIOS TO COORDINATE WITH OTHER AIRCRAFT

Sinclair Broadcast Group also uses two-way radios to communicate on common air traffic radio frequencies with other aircraft and local airports. This allows SBG drone operators to keep everyone else informed of their positions and altitudes. It also lets the operators hear from helicopter crews and other aircraft who may be flying in the same vicinity.

“A TV helicopter and a medevac helicopter would use this common channel when they are operating in the same airspace,” said Rose, who is a licensed private pilot himself. “They use the common channel to coordinate with each other. When we’re flying drones near them, we just jump in too.”

NEW JOB OPPORTUNITIES

Sharri Berg is senior vice president of News Operations at Fox News Channel, COO News & Ops for Fox TV Stations and a driving force behind the creation and growth of the Fox News Flight Team. The emergence of news drones have opened up all kinds of job opportunities, and Berg encourages broadcasters to include women and minorities in these positions.

“At Fox, one of our biggest differentiators is the growing diversity of staff in our drone program; especially females,” she said. “We have several female pilots and visual observers who are quite experienced, and who are leading the way for others in the company.” Berg added that this trend is also occurring at other broadcasters, and is worth supporting throughout the industry.

WASHINGTON—As more and more drones take to the sky, the Federal Aviation Administration has partnered with Kittyhawk on the B4UFLY app to instruct recreational drone operators where they can and cannot fly.

Based off of a previously existing app, this updated mobile app will provide situational awareness for recreational drone pilots. “As drone sales increase and out nation’s airspace becomes busier and more complex, it’s vital that we work smarter and partner with the private sector to develop innovative products that advance safety,” said Dan Elwell, acting FAA administrator.

The FAA and Kittyhawk plan to launch the new version of B4UFLY later this year. The current B4UFLY app will continue to be available to the public until the new app is deployed; data will continued to be updated but no new features will be added.

Sinclair Broadcast Group last week announced its 10,000th drone flight—a Jan. 30 newsgathering mission for WPMI-TV, the station group’s NBC affiliate in Mobile, Ala.

The flight, commanded by Robby Hughes from WEAR-TV, Sinclair’s ABC affiliate in Pensacola, Fla., with visual observer Jan Czernik in Mobile, marks a milestone not just for Sinclair but the TV industry at large, which only a few years ago received a nod from the federal government to begin using drones for newsgathering.

Sinclair began using drones at its TV stations in August 2016, after its initial drone pilots received their Part 107 FAA certification. Currently, the station group has 45 drone-operating TV stations, 108 FAA certified drone pilots and 64 trained visual observers.

In this interview, Sinclair chief pilot Jeff Rose discusses the station group’s use of drones, the training and best practices it's put in place to promote safe drone operation, the opportunity for competitive stations to cooperate in their drone operations, the most important developments in drone design since launching operations two and half years ago and how an FAA waiver allowing night flights are capturing captivating footage for Sinclair stations.

(An edited transcript.)

TVTechnology:You have 108 FAA certified drone pilots. How does Sinclair select the people who become pilots?

Jeff Rose: We currently have 45 TV stations that are drone-capable. We leave it up to those news departments or their news managers to select who on their staff they would like to be trained as a drone pilot.

We urge them to choose employees—and they are often news photographers—that they can count on after they have been trained to make really good decisions for the company.

TVT:Does every Sinclair drone crew consist of a pilot and observer?

JR: Yes. We require two-person operation—one pilot and one visual observer. In many cases, a second pilot stands in as the visual observer. 

TVT:Sinclair puts its prospective pilots through a three-day training program to become a drone pilot. Who puts that on?

JR: We take all of our drone pilots to Virginia Tech, which is an FAA designated test site. There is a half dozen of those across the country.

We chose Virginia Tech and have a great relationship with them. They put on a great three-day program for journalists operating drones.

TVT:Is there any special training that the visual observers receive?

JR: Yes, our visual observers do a three-part training, which consists of two days of a webinar. We created an in-house training session in which our instructors speak to trainees wherever they are in their given markets.

After they go through the two-day class for visual observer training, the third part is an exercise in the field with certified pilots going through actual flights and getting checked out.

TVT:If you are one of the visual observers does that put you in line to become a drone pilot at Sinclair?

JR: Many times, yes. It’s not a requirement, but lots of times the visual observers become so familiar that they want to become more involved and become a pilot. It is a natural progression.

TVT:Sinclair has developed a set of best practices for drone use. Can you discuss them and their development?

JR: We started with guidelines from professionals in the aviation industry. Then we enhance that by learning as we go so that when we find things that work better for our program, we turn them back into a checklist—whether that’s a pre-flight briefing or pre-flight inspection, those types of things.

This way over time our safety protocols evolve and get better and better.

TVT:You mentioned in the press release announcing the 10,000th drone flight by Sinclair that the value of best practices extends beyond safety by promoting teamwork. How so?

JR: All of our pilots have been through the same training, use the same equipment and operate under the same procedures.

One example occurred when we had a hurricane in the Carolinas and the crews on the field were so busy with live, round-the-clock coverage that they didn’t have time to fly.

We recruited two pilots from other stations that were impacted, and those two pilots met at the scene of the hurricane, said, “Hello, nice to meet you,” knew exactly what to do with the same equipment and went right to work.

I got a communication from one of those pilots at the end of the day. The pilot said, “You know Jeff, I am really pleased with how well this worked. Even though I just met the other pilot it seems as though we had been working together for months.” So, we thought that was a real success.

TVT:Sinclair started using drones in August 2016. Are there any flights or footage that stand out in your mind as the high mark of drone use by Sinclair?

JR: We have so many. Hurricane coverage and other natural disasters are just naturals for drone coverage because you need to see a large area and what the devastation is.

And there’s really not a lot of people to fly over if it is all flooded or if a town has been blown away—that type of thing.

We also have a night waiver that gives us a beautiful view during nighttime that’s somewhat unique in such a large group as we have.

That waiver allows us to capture beautiful footage that the viewers are crazy for—fireworks and Christmas lights displays and sunset skylines over the cities that are not normally seen from that perspective.

TVT:You have a waiver to fly at night. I didn’t realize the FAA was making those available.

JR: Yes, we do. The waiver allows for all kinds of new possibilities that viewers aren’t accustomed to and get really excited about.

TVT:How long have you had the waiver?

JR: I think since last May.

TVT:Does it cover all the drone-operating Sinclair stations?

JR: It does, with additional training. Everyone has to do one more step of training. But they all have the ability to qualify for night operations.

Some of the other [stand out uses of drones] are news stories that you can’t otherwise get access to.

For instance, in Chattanooga, Tenn., we had a cave in when a trench collapsed at a breaking news scene.

When all of the other TV stations were kept two blocks away by a barricade, the fire department and police department, we were able to go to another location that was clear of people, launch the drone, take it in without flying over people, and shoot the entire scene and broadcast it live. It was video no one else could get. So, in some cases it gives you a vantage point that no one else has.

TVT:I think before the FAA issued its rules for drone use, there were a lot of opinions about how these aerial platforms could enhance newsgathering. One in particular was the idea that a station could pull up to a crime scene, launch a drone and get footage of an otherwise inaccessible spot cordoned off by police tape. But when the rules came out, there was no flying over people. So, have restrictions like that changed attitudes about the place of drones in newsgathering? In other words, what is realistic and not?

JR: I think the more we use drones, the more the entire staff gets excited and involved.

Starting in the morning meeting, asking, “How can we use the drone today?”

As far as breaking news, our program is not quick setup. Our safety protocols require 20 minutes to a half hour before we can actually put the drone up.

It’s not run out there, park and fly. There are a lot of steps to go through.

TVT:It seems like the requirement to avoid flying over people on the ground ultimately controls whether or not you can get a shot.

JR: The most important rule that we have to abide by is not flying over people.

That guides a lot of what we do. We are very successful in finding places to fly that are next to an event.

A lot of times, we will ask permission. If there is something going on where there are a lot of people, like in a city, we will just ask someone if we can use their yard.

Maybe their yard is fenced in. If they give us permission we say, “Hey, don’t let your children or dog out in the backyard for the next hour. We would really appreciate it.”

We then use the yard as a launch area and stay over that as a safe place to fly.

TVT:In any of the 45 markets where Sinclair operates drones are there other stations using drones for newsgathering? Do you find that you and your competitor are flying in the same area to get footage for a story?

JR: We do. We seem to be ahead of our competitors, but over time other stations are starting to fly. Many of them are learning a lot of things we already know in order to be FAA-compliant.

But first and foremost, if we see a competitor flying, we go and talk to them before we ever set up. We know we are in danger of running into each other and we don’t want that to happen.

Safety comes before the shot, and we’ll go work out an agreement with whomever is flying.

TVT:I am reminded of competitive TV stations that all belong to the SBE and coordinate microwave frequency usage for ENG, for instance. Can you foresee a day when more and more stations will have drones and that there will need to be some analogous type of organization to coordinate flights and maintain safety?

JR: I absolutely do see that. As a matter of fact, we are already there. I have been in communications with the FAA, and they are interested in how we can coordinate with each other in order to pool video.

In certain circumstances—like maybe a large news scene—it’s not a good idea to have multiple drones airborne.

I’ll give you a good example: the Camp Fire wildfire in California. When the FAA finally put out authorizations for news operations to fly in the same place and at the same time, there were a dozen drones in the sky at the same time. That’s probably not the best idea.

If we can coordinate pooling video and having one crew under the guidelines of the FAA on site, then we could probably get much better access, share the video and be safer overall. Now, that’s limited use for certain large events.

Beyond that, I think across the country where we are operating, it’s going to be coordinating with competitors on the scene.

TVT:What would you guess is the mix of drone use for news vs. promotions at Sinclair?

JR: Drones are very much primarily used in the news department, but promotions will shoot some stuff that they use—whether it is a microwave truck driving down the road to reveal the skyline for a great promo or reporter standups.

But the majority is what we do for the news department in newscasts in addition to other outlets, like our SOAR [Sailing Over America] program.

TVT:What are the most important improvements you’ve seen in drones since you started doing this in August 2016?

JR: It’s pretty simple. We started out with a white drone. When it goes up against the sky, it becomes almost invisible.

The manufacturers realized that, and their second version of our DJI Inspire aircraft is dark gray. That sounds so simple, but it is really important. When you fly a drone 2,000 feet away, you have to be able to see it against the sky.

If you go past that, the new drones that are coming out today have sensors all the way around them, above and below, that will keep them from running into anything.

If you flew it straight at a building, 5 feet away from the building it would come to a stop. Those are fantastic benefits for what we do.

TVT:How often does a drone have to be overhauled, or do you just simply replace it?

JR: They are very low maintenance. I believe we have replaced the motors on an Inspire at 300 hours. They are brushless gimbal motors. There’s really nothing to wear out.

We replace rotor blades and batteries. Those are really our lifeblood. So, we baby batteries and we change rotor blades on a regular basis. We keep track of that in the maintenance record.

TVT:What are you shooting with the drones?

JR: We shoot 1080i, although we use bonded cellular. By time it gets back to the station it’s 720p.

But the drones have the capability of 4K. If the promotions department wants 4K, we just switch to 4K and when we are done, we just hand them a video card and they go edit.

TVT:Tell me about the Inspire drones you fly.

JR: We currently fly the DJI Inspire 2, which is ideally suited for two-person operations.

It has landing gear that retracts and gives you a 360-degree view with the camera independent of the aircraft.

TVT:Is there anything else you’d like to add about drones?

JR: Over time we have learned that drones can be used safely, even in 10,000 flights.

I think that if you have well-defined safety procedures and you have thorough pilot training and strong corporate support, those things come together to represent the safety culture of our program.

We have learned over time you require all of those things to be successful.

WASHINGTON—Keeping track of which drone is which may soon become a bit easier now that the Federal Aviation Administration has ruled that small unmanned aircraft must display official registration numbers on the outside of the aircraft.

Previously, owners of small unmanned aircraft were permitted to enclose its FAA-issued registration number in a compartment inside of the device, as long as the compartment could be opened without a special tool.

Starting Feb. 23, however, a new ruling issued by the FAA and the Department of Transportation stipulates that small unmanned aircraft owners must display the unique identifier — which is assigned by the FAA after registering the device — on the outside surface of an aircraft.

Public comments on the issue range from supportive to outraged. Some drone operators expressed concern (via the federal electronic rulemaking portal Regulations.gov) over government overreach. Others asked for more detailed descriptions from the FAA on exactly where a registration number should be affixed. Others pressed the FAA to modify that ruling so that it only applies to commercial drone operators.

According to the FAA, this rule change is necessary to enhance the safety and security of those on the ground seeking registration information from an unmanned aircraft. With this new ruling, the FAA said that individuals will now be able to view a unique identifier directly without needing to handle the aircraft.

Though the rules flip-flopped in 2017 and 2018, current FAA rules now dictate that unmanned aircraft systems must be registered if they weigh more than 0.55 pounds but less than 55 pounds. Commercial entities operating drones weighing more than 55 pounds must apply for special authority with the FAA.

Nearly two years ago, the Department of Homeland Security formally requested that the FAA change its rulemaking, saying small unmanned aircraft “can be a source of risk, a potential threat, and time consuming for the law enforcement officer to identify the owner/operator for law enforcement, security or safety purposes,” said DHS Director L. Eric Patterson in a letter to the FAA.

“Registration information that is external and does not require handling of the UAS would permit safe collection of registration information without having to access the battery compartment or another closed compartment and would facilitate rapid assessment of the threat,” he said.

The FAA is asking for comments on the ruling before March 15. Commenters should use Docket Number FAA-2018-1084.

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Drones are here to stay. And that’s exciting news for the head of the National Association of Tower Erectors, who sees a bright future in terms of new applications and refined safety regulations surrounding the use of unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Radio World spoke with Todd Schlekeway, executive director of NATE, about the organization’s connection to the Commercial Drone Alliance, his takeaway on the provisions in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018, and how drones are being put to use as broadcasters deal with tall tower work due to the repack.

Radio World:What is your organization’s take on the usage of drones in the broadcast tower space?

Todd Schlekeway: NATE has been an enthusiastic supporter of expanding commercial UASes for some time. We joined the Commercial Drone Alliance [an organization committed to growing the commercial drone industry] about a year and a half ago. It’s clear that our industry could be benefactors [of legislation surrounding drones] over the long term.

Radio World:What specifically were you pleased to see implemented specific in the recent FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018?

Schlekeway: The key areas we were interested in [seeing implanting] were more flexibility with the waiver process, remote identification, and changes to tower marking.

One of the highlights is that [the act] expands and makes the waiver process streamlined and easier to use. Previously, unless you are an organization or company with a waiver to fly at night, beyond visual line-of-sight or over people, you had to file [a waiver] and that process took a long time. This FAA Reauthorization Act will set in motion a streamlined approach [to getting waivers approved].

From the commercial UAS perspective, we were very happy to see [the removal] of a clause from the previous authorization that essentially exempted hobbyist users from any remote identification. So this act is going to set forth a [procedure by which] all users are going to have to have remote ID.

This is significant because any time there is a registered drone, there will be accountability. Accountability breeds safety. That’s significant. The hobbyist community is very passionate about drones.

There’s also a provision impacting the previous tower marking mandate that was part of a short-term extension in 2016 [that] mandated that all towers between 50 feet and 199 feet be marked. Of course those towers over 200 feet are already lit and marked.

We fought hard against that; we don’t have the work force to retroactively [mark those towers]. It was one of those things that went too far by sweeping in communication towers. The 2018 act walked that mandate back. Now, those towers just need to be entered into a database.

Radio World:What kinds of reports are you getting from tower companies about how broadcasters are using drones?

Schlekeway: I reached out to two prominent broadcast contractors that are heavily involved with the repack and both had said they were using drones extensively with their tall tower work — specifically related to the repack. It’s just a different animal from a technical and engineering point of view. Technicians need to have a different skill set. This is a really specialized skill that not every company is capability of doing.

Some of the use cases [these contractors] were using UASes for were for complex construction such as rigging candelabras. Or using them to monitor their equipment with video and photo footage to look at structural analysis. Drones are useful to determine a lot of rigging obstructions, going to spots technicians can’t get to. There’s no question [drones] are playing a role.

Radio World: What else should radio and TV facility managers know?

Schlekeway: The broadcast industry needs to stay attuned to the evolving regulatory landscape. It’s about to get more flexible but you have stay up to date on the regulatory side of the house.

Use of these drones is going to continue to increase year over year. But there’s now a higher level of training needed. At a recent UAS summit, reps from several industries said “if we’re going to go allow your contractor on our site, your guy better be trained higher than just the baseline.” There’s a need for graduated training requirements.

Radio World: What are your thoughts on the future role that drones will play in our industry?

Schlekeway: We are “all in” on what they can do for the broadcast side and for cellular sites. But they not a replacement for the workplace. [They are] a powerful supplemental tool for the team to work safely and more efficiently and to streamline their work process.

Drones are here to stay. As use cases continue to evolve, stay attuned to the regulatory landscape.

Radio World: It’s a time of immense change for the industry.

Schlekeway: It’s exciting to see. I envision the day when every contractor company has a drone as a part of their operation, as a part of their toolkit. We’re not too far from that reality.

Best Video Production Companies in Cleveland

Cleveland has for a long time been a major film production hub in the midwest. There are plenty of camera crews, video production companies, & media production resources located in Cleveland making anything from small scale interview shoots to major motion picture production. Here is a ranking of the Top 5 best video production companies in Northeast Ohio:

5 Best Video Production In Cleveland:

1. Commercial Media

Commercial Media is a Cleveland Video Production Company specialising in high end cinematography for Television Commercials & Web Advertising Videos. Commercial Media provides everything from media production services to copywriting & post-production. Having in house Cinematographers, Audio Specialists, Writers, Editors, Producers, & Directors. Whether a simple camera crews to complex large scale video productions armed with RED Cameras, Arri Cinema Cameras, Panasonic, Canon, or Sony Cameras, we capture beautiful images paired with impactful audio recordings that drives your brand’s message to the forefront.

2. Bad Racket Recording Studio

Bad Racket Recording Studio is a Audio Production facility in Cleveland Ohio. One of the best recording studios in ohio, Bad Racket has capabilities far surpassing many smaller facilities that exist in the region. Offering 3000 Sq. Ft. of Sound Stage Studio Space, we can handle anything from Voice Over Recording Sessions with a Phone Patch to ADR, Live Full Band Music Recording, and Foley Recording. Featuring an Calibrated Audio Mixing Stage & Control Room, Very Large Live Room, and 3 Isolation Booths, we are equipped to handle nearly any type of audio production from recording to mixing and mastering services. Our Engineers are experts in Music Production, Audio Post-Production Mixing for Film, Sound Design, Audio Restoration, Podcast Production, & tons more.

3. Henri Rapp Recording - Production Sound Mixer

Having well recorded audio in the field can make or break any production, this is where hiring an excellent Location Sound Mixer is of extreme importance. Henri Rapp has years of experience as a location sound recordist, as well as post-production mixing. Whether recording dialog, ambiences, special effects, or room tone, he has the gear to make any production succeed. Basic Audio Gear Package consists of Sound Devices 664 Field Recorder & Mixer, Boom, 2 Wisycom Wireless with Sanken COS11 Mics, & Hardwired Feed to Camera. Additional gear such as Timecode Sync Boxes, Smart Slate, IFBs, Additional Wireless Lavalier, Wireless Camera Hops, and more available upon request.

4. UAV Cinema

For UAV Aerial Video Services in Ohio look no further then UAV Cinema. UAV Cinema is a fully FAA Licensed & Insured Drone Service, working in Cleveland, Columbus, & Cincinnati. Drone Packages start with DJI Inspire 2 Drone with 4k RAW Package, Drone Pilot, Aerial Cinematographer, & Drone Safety Utility. Heavy lift drones carrying RED & Arri cameras available upon request.

5. Cleveland Camera Rental

One of the biggest needs in any video production is gear, fortunately Cleveland has an excellent production equipment rental house, Cleveland Camera Rental. The staff is knowledgeable with wide array of gear ranging from Camera, Support Gear, Grip Equipment, Video Lighting, & much more. If you need video gear while shooting in Ohio, look no further than Cleveland Camera Rental.

CARMEL, Ind. — BirdsiVideo has announced a program to offer on-demand UAV services to broadcasters in regional media markets.

Trained UAV pilots from around the country will help stations expand coverage as part of the TV Partners Drone Program. The program makes it possible for stations to reduce the expense of coverage by substituting drone-captured footage for that normally shot from news choppers.

[Read: UTA Launches Nationwide Tower Drone Inspection Service]

“Our experienced fleet operations team is skilled in sourcing, training and deploying pilots nationwide with verifiable background checks, insurance coverage and on-site scheduling using our proprietary operations platform,” said Josh Kneifel, company CEO and co-founder.

According to the company, BirdsiVideo has been hired by ABC News and Verizon to shoot aerial news footage.

Stations can book a drone pilot 24 hours in advance of required news coverage or buy service agreements to cover breaking news in quick-response scenarios, the company said.

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