Thursday, September 12, 2019

Meet Colin Guinn AGAIN... Drone pioneer who has seen it all!

UPDATE on COLIN  GUINN...
Well I got to sit down with Colin again to find out what he's been up to since the last time we sat down and talked. Here's the 1st interview and standby next month for this update on Colin and the state of the drone industry in 2022!

and do a one on one interview with the colorful celebrity of the drone world at Interdrone 2019, none other then Colin Guinn! I, like most drone enthusiasts, have been watching Colin's career, his ever present exhuberant and passionate persona, on the "Drones Over America!" Check out the amazing insight Colin had for what drones would mean for society by reading some of his dialog:
internet and virtually all channels of media! Beginning back in 2012 Colin made DJI a household name and UAV/Drone communities formed around his evangelizing of such cool tech! His marketing messaging, training videos and multiple mainstream broadcast TV appearances were engaging and fun to watch as we learned about these 4 prop flying wonders with cameras and gimbals. Colin even shared the screen back in 2014 with Morley Safer on an episode of 60 minutes entitled "Drones over America." 

So yesterday there stood Colin Guinn at the podium, a keynote speaker at INTERDRONE 2019. I was compelled to once again connect with Colin and record an audio interview to find out just what he was up to now.  Some of the questions in the interview provided some closure on just what happened with him and CEO Frank Wang of DJI as well as the startup company 3DR where one of the most viral and sensational video ads ever was produced in-house, by Colin and friends for the drone industry!! I also ask Colin in the interview where he thinks the drone industry is heading now and the role his new consulting firm is playing in the industries future. So checkout some sound advice and get some direction regarding venturing into the drone/UAS industry. So enough said click video below and enjoy!

Oh wait one more thing before you watch. Speaking of the influence of DRONE's in societybe sure to also checkout the new drone based animated series:
Yeah Yeah I know a self touting advertisement plug for our new show here at OTW!



One thing before you press PLAY above a word up about our technical fun loving community... from  the box office hit "Revenge of the Nerds" remember "Geeks and Nerds are COOL too!" Oh yeah more drone industry widespread market influence! There's a new animated series in development entitled "The Adventures of Bad Drone and Arnold" Yeah Yeah I know a self touting advertisement plug for our new show here at On the Wave Productions...

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Making a difference in the world of commercial drones

There are people in the drone/UAV industry making a difference with education and safety at the top of their list. Meet Marc Langley, CEO of Airborne Works and speaker at Interdrone. With an electricians background and specializing in Refrigeration, cryogenics, incubators and more, he entered into the world of drones and image mapping. In a mere 4 years he is truly a leader and evangelist of drone technology! A non-profit arm of his company will even donate a drone for a good cause!

Marc led an amazing eye opening breakout session on photogrammetry (the 2D capturing of landscapes and 3D rendering) for the EPA that also included infrared maps to trace water temperatures that would reveal areas of nitrate concentration, an indicator of harmful contaminants enetering a waterway through a cranberry farm. It was a perfect example that set the tone of his lecture. I for one walked away excited about this field and instead of being fearful to get out there and do it I became enthusiastic! Just another benefit of attending a well focused trade show like Interdrone!

I had a good laugh with Marc at the end of our interview and I mentioned some drone carnage, to quote Marc  "You're not a pilot unless you've lost a drone or two! " to which he confessed losing 2 in one day and I could relate! True words of encouragement despite loss of gear in this field of work. So get out there and fly and dive into the amazing world of drone tech...

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

INTERDRONE 2019 Celebrates 5 years for a good reason

Own a drone? Thinking of breaking into the vast and exponentially growing commercial market space? Search and Rescue, Law Enforcement, 1st Responders, trying to get drone programs started in your city? Construction, Agriculture? Science, Researcher, Innovator., Cinematographer, photographer...

 I can keep going here... if any of the above match your interests then INTERDRONE 2019 is a must conference for you to attend! Experts from all fields, FAA officials, the top of the field have all arrived at Interdrone ready to educate you in your field of choice. From building, programming, schooling, licensing, rules and safety, flying, mapping, cinematography you name it and you'll find that there's a session waiting for you! It's the best jump start to get into this market space now.

I am not affiliated nor am I being paid by the promoters of Interdrone but I am speaking as one of you. The amount of tradeshows with breakout sessions is startling and confusing when it comes to drone/UAV technology lately. You can do the research but I can tell you this....Interdrone is a highly focused event and it covers all aspects of this new industry and in my book this show is now a must see event.

"Is my DJI drone data being stored in China?" DJI's Romeo Durscher answers.

LIVE FROM INTERDRONE 2019
So your drone keeps insisting over and over again whether or not you would like to "SYNCHRONIZE YOUR DATA!" What does that mean? Am I to grant DJI rights to DJI to store the data from all of my flights? Big brother watching? All my data is going to China, where DJI is headquartered?


If you're a commercial drone operator the odds are you need to select YES , SYNCHRONIZE MY DATA, otherwise you will be unable to get the critical data needed for mapping, photogrammetry and more image type data collection and processing.



So tonight I had the opportunity to discuss this with Romeo Durscher of DJI who had just delivered a keynote address at Interdrone. Romeo explained this widespread misconception by stating that all the data goes into the Cloud, where it is simply stored for retieval by it's owner and never leaves the USA. Romeo also stated that DJI could be doing a better job assuring it's customer base that their data is indeed safe and not being used by any foreign power.  So I guess we can all relax and breathe a sigh of relief that there will be no future invasion based on complete mapping details of the contiguous 50 states from millions of USA based DJI drones!  Hey how do we know AMAZON isn't up to no good... to be continued


see related article: https://www.cnet.com/news/dji-denies-sending-drone-data-to-china/

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

INTERDRONE IS ALMOST HERE, SO WHAT"S NEW IN DRONES!!

Ok well the next drone show is coming up the 1st week in September and we'll be there to report on the latests and greatest drones out there. Will DJI be offering up anything soon to take the place of the workhorse Phantom 4 Pro or is everything shrinking and Mavic sized drones are king! Well of course that all depends whether you need IMAX footage from the big boyz or if current 1 Meg sensors are good enough for the niche you operate in...are the big drones like INSPIRE 2 and other competing products going away...?

We've been testing the DJI Enterprise Mavic with it's FLIR camera for additional InfraRed imaging and so far it seems more gimmicky (loudspeaker not 2 way voice conversation; search lights; beacon), than functional when that functionality is key in rescue operations by Search and Rescue/Sheriff scenarios. Our first look gives conflicting information over the accuracy of the GPS coordinates being displayed and that is quite serious when it comes down to locating lost individuals day or nigh time. We will have more on that after Interdrone so look for it around September 8th on this blog site.

ROBOTS on the REEF is the latest film from OTW Productions in the works for Animal Planet and we will also shed more light on that film and the technology being used to be able to determine the health of an ocean reef system. With climate change warming our seas we are seeing more and more coral reef systems bleaching and dying and the best way to monitor the situation and learn from it is coming from these new water based drones...standby!

Drones are being programmed to locate GREAT WHITE SHARKS in real time and send out information live...WHere: Why in Santa Barbara at UCSB's McCauley Lab.

All these great stories coming up for mid September so we will see you back here on the blog soon!