AV News: Dronedazzle - Enterprise Drones

Welcome back to Dronedazzle, your flying and buying guide this holiday season. On this episode, we’re looking at drones for the professional user – someone you know in real estate, agriculture, or inspections. Mike Welsh has been flying UAVs professionally for almost a decade. He’s the Founder of aerial video company Sky Candy Studios and professional drone services company Skylink Solutions. We talked about 5 key areas drones can be used for: real estate, agriculture, search and rescue, inspection, and 3D mapping. For real estate, Mike Welsh had this to say, "Because real estate is lower cost, you don’t want to be bringing out an Inspire 2 so the Mavic 2 is by far the best bang for your buck. It’s portable, the image quality is amazing, the downside to the Mavic 2 is it looks like you’re flying a toy." However, Mike says he still chooses to use it most of the time. “There’s a couple of Ag drones that I like," Mike said. "I personally use the Ag Eagle for agriculture – it has a really good sensor, but it is at a higher price point of $25,000. So, if you’re looking to just get into Ag, I would recommend a local Minneapolis company called Sentera. You can just attach their sensors to a Mavic or Phantom 4.” Sentera’s sensors also work with the DJI Inspire. FLIR thermal imaging cameras can also be used in agriculture to monitor crops, as well as a variety of other applications – including search and rescue missions. Their cameras can be purchased alone or with a drone. Mike had different idea for effective search and rescue drones, “The Mavic 2 Enterprise is the best because you get amazing flight time, you can attach lights to it, you can attach a loudspeaker to it. If you’re searching for someone it’s just the best possible drone to have.” There are a variety of ways drones can be used for inspection including wind turbines, cell towers, bridges, and in construction. Mike says, “the best possible drone for getting in really tight on these subjects is – it’s actually a camera DJI makes it’s the Z30. The DJI Z30 has a 30x optical zoom which lets you get really punched in on wind turbines, cell towers. It’s typically flown on the Matrice M600, so that’s your best bet for those types of things.” Typically when you think of drones, you don’t think underground mapping. However, Mike says it’s an industry that has great prospects and available technology, “If you’re looking to get into the mining industry, there’s a drone from Emesent, which is out of Australia, and it uses a LiDAR system to scan the surrounding area and it can autonomously fly down really tight spaces and get a great 3D model for underground mines and it can also do above ground mines as well.” Tune in next time for our final Dronedazzle where we’re discussing the best additional products to buy someone who already has a drone. - Kendall Mark