DRONE : TRANSFORMING MEDIA

NEWS, SPORTS, COMMERCIAL AND FILMS

OBJECTIVE• Drone and its history• Understanding modern drone• Flight Mode and Safety Measures• Mobile apps used in drone• Advantage of using Drone in Broadcast• What kind of camera we can fly• List of Broadcast Drone• List of wireless uplink/downlink transmission Vendors• Technical Terminology • Drone workflow in Broadcast

DRONE AND ITS HISTORY• Also known as UAVs/UGVs unmanned aerial/ground vehicle. • Flying Model Aircrafts started to emerge in the 1970-80s powered by a

two cycle piston engine.• Even if small TV cameras and receiver or transmitter available then,

these machines weren’t suitable platforms because of the engine oil coating and the vibration was fearsome.

• Major challenge was, using the narrow band transmission so interference from receiver and transmitter can crash the aircraft if operating on the same channel.

• The first US government-approved drone delivery has successfully transported 4.5kg of medical supplies to a rural health clinic on July 17th 2015.

UNDERSTANDING MODERN DRONE

• Equipped with geo-located high-definition video cameras, drones are emerging as important new tool for broadcasting media and film-makers.

• Operates on intelligent flight battery which powers the Rotary Motor which can be DC Brushless Motor and other controlling unit.

• Equipped with GPS, Propeller, Obstacle Sensing System, Vision Positioning Sensor.

• Equipped with Camera Gimbal for controlling the movement of cameras. In the same way as we are using Pedestal for Camera in Studios.

• Heart of Drone is IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) which sends control signal as in aircraft altitude, force and angular rate etc. to flight controller and also to power management unit, they all are connected together and drives the drone.

• Able to provide complete status of Aircraft using LED unit combinations of Red, Green and Yellow both on flight and its remote control, Also having Bluetooth for real time communication with mobile device e.g. iPhone.

FLIGHT MODE AND SAFTEY MEASURES

• Flight modes which can be used but not confined to are : – P-Mode (Positioning) : Works best when GPS is strong and automatically

position itself by using obstacle sensing system.– S-Mode (Sport) : Enhance the motility of craft and speed gets increase by 20

m/s– A-mode (Altitude): When neither the GPS nor the Obstacle sensing is

available, the aircraft will use barometer for positioning.• RTH : Return to Home function brings the drone back to last

recorded home point in the following situation:– Failsafe RTH : It activates when Remote signal lost for more then 3 sec.– Smart RTH : By pressing this button on remote controller, Aircraft returns to

its recorded home point using GPS.– Low Battery RTH : This is triggered when intelligent battery is drained to a

level that may cause problem in returning of Aircraft.

MOBILE APPS USED WITH DRONEPeriscope: Owned by Twitter, It is the easiest way to broadcast live from your mobile phone. Periscope lets you broadcast live video to the world. Going live will instantly notify your followers, who can join, comment and send you hearts in real time. The more hearts you get, the higher they flutter on the screen.Facebook Live: Mark Zuckerberg,

demoed a new option for its Facebook Live feature live-streaming video from a drone. A DJI Phantom 4, to be specific. The drone maker has integrated Facebook Live into its Go mobile app (used for controlling and viewing video from the camera among other things) and is now available to the public

ADVATANGE OF USING DRONE IN BROADCAST

• Drones have the capability to deliver high-quality shots that are suitable for live television.

• Covering fast action using broadcast-quality HD cameras and real-time HD video downlinks, makes razor-sharp accuracy in live sports broadcasting.

• Its flexibility in allowing the operator, the option to change the location of the shot and providing different angles that too closer tracking of the action was difficult with individual fixed cameras.

• Moving the shot based on the action rather than the producer to switch cameras displaying the shot.

• It can actually combine dolly and crane functionality to deliver previously impossible shots.

WHAT KIND OF CAMERA WE CAN FLY ?

Basically any camera under 12 lbs is supported, here is the list of cameras which is used in Broadcast Application : These are FPV (First Person View) camera which are small, lightweight and cheap and are Mounted onto Aircraft to send real time video back down to you via video transmitter. FPV system can ensure that you are getting the shot you intended without trying to guess at the shot setup from a position on the ground and some distance awayThe downside of using action camera is they all will have latency issue

LIST OF DRONES USED IN BROADCAST

1. DJI Phantom 3/4 professional

2. YUNEEC Q500 4K Typhoon

3. 3D Robotics Iri

s+

4. Parrot AR.Drone 2.0

5. DJI Inspire 1 PRO

6. 3D Robotics Solo

7. Syma X5C-1

8. Cheerson Hobby CX-20

9. Blade Chroma Nano

QX

10. Syma X8G 

11. Skyjib X8 Titanium Cinema

Combo

12. DJI S900 Hexacopter

VENDORS FOR UPLINK SOLUTION• Vislink Herocast (joint project with GoPro) Transmitter and

PROceiver.• Dejero Live+ Platform.• LiveU • Mushroom Streamer/ Teleport• Teradek Bolt pro• Aviwest• Minicaster• TVU Network• Amimon

TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY• S-BUS : Named as Smart Bus/Serial Control Bus, It uses digital serial data

communication technology to transmit control signals between your receiver and servos, The camera operator can use a gimbal remote control to control the drone camera’s gimbal through the S-BUS port of the Air Unit

• CAN bus : It is controller area network bus, developed by BOSCH as a multi-master, message broadcast system that specifies a maximum signaling rate of 1 megabit per second (bps), designed specifically for automotive applications, it is present in the Air Unit and provides connection to PMU and IMU.

• MAVLink : It is Micro Air Vehicle Link is a protocol for communicating with small unmanned vehicle and the ground control station.

DRONE WORKFLOW IN TV BROADCASTING

Showing general fixed camera mounted in Drone it can be any professional suitable camera with Gimbal and its lens based on the demand

Air Unit Transmitter

Ground Unit Receiver

The Ground Unit connects to various types of monitors, video goggles or a portable video monitor via the HDMI port. This enables the pilot and/or camera operator to monitor the video transmitted from the Air Unit

The Air Unit is connected to a drone in order to capture video from the drone's camera and to transmit it to up to four Ground Units simultaneously (multicast), thus creating a wireless video link

Camera ControllerFlight Controller

There can be only one remote controller for controlling both Camera and Drone

Telemetry Signal

Camera Gimbal Control Signal SDI/HDMI Out for Transmission

OB Van

In House TV Production

TV Receiver

GPS

GPS

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