Drones at CES and on the Slope behind Marcel Hirscher posted: 18/01/2016
by Andy Marken
Skier Marcel Hirscher escapes injury as drone smashes behind him during race
The slalom skiing champion Marcel Hirscher escaped unharmed after a drone carrying a camera fell from the sky and narrowly missed him on his way down the slope during a race in Italy. The Austrian, who has won the overall World Cup title for the past four seasons, was competing in a slalom race in Madonna di Campiglio in Italy.
Footage posted online shows the large camera drone crash to the ground just two feet after Hirscher has sped by. He does not appear to have noticed it at the time and continues with the race. This is horrible, Hirscher, who finished second, said. This can never happen again. This can be a serious injury.
In Britain, the Government is considering regulating the use of drones following a surge in the number flown just a few metres from planes during take-off and landing at major airports. Safety experts have warned that the unmanned aircraft could bring down a passenger plane after four potentially fatal near-misses in September.
Keep Your Eyes to the Skies as Drones Fly Out of Stores
These people, they have no jobs, no food, no education, no future. I just figure that we have two things we can do. Help, or we can sit back and watch a country destroy itself on CNN. - Eversmann, Black Hawk Down, Revolution Studios, 2001
It's estimated that 1M UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) or drones if you prefer were gifted this Christmas.
All I can think of are my two favorite orators:
- Will Rogers - You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people.
- George Carlin - Just think how stupid the average person is and then realize that half of them are stupider than that.
The industry is so exciting there's a convention every other week, professional/casual publications, training/educational schools, professional organizations (like the Drone Coalition) and clubs cropping up everywhere.
I get it.
I understand all the drone paranoia:
- they're unproven - don't agree with this one
- they're dangerous - see Will's, George's comments plus really nasty folks
- threatening to privacy - of course they will (see above)
That's why I'd suggest:
- Go online with the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) and register your (or kids) drone
- Get some training because fines for ignorance can run $27,500 - $250,000
- Get some good personal liability, medical drone insurance (see above) and you know people will want to sue
Problem is the excitement surrounding drones is a fever as big as it was around tablets, smartphones and is around wearables, IoT (Internet of Things) and IoE (Internet of Everything).
Drone Bundle - Seemingly out of nowhere, drones or UAVs flew off the shelves for recreational flying. They have already caused their share of problems for the general public and firms that want to use them for a wide range of commercial applications. Proposed regulation of the free-flying aircraft is still a work in progress.
It's all because people like Teal Research, CBInsights, others estimate that worldwide sales of drones, accessories, apps, etc., will leap to $90B by 2024.
The rapid growth is not just drone sales but all of the technology that goes into them like chips that power/control them, apps that manage specific operations and activities and obviously the capture/storage of the data.
There are industry leaders most of us never heard of until a couple of years ago. China's DJI leads the pack with a complete family commercial and recreational UAVs followed by 3D Robotics, Parrot and a herd of others.
That herd received over $100M in startup funding in 2014 from VCs (venture capitalists). Probably a ton more last year.
Then there is the world of cheap knock-offs that copies its way in to sell a crap load of crap at a cheap price to anyone who's got $50 - $200.
In addition to the toys there are some seriously good applications for drones.
Commercial Use - While retail package delivery may have garnered early headlines for UAVs, they have already been in widespread use in commercial applications. Leading the demand for using the aerial devices are the photo and film industries.
They are being used quietly and successfully in farming/land management, firefighting, disaster relief, search and rescue, mapping, surveying, scientific/environmental research, law enforcement, education, real estate, conservation, utility monitoring/management and especially M&E (media and entertainment).
People in each market segment say theirs is the most important, exciting drone market but M&E really is (ok I'm biased).
Drones are increasingly being used for television, film production, covering breaking news (disasters, crimes) and sporting events from new and unique viewing angles.
In the U.S. news folks are making a case for their First Amendment rights to use drones as governing entities struggle to develop privacy and safety guidelines.
Actually what the NMC (New Media Coalition) said was privacy, bureaucracy and tech logic doesn't fit with their journalistic protection.
Jeezz, folks!
Fortunately there are sane and professional organizations that are trying to help the M&E industry get it right, do it right.
NAB (National Association of Broadcasters), IBC (International Broadcast Convention) and national/regional/local events are doing a lot to ensure content producers (and people in other industries that use video) act and work in a responsible manner and still get the shots they want/need.
Follow the Rules - Filmmakers like Jeff Foster, of Sound Vision Media, have found a growing demand for drone film work for commercials, businesses and creative story telling. Bu
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Drones at CES and on the Slope behind Marcel Hirscher posted: 18/01/2016 
