High-tech meets Journalism

Seeing more and more journalistic organisations making use of drones to capture footage that would otherwise require a helicopter. And when you realise the complete kit is less than the price of hiring a helicopter for one trip, it is no wonder the technology is being embraced so fast.



UK Daily Telegraph photographer Lewis Whyld used his home-assembled aerial drone to ensure nobody was trapped in a submerged car. He travelled to Somerset on his day off to test his drone photography system which he previously deployed in the Philippines and to cover the High Speed 2 rail route.

Droning On

With the demise of Radio Netherlands in its present form, I see that Dutch domestic public broadcasters, like the Catholic KRO, are partnering with Al Jazeera English, such as in this Dutch documentary about drones. The irony is that the KRO may end up moving into the very same building in north Hilversum that most of RNW employees have now vacated. 

Drones near Dayton?

Gone rather quiet around the US Microdrones. Guess they must be in operation.

Broadwing Drones at your Service

More on drones after a blog post back in February.  Met up with Koos Maring at the Future of Advertising conference, a half day briefing for the publishing and advertising branch in Amsterdam. At the drinks afterwards Koos introduced himself and explained his company Broadwing.eu designs and flies drones for a living. Having heard about drones and the military, mainly via the political satire show NoAgenda, I was intrigued to see what Koos was up to with his company's modified helicopters. They prefer to call them UAV, Unmanned Airborne Vehicles and the airframes are usually made of carbon fibre - strong yet light.

Koos Maring, CEO Broadwing

Koos is experimenting with his own designs of UAV's and different video cameras on board. Broadwing operates as a team of three people.


The most recent project was filming the Race of the Classics. It's the largest and most prestigious student sailing regatta in Europe. Various teams from Universities and High Schools in the Netherlands get the chance to sail around the country on classic sailing ships. The ships set off the Rotterdam Veerhaven harbour and head for another Dutch or Belgian port. Then they head off for the UK. The third and final leg of the race involves everyone heading for the Dutch port of Ijmuiden. 


Koos explains there has also been interest from other sporting events as well as from police and law enforcement agencies during special events. They feel that some of the tragedies at events like pop concerts last year could have been reduced if crowd monitoring was possible. They rarely use police helicopters because of the expense, the noise and length of the event (several days). The website explains that they have been experimenting with the new Sony mirror-less cameras. 

I see that the top video below may not play directly in some countries because of the music used (YouTube has intervened). But you can watch it on the YouTube site if you click through.

James Bond theme played by helicopters

This is what you get if things get too driven by technology. Amazing technology combined with a lousy performance. Definitely something Q would have built, though he would have added more explosives.



Thanks to Absolute Radio in London for posting the press conference about the 23rd Bond movie Skyfall to the Interwebs. Will be coming out later in 2012 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of Dr No.

Could an Azerbaijani aviation engineer help revolutionize journalism?

I don't claim any originality with this post. Have a look at Joshua Boissevain's great piece of curation, where he ponders the use of unmanned (model) helicopters to help journalists in difficult areas. Might come handy in Athens, Tehran, Madrid, etc. I wonder if the police would attempt to shoot it out of the sky? It would certainly help get more accurate estimates of crowd sizes. They are often inflated by the organisers and deflated by the authorities or opposing side.