Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/663385
m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 6 c g w 2 9 Drones hibitors involved with drone-re- lated solutions in one way or another that expressed interest in doing more at the show. According to Brown, this year's Pavilion, which has sold out, promises to be bigger and more prominent, grabbing a key spot in Central Hall. What's more, manufacturers through- out the show floor all seem to be talking drones. This includes countless companies manufac- turing drones for both consumer and professional use, as well as companies making peripheral products such as transmit- ters, batteries, and more, while camera manufacturers – ranging from the more obvious GoPro to the higher-end professional Canon, Sony, Blackmagic Design, ARRI, and Red – are all getting hooked up to fly. (More about cameras and other drone-relat- ed solutions in upcoming issues.) B&H (www.bhphotovideo. com), one of the industry's largest resellers, is exhibiting in the drone Pavilion as well. Chris- tian Domecq, senior pro-user marketing rep for the company, says his store has seen a steady increase in sales on an "almost weekly" basis. "The number of new brands that we're picking up and the amount of sales that we're seeing – we're definitely getting a want from the crowd, if you will. To be fair, probably more on the consumer side than pro, but not that the pros aren't embracing it wholeheartedly." Domecq points out there are production companies out there that do nothing but aerial work, so there are companies "making their bread and butter with this," he says. "[They're] probably not doing any favors to the Professional Helicopter Pilots Association, but you know, what a drone can do, maybe a helicopter can't, and maybe what a helicopter can do, a drone can't. One of those things is carrying multiple shooters in the air for an hour – a drone can't do that. But a drone can get under a canopy of a tree, and a helicopter can't." Specifically addressing the post market, Domecq agrees that drones offer someone such as a VFX supervisor a lot of options to do 3D mapping of the environment. "It's a really neat and exciting tool to have in the toolbox. But because of the FAA restrictions on who can make money with their UAVs, it's probably not as widespread in terms of everyone having a drone in their production closet. It's not happening yet. Everyone has, say, a Red Epic camera, but not everyone is going to have a $23,000 drone." D R O N E S T A K E F L I G H T Between consumer, prosumer, and professional applications, there are, as one would expect, numerous UAVs to choose from. Many come equipped with their own cameras, while in other instances, users can choose which camera they want to use and send it up for flight. At B&H, Domecq says the store carries its own fair share of drones – both consumer and professional – from leading manufacturers such as DJI (www.dji.com), xFold (www.xfoldrig.com), Freefly (www.freeflysystems. com), and others. "When most people think of drones, they're thinking of the white model [Phantom] from DJI," Domecq says. "DJI, they're sort of the Kleenex of drones, if you will – everyone has a DJI. And it was really the first one on the scene that was mass-pro- duced. DJI makes a number of different models – the S1000 or S900, basically the same thing but different sizes, and they can hold a Canon 5D Mark III on the gimbal [for camera stabilization] with the battery and decent- size lens, and keep it in the air for 13 minutes or so at a time. Those are available at a wide assortment of price points. You don't have to spend $20,000 to get one of these things; you can spend $7 k or so and have a really nice system that will give you professional results on that style of camera. "Now, if you're shooting Game of Thrones and you're doing a stereoscopic, Red Epic, dual-mounted shoot, for that level of production we carry a company called xFold, and they make these seriously huge aircra," Donecq continues. With a variety of models, xFold Rigs range from the xFold Dragon and xFold Cinema to the xFold Travel and xFold Spy. Certainly on the higher end, a fully-loaded xFold Dragon kit, ready to fly, comes in at around $27,000, featuring a turnkey, dual-operator drone with radios, "Many filmmakers dream up shots in a very similar style to what drones can create – floating through a space with complete pointing and positioning freedom." (LEFT) INTUITIVE AERIAL'S AERIGON AT IBC 2015. (RIGHT) NAB'S AERIAL ROBOTICS AND DRONE PAVILION WITH FLYING CAGE LAST YEAR.