https://urgentcomm.com/wp-content/themes/ucm_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Multimedia
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • Commentary
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • All Things IWCE
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • IWCE
    • Conference
    • Special Events
    • Exhibitor Listings
    • Premier Partners
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Register for IWCE
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
    • Cookie Policy
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • Mission Critical Technologies
    • TU-Auto
  • In the field
    • Back
    • In the field
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Internet of Things
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Call Center/Command
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Network Tech
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Operations
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Regulations
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • Organizations
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
Urgent Communications
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Video
    • Podcasts
    • Omdia Crit Comms Circle Podcast
    • Galleries
    • IWCE’s Video Showcase
    • IWCE 2023 Pre-event Guide
    • IWCE 2022 Winter Showcase
  • Commentary
    • Back
    • All Things IWCE
    • Urgent Matters
    • View From The Top
    • Legal Matters
  • Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Reprints & Reuse
    • UC eZines
    • Sponsored content
  • IWCE
    • Back
    • Conference
    • Why Attend
    • Exhibitor Listing
    • Floor Plan
    • Exhibiting Information
    • Join the Event Mailing List
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Terms of Service
    • Privacy Statement
  • Related Sites
    • Back
    • American City & County
    • IWCE
    • Light Reading
    • IOT World Today
    • TU-Auto
  • newsletter
  • In the field
    • Back
    • Internet of Things
    • Broadband Push-to-X
    • Project 25
    • Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet
    • Virtual/Augmented Reality
    • Land Mobile Radio
    • Long Term Evolution (LTE)
    • Applications
    • Drones/Robots
    • IoT/Smart X
    • Software
    • Subscriber Devices
    • Video
  • Call Center/Command
    • Back
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • NG911
    • Alerting Systems
    • Analytics
    • Dispatch/Call-taking
    • Incident Command/Situational Awareness
    • Tracking, Monitoring & Control
  • Network Tech
    • Back
    • Cybersecurity
    • Interoperability
    • LMR 100
    • LMR 200
    • Backhaul
    • Deployables
    • Power
    • Tower & Site
    • Wireless Networks
    • Coverage/Interference
    • Security
    • System Design
    • System Installation
    • System Operation
    • Test & Measurement
  • Operations
    • Back
    • Critical Infrastructure
    • Enterprise
    • Federal Government/Military
    • Public Safety
    • State & Local Government
    • Training
  • Regulations
    • Back
    • Narrowbanding
    • T-Band
    • Rebanding
    • TV White Spaces
    • None
    • Funding
    • Policy
    • Regional Coordination
    • Standards
  • Organizations
    • Back
    • AASHTO
    • APCO
    • DHS
    • DMR Association
    • ETA
    • EWA
    • FCC
    • IWCE
    • NASEMSO
    • NATE
    • NXDN Forum
    • NENA
    • NIST/PSCR
    • NPSTC
    • NTIA/FirstNet
    • P25 TIG
    • TETRA + CCA
    • UTC
acc.com

Drones/Robots


News

Verizon-owned Skyward accepting orders for Parrot drone

Verizon-owned Skyward accepting orders for Parrot drone

  • Written by Donny Jackson
  • 23rd December 2021

Skyward, a Verizon company, recently announced the preorder availability for Parrot ANAFI Ai, the only off-the-shelf drone powered by Verizon’s 4G network that is designed to deliver critical-grade video quickly to enterprises executing missions using the Skyward Connected Drone Solution.

Matt Fanelli, Skyward’s director of strategy and operations, said the Parrot ANAFI ai drone includes the capability to connect to Verizon’s 4G network, so video can be delivered back to the enterprise in real time, as opposed to users having to wait for the drone to return before processing images.

Notably, Skyward “enables mid-flight data transfer to begin processing imagery into 2D orthomosaic maps while Parrot ANAFI Ai is still in the air, anywhere within Verizon’s 4G LTE coverage area,” according to a Verizon press release about the announcement.

This approach accelerates informed decision-making by enterprise users by significantly reducing the time to begin viewing the video and reduce the number of trips that a drone needs to make because the needed images were not captured during the initial trip, Fanelli said.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Parrot to bring the first LTE connected drone to market,” Fanelli said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “This is groundbreaking in a number of ways, both in the present and the future. “This is a best-in-class advanced drone, in terms of obstacle avoidance, ubiquitous command and control, and faster time to insight.

“The ANAFI Ai brings together a lot of best-in-class technologies, adds Verizon’s best-in-class network and—through Skyward’s mapping and modeling, as well as our command and control using the Skyward in-flight app—it opens up a whole new world for those enterprises to be able to fly, plan and process faster than they were before. The efficiency drivers with this new technology are the things that we’re so excited about … We think that it checks off a number of those critical needs for our enterprise customers.”

Drone usage has grown in many key sectors—for example, public safety, utilities, mining and construction—as drone-captured video has proven crucial in a variety of use cases, from infrastructure inspection to search-and-rescue missions. However, implementing a drone program has proven to be challenging for many enterprises, because they have to procure the various technological pieces separately and integrate these components on their own.

Expected to be shipped early next year at a price of $4,000, the Parrot-Skyward offering is designed to simplify capturing video by drone for enterprises by including each of the components—the drone, LTE connectivity, as well as the Skyward mobile app and mapping software—in a single package, according to Fanelli.

“Each different piece that we’re excited about all comes together in that seamless, end-to-end solution,” he said. “Making something easy for an end customer to use is much more difficult than making point solutions that do part of the job.”

Verizon’s Skyward team provided drone support to firefighters battling the Big Hollow fire in Washington, but Fanelli believes the Parrot-Skyward package—with a drone that boasts 32 minutes of flight time on a single charge—can deliver the same performance at a price point that is much more affordable to public safety and other critical-infrastructure enterprises.

“While we used a different system for that operation, it cost a lot more and was a much more expensive to put together,” Fanelli said. “This system that we’re bringing to market now with the ANAFI Ai brings all of those capabilities in a much smaller, much more cost-efficient package.

“I think we’re going to start seeing those public-sector entities that have that kind of a use case trending toward this Parrot ANAFI Ai and Skyward solutions to deploy, whether it’s in a search-and-rescue mission or a disaster-response or inspection mission, I think those are definitely [scenarios] that this drone was designed for.”

Drone operations in the U.S. typically have been limited by FAA rules that dictate that the drone travel only within the visual line of sight of the pilot. However, the Parrot-Skyward package could represent a significant step toward enabling the many beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) a reality, Fanelli said.

“One of the things that we’re really excited about with the marriage of LTE technology and this drone platform is that it gives us another chance to go to the FAA and show that these technologies are safe and can be deployed in a beyond-visual-line-of-sight context, to make that a safer, more efficient operation for the enterprise,” Fanelli said. “We think that a lot of the technologies that we’re bringing together for the drone, for the ANAFI Ai and Skyward’s software are taking that first step for that beyond-visual-line-of-sight [operation], so that it’s going to follow that BVLOS path and make beyond-visual-line-of-sight [drone usage] much more accessible to enterprises.

“So, it’s not going to take thousands of dollars and hundreds of man hours to prove that a system is safe. I think we’re going to be able to show that we can deploy this in a lot of ways that are useful to commercial drone operations with not many regulatory changes. That’s part of the hope. What we hope to test with customers in real use cases and real scenarios next year.”

Mariah Scott, Verizon’s executive director of robotics business technology, also expressed optimism about the Parrot-Skyward drone package.

“The release of the first off-the-shelf drone with Verizon 4G LTE connectivity will advance drone operations for pilots nationwide,” Scott said in a prepared statement. “From supporting higher volumes of data transfer and yielding faster time to insight to enabling reliable beyond visual line of sight operations, we are proud to play a leading role in providing new capabilities. This is the next step in our ongoing efforts to connect the sky on America’s most reliable network for more than a decade.”

 

Tags: homepage-featured-4 Analytics Applications Companies Coverage/Interference Critical Infrastructure Deployables Drones/Robots Enterprise Federal Government/Military Funding Incident Command/Situational Awareness Internet of Things Internet of Things Interoperability IoT/Smart X Long Term Evolution (LTE) News Public Safety Public-Safety Broadband/FirstNet Software Standards State & Local Government Subscriber Devices System Design System Operation Test & Measurement Tracking, Monitoring & Control Training Video News

Most Recent


  • How AT&T won DFW Airport's $10 million private 5G business
    According to Mike Youngs, it all started with the bathrooms at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) International Airport. Youngs, the airport’s VP for IT, wanted to use wireless technology to reduce crowding in restroom lines during the COVID-19 pandemic. His team installed sensors and lights above stalls and monitors outside restrooms to let people know when […]
  • Russia's war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes
    Russia’s cyberattacks against Ukrainian civilian and critical infrastructure has shown what it looks like when cyberattacks are part of warfare. What remains to be seen is whether the world will treat them as war crimes. “For too long, the world has been considering cyber terrorism as something unrealistic, too sci-fi-ish, and cyber weapons as not […]
  • FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority
    An FCC bureau yesterday renewed the FirstNet Authority’s spectrum license into at least 2027, allowing the nationwide public-safety broadband network (NPSBN) to continue operating over the 700 MHz Band 14 airwaves—a key component of the FirstNet Authority’s 25-year agreement with contractor AT&T. Approved by the FCC Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau (PSHSB), the license […]
  • How vehicle insurance and autonomy intertwined
    In early 2023 Oxbotica claimed at an event, which was held at Lloyd’s of London about the Future of Autonomy that insurance and autonomy are intertwined. At the event, Sam Tiltman, sharing economy and mobility leader for the UK & Ireland at Marsh, claimed that the combined impact of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), electric vehicles and automation is huge. […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

To leave a comment login with your Urgent Comms account:

Log in with your Urgent Comms account

Or alternatively provide your name, email address below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • Verizon: Cory Davis discusses new THOR deployable, scheduled showcase at IWCE 2021
  • Verizon teams leverage broadband solutions to support wildfire responders’ communications
  • Verizon: Nick Nilan, Carlo Thompson showcase SPOT, THOR deployable vehicles
  • Verizon
    Verizon emphasizes need for interoperability, resiliency in first-responder communications

Commentary


Updated: How ‘sidelink’ peer-to-peer communications can enhance public-safety operations

  • 1
27th February 2023

NG911 needed to secure our communities and nation

24th February 2023

How 5G is making cities safer, smarter, and more efficient

26th January 2023
view all

Events


UC Ezines


IWCE 2019 Wrap Up

13th May 2019
view all

Twitter


UrgentComm

How AT&T won DFW Airport’s $10 million private 5G business dlvr.it/Spj4Pt

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Russia’s war in Ukraine shows cyberattacks can be war crimes dlvr.it/Spj3c2

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

FCC grants 700 MHz Band 14 license renewal to FirstNet Authority dlvr.it/Spj2Ny

27th May 2023
UrgentComm

Broadband for Critical Communications Everywhere Providing Connectivity When Seconds Count dlvr.it/Sph602

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

How vehicle insurance and autonomy intertwined dlvr.it/SpglBb

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

World’s least-expensive self-driving vehicle revealed dlvr.it/Spgc88

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

Voice calling is finally making its way onto 5G dlvr.it/SpdtYW

26th May 2023
UrgentComm

With many cities facing a fiscal cliff as ARPA funding ends, debt ceiling debate continues on Capitol Hill dlvr.it/Spdsnq

26th May 2023

Newsletter

Sign up for UrgentComm’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about Communications and Technology.

Expert Commentary

Learn from experts about the latest technology in automation, machine-learning, big data and cybersecurity.

Business Media

Find the latest videos and media from the market leaders.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital and print audiences? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • American City & County
  • IWCE
  • Light Reading
  • IOT World Today
  • Mission Critical Technologies
  • TU-Auto

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Events
  • Careers

FOLLOW Urgent Comms ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.