#DRONE STATION 2015 TV#

It’s not going to happen in 2015, but at least we are all on the way,” said Ellman. “The federal government was mandated to integrate drones into our airspace by 2015. is a very relative term, especially for a rulemaking. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) during a recent commerce committee hearing.įeeling the heat, the FAA almost immediately eased up on its pilot restrictions and streamlined the exemption process for film/television production and aerial data collection, the two most common categories of drone exemption requests it receives.īut speed in D.C. “When it comes to the government moving at the speed of innovation, we are being left behind,” said Sen. There have been several hearings in both chambers of Congress. will find itself behind the technology drone curve compared to European countries. Virginia Tech, one of the six official drone testing sites established by the FAA, is working with the News Media Coalition, a group of 14 major news organizations including The Associated Press, NBCU, Scripps and Sinclair Broadcast Group, on safety testing.Ĭongress, meanwhile, is putting a lot of pressure on the FAA to get commercial drones in the air, fearing that the U.S. “Georgia Tech does all the heavy lifting for engineering and documentation which we feed to the FAA.”ĬNN isn’t the only news organization that’s working with the government to get news drones off the ground. We’ve been working with Georgia Tech to determine how can we fly, what can we fly, what are the benefits,” said Agvent. “We provide our input as journalists and as news producers. Hoping to move drones from B-roll to hard news, CNN has entered into a partnership with Georgia Tech and the FAA to determine the safest way to incorporate drones into the national airspace. It’s amazing, it’s wonderful, it’s engaging, but it’s not news,” said Greg Agvent, senior director of news operations for CNN in Atlanta. “What we’ve shot was just for production elements.

When CNN used drones in Selma and Oklahoma City, it had to fly the drones just before dawn, when there weren’t any people on the Edmund Pettus Bridge or around the Oklahoma City memorial. “Until the technology improves such that policy makers consider them very safe, they are going to require that drones are flown away from people.” They crash once in a while,” said Linda Ellman, co-chair of the unmanned aircraft systems practice at McKenna, Long & Aldridge in Washington. “The FAA assumes that a drone will fall out of the sky. So far, so good, but there is one more rule that is limiting the utility of drones for news: small unmanned aircraft may not operate over any persons not directly involved in the operation.

That’s the approach CNN took when it covered the 50th anniversary commemoration event at Selma, Ala., and the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.Įxemption in hand, the basic rules for drones are straightforward: Fly below 200 feet, be able to see and avoid obstacles, don’t be reckless and stupid, steer clear of airports and aircraft and keep your drone in sight. The other alternative is for stations to hire a company, such as an existing news chopper firm, that already has a Section 333 exemption for drones. There are drone companies like Las Vegas-based ArrowData that provide a package of drone services that includes working with stations to compile their application for a 333 exemption.

#DRONE STATION 2015 TV#

While the agency has recently streamlined the process of approving exemptions for film and TV use of drones, getting an exemption is still an involved, bureaucratic process. What’s standing in the way of drones for news isn’t the aerial technology, the cameras, the uplinks, downlinks or the operators what’s standing in the way is the Federal Aviation Administration and the byzantine rulemaking process endemic to Washington.īefore a company can fly a drone for commercial purposes - the FAA considers newsgathering, despite its obvious public service value, to be a commercial endeavor - it needs a Section 333 exemption from the FAA. Drones would be a valuable tool for news.” “We could rescue people with the help of drones, just as we’ve used our helicopters to help first responders. “When there are disasters - floods, damage after tornados, or snow events - drones can provide a perspective you might not be able to see any other way,” Barbara Maushard, VP of news for Hearst Television, said during a session on emergency journalism.

Drone station 2015