Fall 2019 Product Release Wrap-Up

DroneDeploy has established itself as the complete enterprise solution

Thu Oct 17 2019 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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This year we have grown to 5,000 customers, performed over 1M flights, spanning 100M acres. During that time, we’ve enabled our customers to move beyond flight, beyond maps, and beyond analysis by helping them see the opportunity in their obstacles. While supporting them as they scale their drone program, we proved we’re no longer just a software solution; we’re an enterprise solution.

Fly with Confidence with a Comprehensive Flight Experience

When you are in a mapping mission–whether it is mapping a farm, or construction site, or quarry–there are moments when you may observe something in your planned flight and need to investigate immediately. Now, you can pause flight, switch to Manual Flight, and take a pano or photo to document any issues or anomalies. From there, it’s easy to switch back to your planned flight and finish your mapping mission - all within the DroneDeploy flight app.

Our complete solution allows you to use one app to conduct close-up inspections of built infrastructure or pipelines.

NEW Flight User Experience

We have updated the flight user interface to make is easier to navigate the application, plan flights, and fully recognize the steps needed for a successful flight. Clearly understand when to connect the drone, how to complete the pre-flight checklist, and when you are ready to fly.

We are also putting more information right at your fingertips, such as gimbal degrees, signal strength, and flight time, giving you increased control. We can also highlight how many photos, videos, and panoramas have been taken so you can assess the size of your mission.

Available for all users on October 22, 2019

Inspections

Throughout 2019, we have improved 3D visualizations, drone support, and flight modes (3D crosshatch) to make inspections possible. Now you can review and inspect your imagery like never before, making inspections faster and safer.

The new inspection workflow offers a way to save hours of time, give your team the information they need to make repairs, and give managers peace of mind with an up-to-date view of open issues. Enterprises in construction and energy are already using DroneDeploy to streamline their inspection workflows, reduce risk, and promote a culture of quality and accountability on their job sites.

DroneDeploy gives us the power to do remote inspections through 3D models and photos all in one solution, helping to improve communication with the field team. This will cut down overall inspection time, for example, 2-3 days of facade crack inspections would be cut down to 4-5 hours.

Andrew Wadsworth, Innovations Specialist, Brasfield & Gorrie

Whether you are a superintendent on a construction site or a processing engineer in Oil and Gas, things can sometimes go wrong. How quickly an issue is detected and resolved can make the difference between a lost hour or a lost week in the schedule; between hundreds of dollars in repairs or millions; between a health or safety risk or a catastrophic incident. But walking a job site takes time – it's also dangerous, and difficult to ensure you've seen everything.

How does it work?

Once your data has been uploaded and processed, conduct the immersive 3D inspection from the comfort of your office. Click on points within the 3D model to open high-resolution photos of that location. Then zoom and pan into the original source photo to look for problems.

When you spot problems, use the issue tool to label and draw attention to them. Once you’ve confirmed that an issue has been resolved, you can use the issue list to find it and change its status from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed.’

Available for all Business and Enterprise users on October 22, 2019

Integrated Drone Operations Suite

To grow your drone program you have to show the scale and value you are bringing to your organization. In this release, we have made improvements to Drone Operations Management reports to visually show progress and scale. You can now easily see how many flights are occurring on a local level or even across the globe.

For your internal audiences, you can now clearly demonstrate the value of the drone program through powerful visualizations. Show the scale of your initiative by assuredly answering those familiar questions: is it working, are we doing what we said, and did we roll out to all the regions we care about?

With enhanced charts to pilot management, you can quickly assess how often each pilot is flying and follow-up with pilots that are not flying as often as expected.

Use in internal reporting on top pilots, inactive pilots, and discover new project locations
Get faster access to flight log data without page refreshes

Available to Enterprise users on the Platinum Offering on October 22, 2019

Integrate with Applications You Know and Love

We understand that not everyone has access to DroneDeploy, but most people in your organization will find value in viewing a digital version of your site, facility, or farm. During our last product release, we introduced Auto Exports to save you time and automate your workflow. We are now excited to announce Auto Exports support for a total of 12 integrations. We have expanded the Auto Export capability of our Autodesk BIM 360, Procore, Plangrid and Bluebeam integrations, and added new tools, such as Egnyte, Google Drive, and Azure.

DroneDeploy and Procore together have helped us stay on track with many of our projects; on average we have saved 4 hours a week in site analysis, checking as-designed vs. as-built, as well as potential risks. This has helped us spot issues and check subcontractor work, which has saved us $2,500 on average for each project. We now have the peace of mind knowing each project is visually documented and stored within our project management software.

Jose A. Rivera, Director of Operational Excellence, Stiles Construction

Let your customer success manager know if you are interested in any of these integrations or visit our App Market to start using our integrations.

Available for to add-on for any Enterprise user after October 22, 2019

New Project UI

Coming soon to all customers

As your drone programs have grown so has the complexity of your projects and maps. We want to make sure to make it easy for everyone on your team to locate the right projects and maps that are relevant to them.

Quick Access

With our new quick access area, nearby and recently accessed projects appear instantly at the top of the page. So when you arrive on-site, you have instant access to the projects you have planned nearby.

Search

If you are responsible for a team that is flying hundreds or thousands of different project sites across the globe, being able to find the right project quickly is critical to ensure you are not wasting valuable time. With our new search engine, you can jump directly to the project you need all with a simple search.

Sub-folders

When scaling a drone program, it’s important to make it easy to find and store data. Sub-folders allow you to create structures that more closely match your other shared drives, making navigation in DroneDeploy much simpler for new users as you scale across your enterprise.

The new Projects UI is in beta, please let your customer success manager know if you are interested in the beta.

Fly at low elevations and inspect critical equipment, sites, and infrastructure with Skydio 2 and DroneDeploy

The partnership between DroneDeploy and Skydio means customers will have the confidence to inspect critical infrastructure at close range while flying at low altitudes autonomously. Skydio 2’s sophisticated technology enables our customers to solve more complex problems, operating safer and more efficiently.

Confidently avoid obstacles like a crane or Oil Wells while flying at a low elevation
Easily capture images for a close-up inspection of equipment or buildings
Safely fly by avoiding people and objects at any elevation or distance

Support for the Skydio 2 drone is now available.

The DroneDeploy solution with the Skydio 2 is a leap forward in drone mapping and asset inspection. This combination offers advanced autonomous flight which allows us to capture an unparalleled level of detail with enhanced flight safety.

Alvin Rentsch, Transformation Architect, California Resources Corporation

Ensure compliance and streamline requests with Airbus UTM and DroneDeploy

Airbus UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management), the group within Airbus building digital air traffic management solutions, and DroneDeploy believe that the skies should be accessible and efficient for all. We are excited to partner with Airbus UTM to add pilot briefing and LAANC Authorization to our complete Drone Operations solution. DroneDeploy pilots will be able to plan and schedule flight operations ahead of time, apply for and manage LAANC authorization with Airbus UTM.

“At Airbus UTM, we are committed to ensuring our future airspace remains as safe tomorrow as it is today. We design, develop and build the critical infrastructure necessary to allow new aircraft to safely enter and share the skies of our future. Our integration with DroneDeploy, which will offer airspace authorization services to unlock airspace for DroneDeploy pilots, is another step towards making our skies open and accessible to all.” - Joe Polastre, Head of UTM Product at Airbus.

This integration is in beta with enterprise customers. Let your customer success manager know if you are interested to be part of the beta.

Reliable airspace data and expedient LAANC authorizations are indispensable to our ability to maintain compliant drone operations.

Hunter Cole, Innovation & Operational Technology, Brasfield & Gorrie

Fall Product Release Webinar

Join us on October 30, 2019 to hear from the DroneDeploy team on the latest release. We will go into more detail on how you can leverage these new capabilities to advance your drone program and better analyze your data. We will be hosting the webinar through the DroneDeploy Academy, so make sure to register for the Academy to not just gain access to this webinar, but also all of the training and best practices from DroneDeploy Register Today!

DroneDeploy Academy

The DroneDeploy Academy is a comprehensive free training program focused on learning the basics of drone operations and how drones can benefit your business. You will quickly become a drone expert by learning the fundamentals of how to capture aerial imagery. DroneDeploy Academy members will fully understand how to analyze maps and models and apply them to everyday business problems. Read the full blog to learn more, or join the DroneDeploy Academy today.

Get drones working for your business.

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