July 2020 Product Release Wrap-Up

One of our goals has always been to enhance the way our customers conduct business. Our feature releases have always been centered around growth and accessibility, and this July release is no different. With DroneDeploy as your command center, we’ll continue to ensure your program is compliant and that site data can be accessed in real-time by the people who need it, all the while giving pilots the utmost flexibility for high-quality capture. We work where you work, with the ultimate goal of improving data visibility across your organization, from engineers in the field to executives in the office.

 In addition to this summer’s feature release, we’re excited to show you how far we’ve come when delivering the highest quality data outputs to our customers. Read on to learn how DroneDeploy’s newest features can help you achieve operational excellence in your business this year.

Many of our customers have large, diverse teams working in a variety of other platforms or geographic locations, and communication and collaboration – while using the latest site data – is key to business success, client transparency, and customer retention. Keeping data siloed or having the inability to visualize different geospatial datasets together hinders efficiency, reduces data visibility for critical site projects, and could ultimately drive down your revenue.

We understand that drone data isn’t valuable in a vacuum, so now, we’re making it as easy as possible to create and send project reports, bring geospatial datasets into DroneDeploy, and automatically view all maps within your GIS platform.

Drone data has the power to transform the bid process, project documentation, inspection, and planning, but none of this data is valuable if it doesn’t go to the right people - a client, owner, engineer, analyst, or executive. Now, we’re making it easy to show progress and build trust with everyone involved.

You no longer have to spend hours creating a custom report to share. With DroneDeploy’s enhanced Progress Report, you can give team members a full view of a project. Share visual project documentation in one, easy-to-send report that can be generated with just a few clicks.  

This customizable report can include maps, panoramas, videos, and photos of a project on a specific date, all with editable captions. You can email the report directly, download it as a PDF, or invite users to view it within the DroneDeploy app. 

Enhanced Progress Reports available on Enterprise.

When planning missions or analyzing data, it’s often difficult to truly understand the site without additional geographical context. When conducting a site survey, a drone map is more valuable to a surveyor when viewed with a contour map, just as a stand of timber is more easily analyzed overlaid with the original planting boundary. Now, within DroneDeploy, you can view custom map layers such as pipeline locations, field boundaries, property lines, and more. Having the ability to bring in custom layers with a web layer URL ensures you have essential and up-to-date information when making site decisions.

Custom Web Overlays available on Enterprise.

With the new Esri integration, DroneDeploy will automatically serve all of your organization’s maps to your ArcGIS instance. This integration ensures that everyone in your organization is equipped with the latest high-resolution DroneDeploy maps - bringing not just discernibility into the innovations of your drone program but also driving unprecedented visibility into your projects and assets.

We’ve heard from a number of customers that they have had to build and maintain their own imagery pipelines, dedicated servers to host that imagery, and have lost countless hours to manual, inefficient export processes. This integration is available as an out-of-the-box solution, intended to enable your team to get access to the data they need to perform at optimal efficiency.

We’ve seen companies use this integration for a variety of use cases, ranging from monitoring inventory in equipment yards, providing site documentation in the reclamation process, and even removing the need for costly satellite imagery subscriptions by providing a visualization of site changes. Ultimately, connecting your GIS solution with DroneDeploy’s timely, high-quality, high-resolution aerial imagery ensures you and your team have the latest site data where and when you need it.

Esri Integration available on Enterprise at additional cost.

Built to be your complete fleet management solution, we’ve continued to build out your mission control center. Real-time response and analytics, paired with airspace authorization and increased flight functionality, make this an end-to-end mission control solution for any operation.

For any drone pilot or program manager, it’s critical you’re flying in compliance with airspace regulations at all times. Now, pilots will be able to seamlessly plan flights, apply for, and manage LAANC authorization with Airbus UTM ahead of time or on-site, all within the DroneDeploy flight application. This direct integration of flight management, safety, and regulatory compliance services helps ensure safe and efficient drone operation in national airspaces.

DroneDeploy is now fully integrated with the Skydio 2 drone. This integration enables pilots to confidently avoid obstacles like cranes or oil wells while flying at low elevation. Easily capture images for close-up inspections of equipment buildings, all while automatically avoiding people and objects. Read more on Skydio 2 and DroneDeploy or listen to the on-demand webinar.

Fly your automated or manual flight overhead of a scene, then the Skydio obstacle avoidance AI will help you fly down by the scene to capture overhangs, concavities, and complex structures. You can create very detailed 3D models, and you will be able to generate them without confidence during a close-up inspection.

Skydio 2 Integration is available on all paid plans.

With DroneDeploy Live Stream, you no longer need to be on the scene to conduct site reconnaissance, address a critical issue, or communicate a project’s progress. Live Stream allows pilots to provide real-time aerial video to decision-makers, response teams, and remote experts contributing to the situation at hand. 

Live streaming data also decreases team travel to remote sites or fields, allows you to conduct critical infrastructure inspections from the office, and even wow clients from around the world by remotely broadcasting ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Live Stream available on Enterprise.

Pilots, admins, and analysts can now become DroneDeploy certified in DroneDeploy Academy. Live or online certification courses enable your team to maintain compliance standards, understand industry use cases, and train for Part 107 waivers.

DroneDeploy Certification available to all paid plans at additional cost.

With increased data accessibility and drone program growth, your data must be of the highest quality and accuracy. In addition to these July feature releases, Version 3 of DroneDeploy’s photogrammetry engine extends our lead in the 3D quality and precision markets.

We’ve increased 3D point cloud density by up to 50%, removed outliers, and further increased precision, resulting in crisper models of thin structures, pipelines, and building edges. At the same time, we’ve delivered all of this while increasing map processing speed by an additional 10%.  DroneDeploy’s cloud photogrammetry engine processes thousands of maps each day for our customers and is also available as a service via our API.

We have also made substantial improvements to our Live Map quality and reliability, particularly on the Mavic 2 series. Field-edge crop health analysis on Live Map enables immediate feedback for agriculture professionals, while our energy customers are running complex logistics on their Live Map data.