Tethered Flight with Elistair
On January 14, 2020, for the first U.S. Democratic debate of the year held in Des Moines, Iowa, CNN deployed an Elistair tethered drone system.
With the support of tether experts, Vector Solutions, Elistair’s Ligh-T provided persistent aerial video transmission of the area.
Every four years, the Presidential Candidate debates attracts tens of millions of viewers (69 million on average in 2016). It is the most watched television program in the United States after the Super Bowl.
The live broadcast attracted 7.3 million viewers.
Growing Use of UAVs
The use of UAVs is quickly becoming essential for media organizations who want to offer aerial images to complement ground shots.
One of the many benefits of Elistair Ligh-T tethered station is the unlimited flight time it provides to UAVs. Plus, Ligh-T is compatible with most drones on the market.
Plus, tethered drones do not need to land to change the batteries. As such, a tethered solution allows users to broadcast a continuous stream of aerial images.
Tethered Flight with Elistair
CNN Air flew its DJI M210 tethered to the Ligh-T. The M210 flew at a height of 60 meters for 8 hours on the first day and 5 hours the second day.
The images were instantly fed to the control vehicle and then live transmitted via a 4G link to the production team.
The Ligh-T system offers tremendous flexibility. Because of this, the team moved to different locations throughout the day and continued transmission.
“This solution provides excellent results for any venue that requires constant, uninterrupted over-watch,” said Howe Hildebrand, pilot with Vector Solutions. “It allows for constant, coverage of the subject area. There’s no need to continually land and change batteries, therefore you never lose contact with the subject area.”
How it Works
Thanks to its patented system, Elistair tether stations and modules are compatible with most multirotor UAVs.
Once connected to the micro-tether, the UAV receives continuous power and, as such, has unlimited endurance.
In addition, the tether physically connects the drone to the ground. As such, the drone’s light zone is completely secure. Which allows for extremely flexible deployments in difficult environments. This is particularly useful in urban areas with a high density of infrastructure and population.
Shop Elistair’s complete line of tether solutions at Unmanned Systems Source.
About Elistair
Created in 2014, Elistair specializes in the construction of tethered UAVs for defense, civil security, security companies and major industrial accounts. The systems developed by Elistair allows to quickly and simply secure a sensitive area, event or site, by offering a global and secure aerial view, continuously.
