Month: January 2020

In the commercial landscape, what you want is for any business relationship to feel organic, easy, beneficial, able to seamlessly meet your requirements. This is true regardless of the sector, demographic, or nature of the products or services.

One of the most common causes of professional friction, one that can result in a fundamental breakdown in communication, is when professional goals aren’t aligned. Not being forthcoming from the outset of the relationship or a fundamental disconnect in communication are most often the culprit of this.

How to find the best Drone Companies in UAE

Asking questions is an essential part of the client on-boarding process. In a competitive commercial environment, trust and confidence is everything. Without either of these attributes, the seeds of indecisiveness are being sown. This is a slippery slope to professional disagreements, turmoil and, in the worst-case scenarios, a complete breakdown is commercial communication.

So, why are we outlining the obvious? Well, it’s paramount for customers of drone companies in UAE to inspire client confidence just as it is of any business. Asking businesses, like the much-lauded Sky Vision, the questions that you want answered should be encouraged. But, what should you ask?

Let’s look at the most common and astute questions to ask a drone company before engaging their services. Be sure to read the article to the end – you’ll learn of one or more questions that you haven’t already thought of.

What Certifications Do You Have?

Now, this may sound like a prerequisite when engaging the services of a business in any sector, but the importance of ascertaining that a drone company has a commercial flying license valid in the UAE is paramount.

It’s also worth mentioning that just because a company or individual for that matter has a license to fly drones in the USA or the UK does not automatically mean that they’re clear to take to the skies in Dubai or the UAE.

Drone companies must get a No Objection certificate from the DCAA. All drones must be registered with the GCAA. Be sure to check with any Dubai drone companies that they have a GCAA drone registration certificate and that they have special operations permission to fly commercially for specific purposes, including surveillance, media, agriculture, and inspection.

What Services Do You Provide?

Not all drone companies in the UAE provide the same services. Some may specialize in providing aerial photography or videography for media purposes whereas others may have customers that primarily work in the property or construction sectors. Before committing to one drone company make sure that they can expertly provide the service that you’re looking for.

Remember too that just because a drone company lists experience one sector or another it doesn’t necessarily mean that they have comprehensive experience – it may just be that they’ve completed a handful of projects for say, media or mapping purposes. The breadth of experience is less important than the specific experience.

Think of it this way. You wouldn’t commission a carpenter to design and build you an elegant, bespoke bookcase if they predominantly design and build chairs. Sure, the skills are probably in their wheelhouse but aren’t you better choosing someone with the specific experience you require?

What Insurance Liability Do You Have?

A learned and astute drone company should be able to demonstrate that they carry drone insurance. As outlined by the General Civil Aviation Authority and The Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, drone flights are regulated. In addition to being aware of specific no-fly zones, drone operators must also have insurance coverage.

So, what’s covered under drone insurance? Physical loss or damage of UAVs (inclusive of detachable and non-detachable payloads) for instance is one of the most widely cited drone insurance coverage. The insurer will pay for physical damage to the UAV in the event of a crash, collision or if the drone is damaged in transit.

Loss or damage to UAV spares. This insurance coverage accounts for physical theft, loss or damage to spare parts throughout the period of insurance. Damage could occur in their property or when drones in are the custody of another party, or whilst in transit.

Third-party legal liability is also pertinent for drone companies in UAE to have. These sum up who is legally liable to pay compensatory damages for damage to third party persons or property, invasion of privacy or any noise liability.

A responsible drone company in Dubai will be transparent with the insurance that they have. This provides customers with the assurance of their professionalism and prowess whilst allaying any concerns.

What Aerial Photography Equipment Do You Have?

As with technology of any nature, the more cutting-edge the hard or software used, the better the service is likely to be. Would you automatically gravitate to a business that’s still using a dial-up online connection or sends all communications in the post and not online? Probably not. The same ethos should be considered when considering hiring a drone company.

Now, we’re not saying that you’re likely to come across a single business in the digital age that still sends faxes or types letters using a typewriter, but you get the point. The better the equipment, the more likely that your chosen drone company is to deliver stellar results.

Some drone tech to look out for, or ask about, includes any product from the DJI range, from drones to cameras and gimbals. If the company flies a DJI M100 UAV great! Though don’t forget, all the DJI range of drones, including the DJI Mavic Air, and Spark are all formidable!

If you’re looking to use a drone company for photographic or videography purposes or thermal imaging, make sure to check that the drones they use have stellar cameras. Or, should you need a drone company to provide extension aerial mapping of a large area, say for agricultural purposes, you should probably check how good the drone’s battery life is – after all, you may need the drone to stay airborne for a prolonged period.

What Is the Project Timeline?

So, you’ve decided that the drone company has the right acumen and experience, is insured and has the right equipment to achieve what you need. Is that everything? No, not quite. The last question to ask is, perhaps, the most obvious – how long will the project take?

A learned and experienced drone company in Dubai, like Sky Vision, will be able to provide you with an event schedule of when they project will be completed, along with a quotation for the work. This is all part of providing a valued and transparent service. Any drone company that takes your details, accepts an upfront payment for the work (if requested), and doesn’t complete it is not the right company for you.

Reputable drone companies in Dubai should provide you with a definitive and transparent project timeline, or when the project will be initiated and when it will be completed. You may get lucky and get your project started immediately or you may have to wait a short while but, nevertheless, the transparency of the company is what you should be looking for.

Well, that’s really it. Five questions that you need to be asking a done company in the UAE before engaging their services. Be sure to remember each, and the answers you’re given, and you’ll surely be able to find the right company for your purposes!

Drones in Dubai – Or Anywhere in the World – Make Working Environments Safer

Drones aren’t afraid of heights, neither do they rely on the grip of toes or fingertips. Drones provide a different viewpoint of an open expanse and offer unique insight that drives process success. They aren’t phased by closed spaces and exposure to hazardous material won’t result in serious health ill-effects to operators.

You may be wondering what on earth we’re droning on about. Let us explain; drones can complete dangerous professional duties, so you don’t have to. Deploying a drone to complete a survey or explore hard to access environments isn’t just advised, it’s practically becoming a requisite.

Think of it this way. In the past decade more than a thousand laborers in the US have been killed whilst working in confined spaces. Think of the lives that could have been saved if businesses had the facility to send a drone into a confined space to complete reconnaissance or surveying, scoping out the potential dangers that faced anyone who decided to venture into a confined space.

One such victim, a 43-year old AkzoNobel employee, Clinton Miller, was working in an environment with oxygen levels at just 11%. He was trying to retrieve a piece of discarded material at a North Carolina chemical plant. This cost him his life. Piloting a drone inside, fitted with a grappling device, would negate the need for Clinton to venture inside the environment, and saved his life.

Enter the Drone in Dubai

We all know that drones can take superlative aerial photography in Dubai – and indeed across the whole world – can be deployed at the scene of an accident to assess the situation, are very useful in propagating crops for agricultural purposes. Not only that, they can make overseeing a construction process simpler and capture stellar commercial images and videography shots. It’s clear that given their scope of application drones ability to enrich our lives is limitless.

Need any more convincing? Leading blue-chip businesses have been assembling fleets of drones to manage some of their more dangerous jobs. AT&T, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Dow Inc are just three examples of businesses that are placing their faith in drone technology. From inspecting tanks and towers to squeezing through tight spaces to reach a specific point in a structure to identify and replace elements of a structure, drones are quickly becoming paramount to big business.

Why? Progressive companies usually consider a better way to complete tasks whilst mitigating any potential risks to their employees. This is just as true of a Dubai drone operator as it is of any global business. If companies can send a drone in to examine an area of a petrochemical facility, for example, as opposed to having a person physically undertake a journey fraught with danger, sending the drone in wins every time.

Why Drones Relied Upon by Blue-Chip Businesses

For all the talk of AI, robotics, and automation streamlining commercial processes and improving on what was previously thought to be fully optimized, it’s drones that have the potential to impact commercialization to the greatest degree. Why? Cost, efficiency – and safety.

Let’s look at an example. Before the use of drones at Shell’s refineries, inspections of gas flares used to be a laborious process often taking days. To get inspectors close enough to the flame-spewing stacks (which, of course, was inherently dangerous, systems had to be taken offline. Then inspectors were hoisted hundreds of feet in the air, contained within a metallic cage to the top of the stack. Using a drone in Dubai – or in any global location – inspecting refineries can be achieved in a matter of hours from ground level.

AT&T has invested in a large fleet of drones to insect its 65,000 mobile phone towers in the US. Given that a tower can rise as high as one thousand feet in the air, engineer’s jobs are not without a significant amount of peril. In fact, the death rate from an industrial accident is nearly ten times the rate of that of construction workers.

Over the last two years alone, AT&T has deployed drones to eliminate the need for engineers to climb 5,000 of their towers in the US. Each of the drones is equipped with high-powered cameras, meaning that taking aerial photography in Dubai – or indeed anywhere they are deployed in the world – is completed to the best possible standard.

The director of AT&T’s drone program, Art Pregler, has said that the drone they deploy send images that are so detailed that ground-based workers can identify the threads on a bolt. With this degree of detail, clear safety, and ease of operation, it’s no wonder that drones are revolutionizing sector-specific processes.

Why Drones Are Relied Upon by Start-Up Businesses

Drones can help to bridge the gap between small businesses and SMEs and blue-chip companies. Why? Drones are cost-effective. Prior to the advocate of drone technology, create film-making, be it for a studio picture or commercial marketing purpose was costly. Very costly. The only way to get action shots or create compelling video was to charter an aircraft or helicopter and bring a camera. This could amount to tens of thousands of dollars. More to the point, there is always an inherent risk with flying.

Today, drones can be used to paint commercial buildings and industrial structures for a modicum of the cost of hiring an articulated lorry with a lift function just to paint buildings at height. Though this may sound futuristic, it’s happening right now.

A commercial drone start-up company in Jacksonville, Florida is designing drones to paint multi-story buildings and industrial structures. Co-founder, Jeff McCutcheon has iterated his belief that placing an employee atop a structure in the 98-degree southern heat can be a health hazard. Using drones mitigate the possibility of accidents occurring – thereby making working environments safer.

It seems clear that the potential impact that the best drone company can have, or indeed drone businesses anywhere in the world is vast. The extent of drone adoption is yet to be fully realized, however, it’s surely not unreasonable to assume that drones will have a much more drastic impact on the commercial landscape sooner than any of us may think.