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Station Group Commits to Drones: 10 of Its Stations Have Them Now, and 45 Will Be on Board by the End of 2017

Dec 14, 2016  •  Post A Comment

Drone-based newsgathering is gaining a foothold among television stations, with TVNewsCheck reporting that 45 stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group will have drones by the end of 2017.

Ten of the company’s stations are already equipped with the devices, according to Jeff Rose, whose title at Sinclair is UAS (unmanned aircraft system) chief pilot. Rose detailed the company’s drone program Tuesday during a panel discussion on new electronic newsgathering technologies at TVNewsCheck’s NewsTech Forum in New York.

Personnel at the stations are required to obtain FAA certification to pilot the drones, and Rose noted that company policy requires two pilots to operate a single drone at all times.

While Rose commented that “Viewers love drones,” he also noted that their use over population centers for newsgathering has yet to be approved.

4 Comments

  1. Two “pilots” for one drone? What a waste of money and manpower. Lol

  2. my hubby is a drone pilot for his station. He’s a certified pilot and took the FAA class…….he’s very restricted where he can fly tho………….

  3. One more way where technology is replacing jobs… There must be some union issues…lol

  4. Usually when 2 people are operating the same drone, one is flying the drone as the pilot and one is operating the camera to get he shot(s). Doing both at the same with one person can be tricky, especially with limited flight times and UAS flight plan restrictions.

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