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22 February 2023
As a 911 dispatcher for Rogers, Arkansas, <a style="color: #ba372a;" href="https://www.uvt.us/blog/blog-3/chris-fink-nwas-newest-forty-under-40-23" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chris Fink </a>was introduced to the incredible, lifesaving work our nation&rsquo;s first responders shoulder every day. He quickly became familiar with the need for additional support and resources to keep communities and public-safety professionals safe. This understanding&mdash;combined with Fink's passion for technology&mdash;propelled him to start <a href="https://www.uvt.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Unmanned Vehicle Technologies</a> (UVT) in 2014.
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UVT founder and CEO Chris Fink
Today, UVT is one of the largest drone and robotics dealers in North America, supporting more than 2,400 government agencies and businesses&mdash;including Arkansas State Police, Arkansas Game &amp; Fish, Ozarks Electric Cooperative, and the University of Arkansas Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies. The company also offers mission-critical technical and operational fleet-support services.
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/VIW07sCKz9vFLvsuCv45LvbokmxR84b5SGXQGrJS.png" alt="" width="660" height="396" /> UVT provides drone training and delivery to public safety personnel. 
<h5>Drone Technology: A Look Into the Future</h5>
For those invested in the public safety industry, overcoming obstacles for first responders in the hopes of responding quicker&mdash;and with more intelligence&mdash;while saving more people has always been the goal. Currently, officers responding to an emergency call are at the mercy of the information passed on by dispatch. Often inaccurate and almost always incomplete, what&rsquo;s really happening at the scene is obscure and largely unknown until first responders arrive. While a drone provides overwatch and enhanced visibility for an emergency scene, the future of drones is plain and simple&mdash;it's autonomy.
Unmanned aerial vehicle systems with the ability to remotely and/or autonomously launch, fly assigned missions, and return to land for data extraction are quickly becoming the standard for public safety. UVT's <a style="color: #ba372a;" href="https://www.uvt.us/dfr" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drones As First Responder Program</a> seeks to provide emergency teams the tools to engage faster, smarter, and safer. For example, drones remotely deploying to a house fire provide overwatch and thermal imaging to first responders, allowing emergency personnel to concentrate their fire attack&mdash;all of which saves time, resources, and, most importantly, lives. The same is true of drones deploying out of a docking station on top of a substation to check for anomalies that might have caused an outage.
Autonomy is the future, because drones being put to work for us&mdash;not with us&mdash;means these autonomous vehicles and systems do the work we don&rsquo;t want to, is too dangerous, or shouldn&rsquo;t be doing.
For those concerned about drones and robotics in the workplace, this isn&rsquo;t technology taking human jobs. Drones and robots are augmenting the jobs we&rsquo;re already doing. For many, the realization comes through education and an understanding of the technology&rsquo;s full potential to help us work better, safer, and more efficiently to ensure everyone can go home safely. UVT's passion for drone and robotics technology comes from an intimate understanding of how these devices are currently being used to save lives, as well as knowing what&rsquo;s possible as more government and enterprise entities adopt the technology to better serve their communities. We can&rsquo;t predict the future, but we can promise we will be here for the drone operators who won&rsquo;t take no for an answer. We will be here to support the police and fire departments who will stop at nothing to lower their response times. After all, that&rsquo;s what this is all about&mdash;leveraging technology to do the dirty, dull, and dangerous jobs better. 
<h5>UVT In Action</h5>
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The UVT team.
First and foremost, we are partners. We exist to equip organizations with the most advanced unmanned aircraft and robotics technology, supported by our industry-leading mission-critical technical and operational <a style="color: #ba372a;" href="https://www.uvt.us/proline-fleet" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fleet support services</a>. Our <a style="color: #ba372a;" href="https://www.uvt.us/proline-support" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operational support</a> has been built with your mission in mind, and our commitment to you is that we are here for you, day and night.
The UVT team is composed of many current and former public servants, enabling us to use our experience as first responders to design and build custom solutions for the real-world problems you and your team face every day.&nbsp;
Team members, such as our Field Applications Specialists, sales personnel, and technicians have spent thousands of hours in the field, deploying, flying, testing, and analyzing the platforms we provide. Why? Because we use them ourselves, and we understand how this technology can be critical to your missions&rsquo; success.
Our support is built on our loyalty to you, your safety, and our dedication to ensure we keep you operational, day or night.&nbsp;

Company Profile: Unmanned Vehicle Technologies 

Trending News

23 November 2022
By Randall Warnas
One of the mostly unsung contributors to the mass adoption of drone technology is the drone reseller network.
Since DJI&mdash;the world's leading drone manufacturer&mdash;started selling drones in the United States in 2013, drone dealers have been providing hands-on experiences and localized support to adopters of this life-altering technology. Drones are democratizing data collection from the sky, and resellers are on the frontline. Not only are drone dealers putting UAVs in the hands of a huge variety of users from SWAT teams to agronomists, wildlife researchers, universities, utility companies, and others, they are also storytellers who are bringing more pilots into the fold.
<a href="https://www.dslrpros.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DSLR Pros</a>&mdash;along with Dronefly, Aerial Media Pros, and Empire RC&mdash;is part of <a href="https://enterpriseuas.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enterprise UAS</a>, an umbrella organization based in Chatsworth, California, that's one of the largest and oldest drone resellers in the United States.
Founded in 2012, DSLR Pros initially provided custom aerial rigs to videographers in Hollywood. When DJI launched consumer products, increasing the number of users&mdash;mostly coming from the hobbyist and photographer space&mdash;we saw signs that this technology would transform more landscape photography and special events.
In 2014, I encountered some of the first pioneers who were using off-the-shelf technology to solve industrial problems. One gentleman spent hours at a time at our shop looking to integrate a Go Pro and thermal camera onto a DJI S800 drone for search-and-rescue purposes. Although Gene Robinson had pioneered the use of drones for search and rescue in Texas a decade or so earlier, we were trying to blend technologies where manufacturers had not yet offered seamless solutions for this purpose.
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Many retailers offer drone training, technology updates, and real-world product options for emergency services.
Around this time, FLIR put out the first Vue thermal-imaging, infrared camera. In December 2015, DJI and FLIR launched the Zenmuse XT&mdash;a plug-and-play thermal solution compatible with the most popular airframes of the time. This was really the birth of high-volume users of multirotor drones for high-level industrial missions. Without question, thermal imaging was one of the greatest differentiators of drones for industrial use and drones as purely consumer products. Since then, we have seen this expand to dedicated drones with unique characteristics designed for industrial use, such as weather and dust proofing, spotlights, payload-dropping, and so on. However, data capture remains the most valuable duty of this type of drone use, and, as a result, manufacturers have leaned further into higher-resolution RGB cameras for survey-grade accuracy, multispectral cameras for crop-health assessments, LiDAR, ground-penetrating radar, and a variety of other payloads.
For their part, drone resellers provide real-world input from the front lines so that manufacturers around the world can develop better products. Manufacturers generally do not sell direct, so they tend to have few relationships with end users, and therefore limited access to crucial customer feedback.
We serve as consultants to both sides. We have been in this game for more than a decade. Our experts are here to protect your investment and maximize your ROI. Our goal is to enable successful adoption of unmanned platforms for public safety and industrial users in the U.S. and internationally.
As an American company, we see that U.S. manufacturing is necessary for the country to continue as world leaders in technological innovation. The largest manufacturers of drones are based in China, and U.S. companies have a huge hill to climb to get their technology on par, while simultaneously keeping pricing affordable to end users. The laws in Florida that mandated public safety agencies to ground DJI are significant steps backward for the industry, as well as the communities they serve.
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Drone instruction and demonstrations for police departments.
The country-of-origin debate regarding drones is misaimed and should be focused on facts related to data security. Just because a drone is assembled in Detroit&mdash;and not Shenzhen&mdash;it doesn&rsquo;t mean the time and investment has been made to encrypt and protect your privacy. While we want to develop groundbreaking technologies domestically, we should keep in mind that millions of users have adopted DJI drones without incident. Ill-informed actions could result in loss of American jobs for drone software developers, operators, and resellers.
Telling the DSLR Pros story is telling the story of the drone industry, as well as the impact we make as resellers. We love working with complex use cases and solving unprecedented problems with customers. We carry products from nine of the leading drone manufacturers, support a variety of mission-specific software solutions, and offer world-class training.
If you&rsquo;re in the market for drones, we would love to opportunity to work together, but, at the very least, we are here to help support the long-term growth and sustainability of drones and drone technology.
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Randall Warnas of EUAS and DSLR Pros.

Drone Resellers Crucial to Tech and Marketing Growth

Retailers

2 September 2022
By Chris Allen, Director of Business Development, Florida Drone Supply
Since its inception in 2015, Florida Drone Supply has been one of the nation&rsquo;s leading drone retailers. Headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, Florida Drone Supply has become a brand name in itself with the public safety, police, fire, and U.S. governmental agencies. We have watched the amazing transition of technology over the last seven to eight years and how fast new technology and drone abilities are emerging, and it is extremely exciting to see the vast change.
Some drones are getting smaller, some drones are getting bigger, but the fact still remains that drone technologies and abilities have completely changed businesses and various agencies' ways of doing business. Whether you are inspecting a cell tower, searching for a suspect involved in a crime, or locating a lost hiker in the woods using thermal camera technology, the drone world simplifies and makes many processes faster, safer, and more efficient.
<h5 class="p1">Changing Customer Base</h5>
At the birth of commercial drone flight, the customer base was rather small, due to the onboarding challenges of the FAA 333, visual observer, and pilot rules. As the FAA adopted the changes within the UAS pilot world, our customer base grew rather fast. The Part107 pilot was born and opened up a commercial drone world that, in some ways, not a lot of vendors, distributors and manufacturers were prepared for.
As more pilot&rsquo;s came on board, so did the manufacturers. Florida Drone Supply is a reseller for DJI, DJI Enterprise, Autel, Parrot, Teal, and many more aerial platforms, which helps us find the right product, for the right customer, at the right price point. We can serve a pilot who has a $2,000 budget just as well as we can for a large police force with a $200,000 budget. Our sales and technical team at Florida Drone Supply have worked in various formats of aviation ranging from FAA, military, telecom, and many more avenues, which enable us to connect and relate to each and every customer that walks in our door or orders products from our website.
<h5 class="p1">Our Reach</h5>
While our name is attached to Florida, our reach and customer base is global. We proudly serve customers in all 50 states and well as the Caribbean and various parts of Europe. In addition to our sales team, who are simply the best at what they do, we offer in person training at the customer's location or at our 500-acre training facility in North Fort Myers. We can train one pilot or a department of 15+ pilots on the capabilities of the technologies that they invested in. More recently, we started a campaign to raise funds for drones that are currently in use in Ukraine. Featured by WINK News, a CBS affiliate, in Fort Myers, our team was able to raise tens of thousands of dollars, of which we invested in drones and had them delivered deep inside the borders of Ukraine.
<h5 class="p1">Changing Technologies</h5>
With ever-changing legislation, we have to remain fluid in our approach to technologies that are able to be used by our customers. New laws are going into place that force out certain manufacturers of already established drone programs and that technology has to be replaced with U.S.-based manufactured drones. With this change comes a few hurdles, including learning an entirely new platform. Muscle memory, familiarity with the equipment and the overall comfort of how a drone flies is extremely important when it comes to safety of the flight as well as how well a job gets completed. The other factor of changing platforms is cost. Our customers have spent tens of thousands of dollars on equipment that they now have to unload and bring in new equipment.
We understand these challenges and are constantly developing programs and policies on taking in equipment on trade, and helping facilitate the sale of existing equipment. Florida Drone Supply wants to make this transition easy on everyone, and we have built our team, our product line, and our abilities around it. This is a massive change to the majority of departments and agencies across some states and the Federal Government, but we are ready, willing, and able to spin up new platforms immediately.
<h5 class="p1">WATCH! Florida Drone Suppy Introduces the DJI M30T</h5>
<iframe style="width: 672px; height: 378px;" title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/REaQknxeybw" width="672" height="378" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
<h5 class="p1">Brick and Mortar</h5>
We are a small business with big visions. Our headquarters in Fort Myers just underwent a massive expansion of our showroom, inventory room, and our state-of-the-art video production studio which will be used for filming and producing unboxing videos, training videos, and new technology highlight videos. We stock every drone from the first time pilot with a DJI Mini 3 budget to the most experienced pilot who needs an enterprise solution with more technology payloads on it than some manned aircraft in the sky. Florida Drone Supply can handle it all, and we are ready for more. Some of our featured brands are: DJI, DJI Enterprise, Autel, Parrot, Leica, GPC, FLIR, Teal, Hoodman, and more.
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<h5 class="p1">The Future</h5>
As we mentioned before, Florida Drone Supply has a constant pulse of all emerging technologies. Our business development team actively searches out new products that would be of interest to our customer base and is in the development phase of an email campaign series that will bring all of our customers up to date on their current and future equipment. We do not want to be known as simply a drone dealer, we are in the business of developing relationships that will produce a successful drone program for any customer, agency, or department. We believe that the "drone ecosystem" is still being built, and we have just scratched the surface.
As of July 2022, there are over 900,000 registered drones with the FAA, with that rapid of a growth rate, we will see that number climb close to two-million in a relatively short period of time. Manufacturers are pushing out amazing drones and camera systems that get better with each product release, and Florida Drone Supply looks forward to serving each and every drone pilot that needs our help and service. For more information on Florida Drone Supply, please visit <a href="http://www.FloridaDroneSupply.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.FloridaDroneSupply.com</a> or give us a call at 1.855.8.DRONES.

Retailer Profile: Florida Drone Supply on the Past, Present, and Future of Drone Sales

By Drone Nerds
With UAV technology becoming widely accepted and available for commercial use, businesses, governments, and organizations across various industries are implementing drone technology to optimize their workflows. From automating manual processes to increasing safety and productivity, drones are changing the way the world operates. As drones and congruent technology disrupt current operations and replace existing equipment, new gaps between consumers&rsquo; needs and new innovations will emerge. Within the drone industry, a crucial link between drone manufacturers and businesses exists&mdash;service, maintenance, and dedicated guidance.
<a href="mailto:experts@dronenerds.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Drone Nerds</a> is a pioneer in the industry. Instead of manufacturing drones, the company works with the best drone providers in the industry and provides services that stretch beyond the retail sale of UAV equipment and payloads. Not only does it offer comprehensive fleet management, but also years of experience from serving enterprise clients throughout various sectors.
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/BKQ8wsbSp9xiKIYlC7qiUnHwUZih65pgrwZH8Ycd.jpg" alt="" width="725" height="544" /> Industry Experience &amp; Leading Partnerships
For the last eight years, Drone Nerds has taken its two-decades-long experience and knowledge within the consumer market and applied it to the needs of enterprise customers. The Drone Nerds team has helped customers in public safety, construction, energy, mining, and many other industries identify the best solution to their needs. Because organizations must comply with the FAA commercial regulations, Drone Nerds provides optional FAA aircraft registration at the time of purchase, ensuring customers can fly their fleet right out of the box.
For customers that operate within public safety&mdash;including emergency response, law enforcement, security, and fire departments&mdash;Drone Nerds has become a trusted advisor, helping various organizations identify drone solutions that comply with the regulations and standards of their individual departments.
Drone Nerds&rsquo; specialists provide additional information on how these departments can obtain a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) in order to fly emergency response UAVs within restricted airspace, along with guidance on selecting Blue sUAS listed aircraft. Local public safety departments receive regular training from Drone Nerds&rsquo; professional pilots and have developed in-house programs by using Drone Nerds&rsquo; training models. Mining, inspection, and solar energy customers have experienced significant success due to the optimization of their workflows with Drone Nerds&rsquo; payload and drone solution packages, as Drone Nerds partnered with Teledyne Flir&mdash;a well-known thermal and gas sensor manufacturer. Drone Nerds offers the FLIR Vue TZ20-R, a thermal-zoom drone payload that captures high-quality thermal imagery with its dual-boson sensors.
As DJI&rsquo;s Enterprise Platinum Partner in North America, Drone Nerds supports smart farming initiatives by providing agricultural organizations with the latest DJI Agras technology, including the DJI Agras T10, T20, and T30, as well as the MG-1P and MG1S. By using drone technology, farms and horticulturists can increase productivity and crop yields, reduce pollution, and implement scalable initiatives. Drones used in precision farming reduce chemical runoff by identifying adequate moisture levels in the soil, and spot dispersion of economic poisons, versus traditional methods which require complete drenching of soil. Drone Nerds has also partnered with leading software providers&mdash;such as Pix4D, DroneDeploy, DroneLogBook, Votix, and AirData&mdash;providing their products and services as part of its suite of complete drone solutions. Pix4D is a leading photogrammetry mapping solution provider, ideal for construction, surveying, and inspection operations. DroneDeploy offers mapping software that specializes in 3D virtual walkthroughs and many other apps designed to capture visual data effortlessly. With DroneLogBook, Votix, and AirData, organizations can plan, coordinate, and manage their fleet, as well as assign pilots to specific jobs or locations.
Expert Guidance, Dedicated Consultation Drone Nerds takes a consultative approach when it comes to helping enterprises find the right UAV solution for their organization. The process is relatively simple and is broken down into three steps: discovery, implementation, and continuous support. During the discovery stage, an account executive with corresponding industry experience meets with the project manager and stakeholders of the organization. The Drone Nerds account executive will review the organization&rsquo;s goals for the UAV program, and align the customer to the drone, payload, and software solution best suited to their needs. By connecting customers to drone experts that are familiar with their customer&rsquo;s industry, Drone Nerds ensures that they are well informed of UAV regulations that affect their specific operations, and selects the right equipment they need.
Additionally, Drone Nerds helps private organizations develop ROI demonstration plans, designed to showcase a complete cost-benefit analysis of drone programs by using the customer&rsquo;s own data, compared to existing customers within their industry. For public organizations, like fire and police departments, Drone Nerds helps them identify sources of funding by informing them of state and federal government grants available for UAV programs. Organizations that move forward with a drone program receive a comprehensive implementation experience. The implementation period sets up their drone program for success. This involves providing a full range of training solutions to prepare the team to master the management of their drone program, as well as providing custom kitting services (updating firmware, flight testing, configuring app settings, and much more) so that their aircraft is ready to fly upon delivery.
After the implementation is complete, businesses are connected to all the resources Drone Nerds has to offer&mdash;this includes service technicians, guides, and access to Drone Nerds&rsquo; proprietary Always Flying Program&trade;.
Always Flying Program
As the largest service center in North America, Drone Nerds employs a talented pool of trained drone experts. Their in-house technicians benefit their customers&rsquo; needs&mdash;and their bottom line. Customers receive expert consultation and repairs with a quick turnaround time and no added expense of third-party consultation fees.
The Always Flying Program features a &ldquo;Hot Swap&rdquo; service. This feature of the plan offers an alternative: warehoused drones that can be shipped out the next day, minimizing operational downtime. This helps businesses maintain field productivity. Although the implementation of a well-thought-out program may seem complex, by following the right procedures and leveraging experts in the field, the process can be simple and easy.
<img src="https://media.thedroningcompany.com/images/tincy/6299UTjuCOPhOJqoas7S6q7kaYwJ9Hj3mLvL1OP9.jpg" alt="" width="715" height="402" />&nbsp; Opportunities for Growth
Within the drone industry, there is opportunity for growth, diversification, and advancement. The world will continue to find new, innovative ways to boost productivity and keep up with demand. According to research conducted by Grand View Research, the global commercial drone market is currently valued at $13.44 billion USD, and is expected to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 57.5 percent through 2028. Drone Nerds is an organization committed to providing deep industry knowledge, designed to fill the gap between manufacturers and customers. By continuing to form key partnerships with top drone manufacturers, developers, and other specialists, Drone Nerds is making UAV technology more accessible than ever before.
By investing in employees and personnel with diverse industry experience and a passion for drone technology, Drone Nerds better understands and serves customers regardless of their niche. Take the next step in your drone program implementation journey by clicking <a href="mailto:experts@dronenerds.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HERE</a>.

Featured News Product NewsCompany Profile: Unmanned Vehicle Technologies

Featured News Trending NewsDrone Resellers Crucial to Tech and Marketing Growth

Featured News RetailersRetailer Profile: Florida Drone Supply on the Past, Present, and Future of Drone Sales

Featured News RetailersDrone Nerds Help Organizations Automate Operations with UAV Technology

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