How SA’s SteadiDrone is bringing awesome flying copters to the world.
The concept of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) is one of those terms which has ruled the headlines over the last few years. These flying machines, also known as drones, have captured the imagination of Silicon Valley geeks and anti-NSA activists paranoid about their privacy, and caused the US military some controversy.
Fitted with a camera such as a GoPro, commercial examples of media innovation include the ability to get top-view shots of chaotic protests. More lighter, friendlier examples include capturing monkeys swinging about in forest trees in a panning motion for cutting-edge nature documentaries, capturing a surfer’s stunts in never-before-seen angles or simply private use — messing around with an expensive toy in your backyard.
One such company that took advantage of the technology’s potential is SteadiDrone. What initially started out as a South Africa media production company, eventually grew into a manufacturer of innovative drones with dealerships all over the world and a booming revenue.
How SteadiDrone took off
SteadiDrone’s 29 year old founder Duran De Villiers has a work history in TV production and professional photography. He found himself fascinated by the idea of having “cameras in the sky” without the need of a human pilot in the air and decided to develop his own machines. Helicopters are expensive and can only get so low to the ground while camera rigs can only go so high.
“My background is in media production,” De Villiers says. “I saw the potential for flying cameras that can offer us, as a production company, an edge over our competitors by being able to shoot unique and creative aerial imagery just about anywhere. I fell in love with the technology and it’s very quickly changed our entire business over to an international manufacturer.”
Headquartered in the beautiful town of Knysna, South Africa, SteadiDrone designs, develops, manufactures and exports these advanced unmanned aerial systems or small multicopter drones.
The startup recently held a competition where fans were encouraged to send in inspiring photos taken using the company’s drones and then post them on Facebook (take a look).
SteadiDrone launched in 2012 and now has dealerships in South America, North America, Canada, UK, most of Europe, UAE, Australia, South Africa and others. When asked how De Villiers hopes drone use will change the world, he simply says, “It already has.”
It almost goes without saying that the commercial UAV market is booming. In only a few years, these devices started becoming relatively affordable and making their way into the commercial market.
As Business Insider reports, “We estimate that 12% of an estimated US$98-billion in cumulative global spending on aerial drones over the next decade will be for commercial purposes.” That’s US$11.76-billion!
Apart from its notorious military uses, we’ve seen drones used to protect wildlife in Kenya or being geared up to provide people in remote, underserved areas with access to the internet (eventually) using Facebook’s solar-powered drones.
De Villiers says that it’s hard to keep track of its specific client base, but he has seen SteadiDrones being used from beating Guinness World Records to chasing birds off US Air Force runways, and many different TV products, films and of course privately hacked and modified.
Drones fly when you’re having fun…
Since its launch in 2012, SteadiDrone went from zero to making R14-million revenue in its first year. It’s self-funded by De Villiers and has done exceptionally well for itself thus far. It was chosen as the Step-Up Technology Innovation Competition winner in the ICT category last year. Not to mention having tapped into the global drone market.
The startup is also being sponsored over R100 000 and will be travelling to Milan, Italy together with U-Start South Africa’s four other winners.
“There are endless applications our systems are used for worldwide, from aerial photography to feature film making, security, wildlife conservation and many others,” De Villiers explains.
When asked what exactly makes these drones stand out from the rest, Duran says, “The gap our systems fill is a large market gap between cheap ‘toy’ drones and very expensive military type drones.”
All SteadiDrones can be modified on the website, outfitted with your selection of different controllers, motors, various batteries and so forth. Some of their key technical features making them so popular are their advanced GPS navigation capabilities, GoPro compatibility, easy set up with their folding arms, programmable radio systems and general durability.
Another one of its selling points is partly developing drones that are exceptionally stable, making them perfect for filming steady, uninterrupted shots. “Stability is mainly due to the advanced flight controller, GPS, and so forth,” explains De Villiers.
Building things in Africa?
One of the most underserved industries in South Africa has to be manufacturing. Especially in the fields of science and technology — but with today’s “privatised” tools on the market such as 3D printers, the research and development process is made a lot more accessible to the masses. You don’t necessarily need access to a manufacturing plant or a science lab to tinker and experiment with new technologies.
When asked about the problems a manufacturing startup faces in South Africa, De Villiers noted that getting one’s hands on raw materials is nearly impossible… but it’s all part of the challenge:
“We import most of the raw items, but manufacturing, assembly, etc. is all done [in South Africa]. We have 3D printers and CNC equipment that we use for R&D, it’s a fairly straight forward process, but developing flying machines can get very technical… but that’s where the fun comes in!”
http://ventureburn.com/2014/04/how-sas-steadidrone-is-bringing-awesome-flying-copters-to-the-world/
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