It was great to sit down and interview Patrick Kosiol, the co-founder of the Sky Drone team.
His passion in modern technology is unsurprising; after studying computer science in his home country-Germany, he moved to China in early 2005 and started a mobile apps ventures. In early 2008 they moved their operations to Hong Kong and therefore, he is based in Hong Kong currently.
Now utilizing the power of crowdfunding and the high level of interest in drones, Patrick has launched the new Sky Drone campaign and we talk to him more about what he’s doing:
Why are you making Sky Drone FPV and what is it?
Sky Drone FPV (First Person View) is a real-time video transmission system that utilizes 3G,4G/LTE networks to transmit its video. It has been built specifically for the purpose of live video transmission while a drone (or unmanned aerial vehicle, short UAV) is flying. Traditional FPV systems operate on analog technology (radio waves, like terrestrial TV broadcast) which just stop working once your drone is far away or there is an obstruction to the line of sight. By utilizing 3G, 4G/LTE networks, it is possible to still see what the drone is seeing even when it is behind a mountain or a building. Traditional FPV systems would just not work in such cases – the screen would show noise then.
Our Sky Drone FPV system is completely digital and can transmit full-HD (1080p, 30 frames per second) video with virtually no limitation of range. The receiver of the video is our groundstation app which runs on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 right now, but we will add Android and iOS (iPad and iPhone) support soon.
What are the benefits of making it in HK?
As we need a good 4G/LTE network to test on, Hong Kong’s low pricing for wireless services and the very good wireless infrastructure is definitely an advantage. While flying drones to test our system is tricky (we don’t want to hit any skyscrapers), there are some open spaces like in Yuen Long and on Lamma Island which are suitable as test sites.
Why use IndieGOGO and not Kickstarter? How much do you need to raise and what is it for?
Because Kickstarter requires a US citizen or UK citizen / entity to post a crowdfunding project, Indiegogo turned out to be our crowdfunding platform of choice. Though, we have decided a while ago, Indiegogo just moved up the ranks by now hosting the most successful / most funded crowdfunding campaign ever (Ubuntu Edge). So I am confident we made the right choice of going for Indiegogo.
We are looking for USD $80,000 to start the production on our Sky Drone FPV system. That allows us to finalize our software components and purchase the hardware we need to complete a set. Early birds can now get a Sky Drone FPV set for just $349. The final retail price will be $449.
What are some of the features of the Sky Drone FPV? Why do we need to buy one?
Sky Drone FPV is the only consumer-priced low-latency, digital Full-HD FPV solution available today. It is the only solution where you can put a camera on any drone, start in Kowloon, fly over to Yuen Long, Sha Tin or Sai Kung and keep seeing exactly what the drone sees in real-time, while such drones can fly at up to 100km/h and hope through many different mobile hotspot cells.
Our Sky Drone FPV system can also be used for other purposes than flying. For example, it can be put into a car and transmit the car’s first person view in real time to a tablet or smartphone.
You need more reasons? Chris Anderson (former Editor in Chief of WIRED, CEO of 3D Robotics, the leading U.S. company that builds and sells civilian drones)
Do you see drones as a new startup industry now?
Definitely. We believe civilian drones will be multi-billion market in the next decade.
Links to your social media for people to contact you:
Sky Drone FPV on Indiegogo: http://skydrone.aero/fpv-indiegogo
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/skylab23
