Last year we announced our partnership with a local radio station, CallFM, to create an aerial solution for measuring the strength of their antenna in the Everglades. Using drones allowed us to solve a number of traditional issues with strength analytics. We are not limited to roads (which is great, because the everglades doesn't have many of those), we can capture data anywhere we can fly, we can capture larger amounts of data, and generally rethink the way this data is presented and collected. Our solution, The Fessenden Flier by Aerial Radio Data. rethinks how radio, cellular, and invisible data is collected, distilled, and presented.
Using state-of-the-art 3D modeling techniques, we start with modeling the tower and surrounding areas. This allows our customers to have context as to what might be attributing to the tower's performance. Our pilot then navigates to the first altitude, inputs the altitude into the web-based page, hits start, and flies a desired pattern. Our standard recommendation is a double concentric orbit pattern 500 and 1000 feet from the tower. When the second orbit is finished the pilot hits end, navigates to the second altitude and repeats this process. The data is updated at near real-time speeds so our customers can quickly observe the pattern and make changes in the field to test possible solutions.
The data is presented around a modeled 3D cell tower. Data points are translucent spheres color-coded to correspond with signal strength. Both the frequency of sampling and the size of the sphere are user controllable in the web interface. This allows for as much data as possible to be retained and viewed, while allowing the user to control the clutter on the page. This also builds redundancy into the data as our users can look at the highest sample rate to confirm a datum of interest isn't an anomalous reading.
View a Demonstrative Data Set here: AerialRadioData.com
Aerial Radio Data, owned by Naples Drone Solutions parent company Kobza Enterprises, is an offshoot of Naples Drone Solutions.
