Little Rock, Ark. ABC affiliate KATV says its the first station in Arkansas to use a drone for news coverage.
The drone, named SKY 7, is a DJI Inspire 1 Pro quadcopter piloted by Brian Emfinger and Barry Deere from KATV. The drone has a Zenmuse X5 gimbal and HD zoom camera that can broadcast live.
“SKY 7 brings a whole new perspective to local news,” said news director Nick Genty. “Channel 7 viewers will get a unique viewpoint that can’t be found anywhere else.”
The Sinclair-owned station says it’s the first of five stations in the group to start using drones within the next two weeks. Sinclair expects to have 40 stations using drones by the end of 2017.
“We’re not going to be hovering over people’s back yards and looking in places we shouldn’t be looking,” said Sinclair’s chief UAS pilot Jeff Rose. “We’re going to use our professionalism as we do in journalism.”