WEBVTT - Could Drones Replace News Helicopters?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works, Hi brain

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Lauren Vogelbaum here. When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in August,

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<v Speaker 1>readers of USA Today's website were able to watch dramatic

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<v Speaker 1>aerial video footage of the city of Houston flooding, a

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<v Speaker 1>nearby chemical plant immersed underwater, and other startling views of

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<v Speaker 1>the disaster. But these eye catching clips weren't shot by

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<v Speaker 1>a cameraman perched in a helicopter as they might have

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<v Speaker 1>been in the past. Instead, they were captured by robotic

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<v Speaker 1>drones equipped with cameras and piloted by operators on the ground.

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<v Speaker 1>Ever since the Federal Aviation Administration issued new regulations in

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<v Speaker 1>sixteen making it easier for news organizations to use the

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<v Speaker 1>flying robots, drones have become a hot new news gathering tool.

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<v Speaker 1>Prior to the change, a drone had to be piloted

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<v Speaker 1>by someone trained and licensed for manned aircraft, requiring hours

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<v Speaker 1>of cockpit experience. The new rules only require an operator

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<v Speaker 1>to study and pass a test to be certified for drones.

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<v Speaker 1>Some journalism eating programs are making big investments in a

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<v Speaker 1>drone future. Matt Waite is a journalism professor at the

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<v Speaker 1>University of Nebraska Lincoln, who heads the school's Drone journalism lab.

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<v Speaker 1>He's trained three hundred and ninety journalists across the nation

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<v Speaker 1>in the past year on how to use drones, and

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<v Speaker 1>he says that probably about half of them have gone

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<v Speaker 1>on to obtain fa A certification. He estimates that somewhere

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<v Speaker 1>between dozens to low hundreds of US news outlets, and

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<v Speaker 1>not just TV stations, but newspapers and radio stations too,

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<v Speaker 1>now use unmanned aircraft in news gathering. Drone news is

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<v Speaker 1>rising at a time when the once seemingly ubiquitous news

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<v Speaker 1>helicopter is in decline. While definitive numbers aren't available, TV

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<v Speaker 1>News Check and Industry Publication estimated that there were only

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<v Speaker 1>one hundred to one hundred and twenty news schoppers still

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<v Speaker 1>flying around the country, down from a hundred and eighty

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<v Speaker 1>before the late two thousand's economic downturn for news outlets.

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<v Speaker 1>Drones are far less expensive news gathering tool than helicopters,

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<v Speaker 1>which can cost three to four million dollars apiece, including

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<v Speaker 1>the cost of cameras and mint, and consume a significant

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<v Speaker 1>amount of fuel. O Wait said, you can buy a

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<v Speaker 1>really good drone kit for about eighteen hundred dollars. That's

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<v Speaker 1>about what it would cost you to fly a helicopter

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<v Speaker 1>for an hour. He pointed out that drones are a

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<v Speaker 1>more affordable way to supply the ever increasing demand for

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<v Speaker 1>video clips that can be posted on websites, and that

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<v Speaker 1>the technology is well suited for covering certain types of

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<v Speaker 1>news events tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, massive traffic backups, stories like that,

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<v Speaker 1>he says. We also spoke via email with Henry H. Parrott, Jr.

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<v Speaker 1>A professor at the Chicago Kent College of Law and

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<v Speaker 1>co author of the book Domesticating Drones, The Technology, Economics

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<v Speaker 1>and Law of Unmanned Aircraft. He said that drones can

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<v Speaker 1>add aerial coverage for stations and publications that couldn't afford

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<v Speaker 1>a helicopter, even for stations who can. He said, the

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<v Speaker 1>main advantage is that every news crew can go out

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<v Speaker 1>with one and decide when it's coverage might be useful,

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<v Speaker 1>and since drones are unmanned, journalists don't face the same

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<v Speaker 1>risks that they would in news choppers. But drones also

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<v Speaker 1>have mitations that give helicopters an advantage for other types

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<v Speaker 1>of stories. Wait explained, for example, that the f a

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<v Speaker 1>A prohibits operators from flying drones directly over people, which

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<v Speaker 1>would make it difficult to get close to a massive

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<v Speaker 1>protest rally or a celebratory parade for a sports championship win.

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<v Speaker 1>Most drones electric battery packs only allow them to stay

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<v Speaker 1>aloft for twenty minutes, while helicopters can stay in the

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<v Speaker 1>air for hours at a time, and f a A

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<v Speaker 1>regulations require that the drone helicopters on the ground maintain

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<v Speaker 1>visual contact with the unmanned aircraft. Drones wait points out

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<v Speaker 1>would have been ill equipped to cover what is perhaps

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<v Speaker 1>the most famous aerial footage story ever, two hour police

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<v Speaker 1>pursuit of football star turned murder suspect O. J. Simpson

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<v Speaker 1>and his white Ford Bronco on the l A area

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<v Speaker 1>of Freeway System newscopters were able to transmit live video

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<v Speaker 1>of the chase, and it aired non stop on TV

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<v Speaker 1>viewers screens. That's why there will probably be room for

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<v Speaker 1>both copters and drones in journalism for the foreseeable future.

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<v Speaker 1>Some news organizations, such as Jacksonville, floor A based TV

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<v Speaker 1>station w j x T, rely on both. We spoke

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<v Speaker 1>with the stations vice president and general manager, Bob Ellis

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<v Speaker 1>In an email, he said, we use our sky for

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<v Speaker 1>helicopter here in Jacksonville to cover breaking news and to

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<v Speaker 1>get to a scene quickly, but drones oftentimes provide far

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<v Speaker 1>better pictures and can help tell a much better story.

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<v Speaker 1>In our coverage after Hurricane Irma, we used drone footage

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<v Speaker 1>to show damaged areas that showed exactly what happened, far

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<v Speaker 1>better than using a helicopter could. I believe there's a

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<v Speaker 1>place for all these technologies to be utilized. I prefer

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<v Speaker 1>to look at it from a content standpoint, what is

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<v Speaker 1>the technology that helps best tell the story? Parrot adds

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<v Speaker 1>drones won't ever completely replace news helicopters because they're so

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<v Speaker 1>much cheaper. They will be used in some markets instead

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<v Speaker 1>of helicopters, and stations in big markets may renegotiate their

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<v Speaker 1>helicopter contracts over time to use less helicopter time, filling

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<v Speaker 1>the gap with drones. In the future, news organizations may

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<v Speaker 1>use drones not just to capture dramatic aerial images, but

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<v Speaker 1>to gather vast amounts of data from various angles to

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<v Speaker 1>create virtual reality simulations. Eventually, for example, news consumers may

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<v Speaker 1>be able to put on a VR headset and walk

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<v Speaker 1>through a three dimensional simulation of the ruins of a

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<v Speaker 1>war torn city on the other side of the planet.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced

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<v Speaker 1>by Tristan McNeil. For more on this and lots of

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<v Speaker 1>other newsworthy topics, visit our home planet has Stuff works

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<v Speaker 1>dot com.