Australia has the right idea, and is now working to allow drones to be used for future news gathering. Check out this news story on the proposed changes to Australia’s aviation rules.
RPA Training from ABC News Back Story on Vimeo.
Proposed changes to Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority
(CASA) rules will soon make it easier for media organisations to use
small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), better known as drones, for
newsgathering.
But the ABC will tightly control their use to ensure they are operated in a safe way and that privacy is respected.
During his 15 years on the road for the ABC‘s
Foreign Correspondent program, award winning journalist Mark Corcoran
reported from many of the world’s hot spots, covering wars, civil
unrest, and disasters.
In 2006, when filming in a bomb-ravaged Beirut street during a lull
in air strikes, an Israeli military targeting drone with a camera
attached flew overhead.
This got Corcoran thinking about the potential of drones as a
newsgathering tool, particularly for news teams working on high-risk
assignments in dangerous places.
Fast forward to 2014 and a video produced by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors
Without Borders) of its Ebola Management Centre in Liberia, in which
the camera swoops over and around workers in biohazard suits and tents
housing patients, is a powerful example of how small drones could be
used to film vision and get pictures when journalists or camera crews
cannot risk getting too close to the action.
Corcoran has done extensive research into “drone journalism” and now
heads an ABC project to develop and regulate the corporation’s use of
drones.
“This technology is a wonderful tool for seeing what’s around the
corner or over the hill when there may be a threat to your safety,”
Corcoran said.
“When covering a natural disaster, quite often your line of sight is
limited by debris and this gives you the opportunity to look beyond that
– is the bridge around the hill still intact? Do you have an exit
route?”
In 2006, RPAs were too big, too expensive, and too complicated to fly to be seriously considered by news organisations.
But now good quality video can be captured with small, simple, but
highly capable machines, purchased from a hobby or camera shop for
several hundred dollars.
ABC develops drone training course for camera operators
While all RPAs are subject to CASA rules, a proposed change in
licensing for small “low risk” craft weighing less than two kilograms
will make it easier for media organisations to use them for
newsgathering and film-making in some areas.
But the national broadcaster is determined that they be operated
responsibly and has developed an innovative training course for camera
operators working on its news and current affairs programs who work
domestically and are also often deployed overseas.
“I think this is the first time, certainly in Australia, that this
kind of internal training has been conducted for RPAs that weigh less
than two kilograms and the ABC has a responsibility here as the nation’s
largest broadcaster,” Corcoran said.
“This is a terrific technology that has a lot of applications for
newsgathering, current affairs film-making, for documentaries – as long
as it is conducted in a safe way and that privacy is respected.”
The three-day course covers air safety rules, editorial policies on
respecting privacy, and hands on lessons on how to fly and film with
small modified Phantom2 RPAs with attached GoPro cameras bought by the
ABC.
The field training is provided by experienced instructors from
Coptercam, a CASA-licensed commercial operator which has done previous
RPA filming for ABC programs and outside broadcasts.
“It’s about ensuring that no-one gets hurt and not colliding with
other aircraft. A lot of people look at this as a flying smart phone –
they don’t look at it as an aviation activity but it is,” Corcoran said.
Privacy concerns and ABC ethical guidelines
The initial development of RPAs as a surveillance technology has
sparked concerns about intrusions on privacy, but Corcoran stresses that
they are governed by the same ABC editorial policies that apply to all
current filming operations.
“We already have the ability to theoretically impinge on people’s
privacy with helicopters that can record good imagery more than a
kilometre away from the subject, or with the powerful lenses we use on
standard news cameras,” he said.
“We don’t do that because of the editorial controls and I see that applying to the use of RPAs.”
Small RPAs can be used effectively to show the scale of a news event,
such as floods or a country landscape, and have previously featured in
the ABC broadcasts of this year’s Australia Day flag raising ceremony in
Canberra, on international assignments by ABC current affairs program
Four Corners, and in a series of reports by the ABC’s London bureau
leading up to this year’s Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli.
But there are also assignments where drones should not be used.
The ABC will ban staff and external RPA contractors from launching
small drones over bushfires as the high winds generated, low visibility
created by smoke, and low-flying water bombing aircraft present
unacceptable risks.
Exciting potential and limitations
After completing the training course, senior camera operator Ron
Ekkel, a veteran of many international news and current affairs
assignments, could see plenty of potential for filming.
“It’s a fantastic reveal tool if you want to reveal a big space, a
reporter’s piece to camera, and you want to show the location they are
at,” Mr Ekkel said.
“You can go from ground level up really high, or get great tracking shots, walking with people, or through trees.”
But there are limitations.
CASA’s rules prevent sub-two-kilogram RPAs from being flown within
5.5 kilometres of an airport or aerodrome; at night; within 30 metres of
people; or directly over the top of populous areas such as crowded
parks and beaches.
Operators must keep them below 121 metres and always within line of sight.
Corcoran said those restrictions and proposed new rules banning
filming near helipads mean most metropolitan areas will be off limits.
“I think initially for the ABC, the potential will be immediately
realised within rural and regional areas, where we don’t have the
population density and don’t have the air traffic,” he said.
The ABC will tightly control staff use of sub-two-kilogram RPAs and
the hiring of external CASA-approved operators for more complex filming
assignments, particularly in cities.
“I advocate a fairly conservative approach when starting out,” Corcoran said.
“This training is the first step. It’s about understanding what you
can do and the limitations, after that it’s all about practice time on
the controls.
“It’s relatively easy to learn how to fly, but to do it properly for our purposes is difficult to master.”
