First Stampede Drone Vendor Summit Fosters Drone and Pro AV Industry Collaboration

	Kevin Kelly presents at the Stampede Drone Vendor Summit held recently in Buffalo, New York.

"Collaboration, not competition, is the key to fully profiting from the rapidly growing and expanding commercialization of drones and Drone Video Systems throughout the pro AV industry" -- that was the primary takeaway of the first Stampede Drone Vendor Summit, held recently in Buffalo, New York.

"This event marked the first time that both drone and traditional pro AV manufacturers, educators, and related service providers came together in one room to listen to subject matter experts and learn how collaboration and cross-industry product integration will result in everyone profiting from the unstoppable wave of innovation being generated by drones," explained Stampede president and COO Kevin Kelly.

"Drones represent the single biggest cycle of innovation since the invention of cellular phones and the long-term impact of drones in every vertical market that the pro AV industry serves is incalculable at this point," he asserted. "A very modest estimate is that there are 10,000 applications for drones in the vertical markets served by the pro AV industry and that means that there is room for everyone at the table when it comes to commercializing this historic opportunity."

Summit attendees learned that the range of applications for drones in the pro AV market, and the types of systems that can be designed to meet individual channel and user requirements, are virtually unlimited. "There is no one definition of a drone and there is no one definition of a drone video system," Kelly stressed to the attendees. "We can all add value with the products and services that each of us already offers in the marketplace."

In addition to executive presentations by Kelly, Jeff Willis, Stampede SVP of product management and marketing; Beth Clune, VP of vendor marketing programs; and Eric Jameson, product manager: drone video systems; and a keynote by Thomas Frey of the Da Vinci Institute, each manufacturer was offered the opportunity to present on and demo their product offering. And the highly productive cross-company, cross-industry collaboration that occurred throughout these presentations was both motivating and inspiring, according to Kelly.

"These presentations highlighted the reality that the vast majority of drone potential remains untapped -- it's the underwater mountain that lays beneath the tip of the iceberg," he asserted. "To watch collective light bulbs in the audience turn on, and subsequent dialogue ensue, when traditional pro AV companies -- such as video conferencing, digital asset management, GPS tracking, and command and control -- demonstrated how seamlessly their products integrate with next-generation drone hardware, is validation that we, as an industry, are only just beginning to unlock the potential of drones in the pro AV market."

In fact, the idea of "full potential actualized through product integration" was a theme stressed throughout the summit. In Jameson's presentation on drone video systems, he emphasized that the drone, as a standalone product, offers limited capabilities and functionality. However, when integrated with, say, command and control capabilities and video conferencing software, applications grow exponentially and a drone's full potential is actualized.

The attendees of the Drone Vendor Summit, and members of the DVS product category, include leading drone and pro AV manufacturers and service providers such as DJI, Walkera, Yuneec, xCraft, XFOLD, AEE, Troy Built Models, Vidyo, Trackimo, Amimon, VideoBank, Milestone, Coretronics, Unmanned Vehicle University, UA Solutions, and Hogan Lovells, to name a few.

"With drones, our industry has the opportunity to sell something where there's nothing. And whenever that's the case, the opportunity becomes huge," emphasized Kelly in his closing remarks. "However, the full profit potential of this opportunity will materialize only when we -- through this and future summits -- collaborate, across product category, company, and industry, to build the innovative drone-based products that will revolutionize business operations forever."