Drone Photography and Aerial Videography

Film your subject from a different angle

Newsworthy Vision is now CAA approved for commercial drone operations in London and the UK. As a result, we’re keen to bring our ground level videography expertise to the sky and offer aerial photography and videography services.

Utilising either of our amazing drones, we can conduct aerial video and photography operations anywhere, day or night.

Is it difficult to fly a drone in London?

Yes, it is, but aerial drone videography is not impossible in this city.

We have permission for commercial drone services, allowing us to work in urban, residential, or recreational areas. Included is insurance with public liability cover, covering the project, drone pilot and team. As a result, we can fly safely and fully covered for any eventuality.

For instance, London has several major restriction zones, covering a majority of the city and surrounding areas. The first covers Hyde Park and extends to Regents Park in the North, Kensington in the West and Stockwell to the South. The second is over the City of London area from Covent Garden to Tower Bridge. Meaning, quite a lot of central London is heavily restricted.

Taking aerial footage for a video production within them does take a long time to approve. Twenty-eight days is the rough approval time suggested.

As a result, if you wanted to get aerial footage over the river Thames, you would need permission from the following:

• NATS – The air traffic control network for the UK
• Metropolitan Police – Due to the restricted zones within London
• London Port Authority – For any traffic travelling in or around the river (Depending on operations)
• Local council authority – For take-off and landing locations near the river

Can’t we just wing it? (Pardon the pun)

No. There is no getting around these approvals, and the penalties are severe if you don’t. More importantly, permission is not guaranteed, so the sooner you make a plan, the better your chance of success.

Good news though, the process is now easier than ever. We can get started on these permissions if you know where and when you want to film.

As we were warned, once you start getting into drone videography, you’ll want more capable equipment very quickly.

As a result, we acquired an Autel EVO II drone, which allows for the following improvements:

• Fully autonomous flight, perfect for 3D mapping and aerial surveying
• Full HD live broadcasting to professional standards
• Up to forty minutes of flight time
• Wind resistance up to gale strength winds (Beaufort scale 8, 62km/h, 39mph or 34kts)
• Omnidirectional obstacle avoidance
• Recording video up to 8k in 25/30fps (Up to 4K in 50/60fps, and 2.7K in 120fps)
• Object tracking and other intelligent automated flight modes
• Full time-lapse and hyper-lapse recording capability
• Lastly, full HDR photography and LOG video recording at 120Mbps

We’re really excited to use this drone on future projects, as it feels rock-solid in the air in the testing we’ve done so far.

We love working on rotary-wing (helicopter) operations. In fact, our director was a fully qualified aerial camera operator and aircrewman back in Australia.

But to be blunt, not every project can call in the expensive resources of a helicopter. For those projects, our aerial photography and videography services are perfect.

We can feed live pictures down to a monitoring station on the ground as we fly, allowing you to see everything that is being recorded, as it is being recorded.