Mountain Dew is starting its drone engines.
The soft drink that comes in a variety of funny colors is pumped on drone racing. The soda brand with a legacy of promoting and sponsoring action sports is partnering with DR1 Racing, a newly formed drone racing series.
The DR1 Invitational, presented by Mountain Dew, will air this August in the U.S. in a one-hour broadcast special — the industry’s first broadcast. According to PR, the DR1 will be the first league to globally stream live on Twitch at Twitch.tv/DR1Racing.
Carla Hassan, SVP, Global Brand Management, Global Beverage Group, PepsiCo said “Drone racing is an electric space that perfectly embodies the forward-looking, thrill-seeking spirit of DEW Nation.”
The DR1 Invitational will feature 12 of the top drone-racing pilots in the world going head to head at the Sepulveda Dam in Los Angeles, California. Over the course of two days, the race will be broken up into heats, qualifiers and finals. More information on the Invitational and DR1 can be found at Twitch.tv/DR1Racing.
Skycatch and DJI Launch Drone Mapping App
Skycatch announced the launch of COMMANDER, their iOS flight app for DJI drones. The app automates data capture with DJI’s latest drones, turning them into professional mapping tools.
“The goal of DJI’s SDK has always been to facilitate the creation of a robust ecosystem of apps, such as COMMANDER,” said Darren Liccardo, DJI Vice President of Engineering, Systems and Applications. “Professionals know best what the use case is for our aerial platforms in their specific vertical sectors. Skycatch’s developers have made optimal use of our open APIs with their innovative mapping and modeling application.”
The app launches supports the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional, Inspire 1, and the new Phantom 4 drones.
COMMANDER allows users to outline the area they want mapped and the app automatically generates the optimal route and autonomously flies it for them. Images are processed into high-resolution maps and 3D models accessed in the Skycatch Dashboard. Professionals in construction, mining, and energy use Dashboard to inform business decisions and carry out functions such as calculating assets, planning logistics, and reporting progress.
You can find the app on iTuens here.