AirDog Drones to Film UK Watersports Competition

It’s not often/ever that autonomous drones take the lead in filming sporting events, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen tomorrow in Berkshire, England. Plastic Playground, a watersports competition running from the 11th to the 17th of July, will be filmed from above by a fleet of AirDog drones, as the Latvian company seeks to promote some of its new autonomous flight modes.

AirDog will be filming the Plastic Playground professional wakeboarding competition starting Thursday, in a move that marks the first time ever that autonomous drones will be filming an action sports competition.

Plastic Playground is the good opportunity for AirDog to highlight the benefits of autonomous drone video capture, and as it has been specifically designed for extreme sports lovers, it should be right at home filming watersports this week.

Edgars Rozentals, CEO of AirDog, said, “As pioneers in action sports drones, we proved that anyone can capture their action sports adventures without any assistance. AirDog clearly demonstrates that you don’t have to have a big budget, a professional crew, or complicated camera setups. At Plastic Playground we are launching AirDog’s two new flight modes we designed specifically for cable park and boat wakeboarding action.”

During the event AirDog action sports drones will fly, follow, and film athletes along a pre-programmed flight path. At the same time, the AirDog will track and frame athletes while in motion. AirDog claims that its technology is capable of capturing footage more accurately that human pilots – a theory that will be put to the test with this wakeboarding competition. Wakeboarding is notoriously challenging to shoot because of the speed and unpredictable nature of those taking part, but AirDog’s custom wakeboarding presets will supposedly follow each athlete’s move with incredible accuracy.

AirDog also has dedicated software flight modes for watersports such as Windsurfing and Surfing, as well as MTB, Backcountry skiing and snowboarding. More flight modes are in development, including kitesurfing, motocross, and downhill snowsport modes. These new modes will be released as software updates.