Jan 29 2015
The coalition of news media partnering with Virginia Tech to test small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) is pleased to announce that Fusion has joined its ranks.
The partnership between the news media coalition and Virginia Tech is designed to conduct controlled safety testing of a series of real-life scenarios where the news media could use small UAS technology to gather the news.
With its news and information programming focused on an increasingly diverse millennial audience, Fusion will add important perspective to this unprecedented cooperative effort to help develop procedures to safely incorporate UAS into daily journalism.
"We could not be more pleased to be working with Virginia Tech and the coalition on this exciting project," said Fusion CEO Isaac Lee. "We want Fusion to be a laboratory for experimentation and innovation when it comes to storytelling. New technologies continue to change the way we see the world -- often giving us a more clear, bold, authentic view of news events in real-time."
Fusion is the 11th media outfit to join the coalition. The others participating in the testing are: Advance Publications, Inc.; A.H. Belo Corp.; The Associated Press; Gannett Co., Inc.; Getty Images; NBCUniversal; The New York Times Company; The E.W. Scripps Company; Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.; and The Washington Post.
The coalition will begin testing small UAS using protocols drafted by a group of journalists from coalition member companies. The testing protocols drafting group was led by Mickey Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA).
The coalition has been working since mid-2014 through the law firm of Holland & Knight LLP to develop the testing program with Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech leads the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, one of six test sites established by Congress to collect data on the use of UAS. Congress set up the test sites to assist the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in formulating regulations to integrate UAS into the national airspace.
Source: http://www.hklaw.com/