# How GardaWorld Runs Drone-Powered Security from Exo Drone's Centralized Command Center - Event: NestGen ’26 - Published: October 2, 2026 - Length: 29:23 - Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/0QEhlOKB1OU/ > The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's > captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms. ## About this session Security companies that protect many client sites with drones face one big challenge. Every site has its own layout, alarms, and rules, but the team responding to them works from one central location. In this NestGen session, Exo Drone will share how GardaWorld runs drone security for many sites from a single command center, and what other security teams can learn from it. ## Transcript **[0:00]** So, hello everyone and welcome to another exciting session. My name is Rohan and I'm part of the business team here at Light Base, especially working for the public safety and security vertical here. Today we'll be discussing how Guard of the World runs drone-powered security for Exodrones centralized command center. And wishing everybody a good morning and I think a lot of people are joining in from the Americas. So, there's a lot to catch up a lot of sessions which are lined up shortly, but we have an exciting session today. So, before I introduce you to the speaker, I would love to give you a brief gist about Sean. So, we have Sean Prancer again who is the director of commercial operations and development at Exodrones. And he is he has an experience of nearly 30 years again spanning across multiple industries, architectural, industrial design, etc. And he has set up a dedicated **[1:01]** remote operations center as well as well as helping security service providers build drone operations in their organization. And he has been building quite good again industry base for dog drones and autonomy in the Canadian market. So, without any further ado, I would also love to just give you a quick housekeeping rule as to where can you find the sessions later on. So, these sessions are getting recorded and you'll be able to also find us on YouTube shortly. And if you find anything valuable, please feel free to grab a screenshot and tag them along on LinkedIn and put up a hashtag mention so that we can also add up some of our comments and share it across. And last but not the least, please feel free to drop all of your questions in the Q&A tab. We will be taking this up shortly. Yep, I think we would love to have Sean overboard and again Sean, thank you so much **[2:02]** for joining in and hope you are having a great morning. So yeah, over to you Sean. >> Thank you very much Rowan. I'll start with sharing my screen here. >> [gasps] >> So yeah, let's see together how GardaWorld delivers drone-powered security from Exodrone centralized command center. Um so Exodrone Exodrone was born from civil aviation. It was founded in 2014 by the team behind ALM Paravion. That's a Quebec flight school with one goal, to train pilots with the same rigor as airline pilots. That discipline shaped everything since. At Exodrone, we've now we are known for our BVLOS operation and for operation manuals approved by Transport Canada. And we've built our reputation on compliance, reliability, and innovation while partnering with the industries technology leaders. **[3:03]** Today, that expertise powers C3 by Exodrone, turnkey drone operations as a service for for public safety agencies and security firms across Canada and the regulatory path to 24/7 operations at major Canadian airports. And our relationship with GardaWorld, it didn't start with this project. For more than 10 years now, we've been flying standalone drone missions for them, one site, one mission at a time. Over those years, we both learned the same lesson. Drone is rarely what makes or breaks a program. People are. So who's flying, how well they're trained, and how well they understand a specific site or security operation. So together, we built a college-level drone pilot training program designed specifically for security personnel. Not a generic drone course, but one built around the realities of security work. Uh that's how the relationship grew from **[4:04]** vendor to training partner to what we are today, operating partners. And that's the model behind the session. the service to its client and Exodrone operates it. From missions to training to one integrated service. >> [sighs] >> So, let's talk about the the problem in the industry uh that we're trying to solve. Owning drones is easy. Running a successful drone program is not. In more than 10 years of flying for security clients, that's the gap we've seen again and again. And it starts with the real- the reality security teams face every day. Here's the reality that security teams live with every day. Threats are converging. Physical and cyber aren't separate problems anymore. Coverage needs uh keep rising, and so do costs. Staffing in most places can't keep up. Guards are hard to hire and harder to keep. In the US **[5:06]** uh from what we see uh the industry replaces about 3/4 of its guard workforce every year. And the pressures in Canada are pretty similar. And the gaps show up exactly where you you'd expect. We have large perimeters. We have nights and our Canadian winters. That's a specific problem in itself. And that's where patrols are the weakest. So, drones really look like the answer to most of these problems. And they can be. Uh let let's see how they they could be. Um Another thing we see often is that security team buy drones, and that's where most of them stall because owning drones is only the start. You need qualified pilots and you need to recruit them, train them, and keep them. You need regulatory expertise. You need SOPs. You need compliance. You need maintenance. And the drones have to work with the security systems that you already run. So, **[6:09]** that's a lot to build for a team whose job is security, not aviation. And in Canada, it's harder still. Neither full automation nor one-to-many operations are allowed yet. So, every every single flight needs a pilot with eyes and hands on the controls. So, in Canada at the moment, the program isn't just hard to build, it's hard to keep flying. So, the solution, you don't build a program. You plug into one that's already flying. Everything I just listed, uh the pilots, the regulatory expertise, the SOPs, the compliance, the maintenance, that's what we've built at Exodrone. It lives in C3, our control and command center. From C3, we operate the whole program. Certified pilots, our regulatory department, deployment, monitoring, maintenance, compliance, and support. **[7:10]** GardaWorld brings what we don't have, a national client base, uh sales force, and the security service their clients already trust. And through FlytBase, the drones plug into the VMS platforms those clients already run. So, the drone the drone becomes part of their security system, not another screen to watch. So, neither of us had to build what the other already had. So, what uh does this look like in practice? Our proof of concept with is at a major international aeronautical manufacturer and the site sits on a major Canadian airport. Every flight is operated remotely from C3 in Laval near Montreal. At regular intervals or when the site needs eyes in in the air, C3 launches from the launches the drone from the dock, flies the mission and feeds the video straight into GardaWorld security response through FlytBase. **[8:12]** And here's what makes it uh different on on that site. The drone isn't just flying over a factory. It's flying on an airport in controlled airspace meters away from active runways sharing the same airspace as commercial aircraft. So, flying on on an airport ground comes with a very different set of rules. Uh this is controlled airspace shared with manned civil has to be coordinated with air traffic control. Every flight needs its own authorization request and every flight has pilot with eyes and hands on the control. So, none of them happens by accident. We spent more than 24 months working with the authorities including Transport Canada, Nav Canada building the concept of operations that make this possible and reviewing it with them step-by-step. And that's where we found something none of us fully expected. **[9:15]** The authorization map ain't mapping. In today's flight authorization system, uh it was designed for a world where drone flights near airports were very very rare. So, each air traffic control unit has room for a handful of authorizations in a day in single digits. Uh now take one security client, uh regular patrols, alarm responses, day and night, that can be up to 30 authorizations per day for one site on an easy, uneventful uneventful day. So, now I scale that up to 10 clients. That's up to 300 authorizations a day in a system that is built for single digits. So, nobody did anything wrong here. The system simply wasn't built for this. The math alone would push it to its breaking point. So, instead of waiting, we proposed a new path to the regulatory body. Let's start with the number that matters most to Guard the World. And that number is **[10:20]** zero. Zero drone departments they had to build. Zero regulatory teams they had to create. Everything we talked about earlier, the pilots, the SOPs, the compliance, the months of work with the authorities, none of that sits on Guard the World's site. They focus on what they do best, delivering security to their clients. Drone-powered security delivered without drone department. Another big number, 24/7. So, what was the new path we proposed to the regulatory bodies? Our goal is 24/7 operations on an airport. But you don't get there in one step. So, we proposed a phased approach. Phase one, learn. Daytime operation, six flights a day until we reach 300 flights. In phase two, we validate. Day and night, 12 flights a day until we reach 600 flights cumulative. And phase three, we operate up to 24 missions a day around the clock. And between **[11:25]** each phase, we've planned safety gates. We don't move forward on a calendar. We move forward on evidence, operational experience, anomalies, lessons learned, all reviewed with the regulator. We build trust. We build trust flight by flight, then we scale. Now, step back from this one site. Let's look at Canadian map here. What we've built with GardaWorld isn't a one-off. It's a model. It's a model. It's a program. The partner delivers to its clients, and we at C3 operate the flights. And that model works well beyond security. We're applying it to public safety, to industrial inspection, to construction intelligence. And in every case, the partner already has the clients and the technology. What they don't have is the flight operation. So, today, all of that runs from one C3 near Montreal. And one center can only reach **[12:28]** so far. So, the next step is satellite sites, staffed by partner operators running the same model, the same standards, the same aviation-minded safety culture across the country. And we can see that with partners that we are already in talks with, and we will share some announce some very soon. We can, with this model, pretty much cover Canada coast to coast. So, one operating model, repeatable, scalable, coast to coast. Before I wrap up, if you're thinking of building something similar on your side, here's what I take away from our story. Zero drone departments. GardaWorld didn't have to build one. So, partner rather than build. Nobody has to deliver everything alone. And people first. Our partnership started with a training program, and that wasn't a coincidence. Your drone program is only as good as the people running it. Up to 300 **[13:28]** authorizations a day in a system built for single digits. So, solve the regulatory side very early if you can. It always, and I mean always, takes longer than you think. And uh phase back to 24/7. We didn't wait for the rules to our processes to change. So, go see the regulators, sit down with them, propose, don't wait. Regulators need operators like us to bring solution to the table. Now, our next big number, 2 weeks. So, where are we today? In 2 weeks, that's how long until we go live at the site I I showed you earlier. So, from there, every safety gate will be measured, response times, coverage hours, incident detected, and hopefully next year I can come back and uh show you those numbers in detail. So, GardaWorld delivers, and we operate. Thank you. **[14:30]** >> Thank you so much, Shaun. I think that was quite insightful. And indeed, uh it's again quite interesting on how you have been able to integrate your uh business model into GardaWorld and so as to build a repeatable motion. So, we have few questions in the chat, and uh would love to take them over. So, let's take the first one. Uh I think Yeah. So, I think this is something interesting. We currently have guards at our site and a remote video monitoring center. How does your centralized drone command differ from a remote video monitoring center, which what a remote monitoring center already offers? Because a SOC also is able to see the CCTV cameras. How are you doing it differently? >> Okay. Well, we we specialize in all the drone ethics. So, we really do have all the SOPs down. So, instead of doing what they do over there, we basically handle the whole flights, the authorizations, the SOPs, everything that can or might go **[15:35]** wrong with the drones for the regulatory bodies, we handle. So, we basically then feed the images in their CCTV systems and their VMS systems. So, we take care of the drones and they take care of the all the interventions on site that they have to do. >> Perfect. So, yeah, let's take on the second one. I think this is regarding the commercial framework that you have with Garda. So, the question is how did you put up a commercial framework between you and Garda? Is it a complete OPEX base or does Garda have to invest in a bit of CAPEX front? >> It all depends on the the end user, the end client. Since they have a big clientele, in some cases, Garda World is a one-stop shop where they handle everything and they bill they have a budget to work with and they bill the client a lump sum for for the year to cover everything. Some clients want to own their **[16:37]** equipment. Sometime it really it relates to the security aspect of the equipment and the data. So, it is pretty much depending on the end user case. So, in some of them it's full CAPEX and the other one it's full OPEX. So, really varies. >> Okay. So, yeah, we have another question. For the end customer, what does the experience feel like? Do they need to interact with the command center directly or do they just get the alerts and the reports? >> That's a very good question. And and that also varies on the client. We have larger clients that have a high number of security personnel and a large CCTV room. So, in these cases the experience for them we set up either two flight FlytBase or two communication systems a two-way communication between the pilot and the person at the control of the CCTV **[17:40]** and the monitoring so that they can have a direct line to directly to the pilot to be able to stop an automated flight, look at something and report on it and then go and see other other things. That's one way of doing it and on some other sites where it's more fully automated and they don't have a lot of personnel there, we work with alerts. So, the alerts and notifications will notify someone or just simply record everything that's happening so that we can intervene in place of the security firm in place. So, yeah, it can go from automation and notifications all the way to two-way communications between the pilot and the CCTV room. So, that's how we handle it. >> Perfect. So, another question you mentioned a POC at the airport with Garuda. How did you measure the success of it? **[18:42]** >> Well, the the first measure of success is going to be have our flights unlocked 24/7. So, our first gate mainly is going through the paces of going through all the regulatory certification to be able to cut off the leash and be able to do our own thing. So, that's the first milestone we're trying to achieve. During that milestone what we're putting in place is KPIs measuring time of response uh, and adjusting all the routes to the specific, uh, threats that are on that site. So, uh, be it intrusions from wildlife, being, uh, taxiway control from planes going in and out of that manufacturer's, uh, factory, uh, all the way up to accompanying and seeing if one of the delivery, uh, that's happening on site is happening at the right door, uh, or guiding, uh, **[19:43]** people on site. So, everything is going to be, uh, measured and we're doing brainstorm sessions with, uh, the Guard World personnel and, uh, manufacturer's personnel also to be able to look at opportunities also that we see. Uh, some of the wish list they they had for years, uh, that if they were able to do this or that that it would help them. So, we're going to measure everything that we already know and add, uh, special sessions to go above and beyond and, uh, see anything that the drone can do for that manufacturer while it's on site. We're also looking a lot at at multiple uses for the drone. Security is a foot in the door. So, it's the most socially acceptable acceptable way of getting a drone on site on industrial sites, but once you're there, there are tons of thing that we can measure, that we can, let's say, just on the, um, um, **[20:45]** regular maintenance of a building or of the facility itself. The drone, while it's doing its security rounds, we can bring them a lot of valuable data for other departments, uh, of that, uh, and most of the time those clients don't know that they don't know. So, we have to be able to look at what the industry is doing as a as a whole and we we thank you FlytBase for that to bring us together and be able to see what everything is being done in so much different verticals that we can then integrate and show these clients that did you know you could do that and oh is it something interesting to you guys since you already have the infrastructure to do it there and since we are already bringing a few verticals elsewhere in the market well through the Guard the World door we can bring in inspection maintenance of the facilities and and all of that as an added bonus for that that **[21:45]** end user. So Guard the World is a partner for us and it's also like a some sort of distributor between us and and clients. So that's the that's the position we are we are very lucky to be in at the moment. >> That was an interesting one John and I think indeed it becomes important to be a partner. So if you are able to support through thick and thin and both of you are able to add values onto the layers which each of you is best at that brings the best into the market. So I think there's another question which is complimentary to this. Can you clearly explain the layers you had to innovate into your ecosystem as per the hardware and the software to run such program? So you mentioned FlytBase but what were the other layers that you had to use? >> Uh well we we discovered through the regulatory um um needs that they they they put on us all the requirements that we had to add the few more layers that we didn't expect to like live ATC. We thought that just being able **[22:49]** to listen to feeds coming in from publicly available places would would suffice but no we have to have very short uh, between what our listening and live um uh, public ATC listeners we we most of us listen to depend on an architecture that's not run professionally. So, it's it's open source and all that. So, it's not strong enough for the for the regulatory body. So, we had to implement a road radio over internet protocol system to be able to transmit what the ATC is listening on site directly to our ROC. And since we plan to do multiple sites across Canada, well, that became that a larger project cuz now we have to listen to one airport at one spot, but soon we might listen to six different airport. And we plan to have 12 stations for pilots. **[23:54]** So, each of these 12 could listen to a different frequency. So, that small request from the authority body then became its own server project and then we had to find manufacturers and compare solutions. And now we have something akin to what the ATC has and it's ours to be able to switch from one to the other and we'll be asking you guys to to probably integrate all of that into FlytBase very soon. So, it's something it's a project we want to take up with you guys to be able to then integrate all of that. And that's the beauty of of your team and your platform is everything is already made. So, we can have it work in one solution cuz just think of it if we have one pilot somewhere listening to the wrong frequency and something happens or it he thinks something happened and it's not happening. Uh, those signals can can get mixed very quick. So, we have checklist and procedures to make sure it **[24:58]** doesn't happen, but if it's baked into the interface that when we choose a dock to fly that the right frequency is already associated with it and we switch to the right equipment and everything is seamless through your APIs and your flanks and all of that. That becomes not only more practical, we gain in efficiency, but just the safety aspect for the regulatory bodies, the the exchanges we already had them. When they saw everything we are building at that level, that brings us front of the pack as professionals and as safety professionals too and that's our the the the the most appreciative aspect we can have. That's safety for everyone and for civil aviation as a whole. >> Thank you so much on that. So, I think we have last 3 minutes. We'll just quickly **[26:00]** check some of the other questions. I think this one is also interesting. [clears throat] How do you handle different time zones if you're managing sites across the North America? Is the command center staffed 24/7 or do you follow the sun? >> It is staffed 24/7 and we are leveraging with our partners. When you saw those little circles on the map, we were already in talks with a few of these partners to be able to to staff in different time zones. So, not only are we going to be staffed 24/7, we're going to be staffed in different time zones to be able to implement all of that and not not only handle time zones, handle redundancy cuz we've built redundancies as layers in our ROC for power, for for data, for communications and all of that, but you can build redundancies with different multiple sites also where with your platform with the the the one-to-many um **[27:01]** tabs you already have and the the tools that are that are already there, we can think of running multiple ROC sites with redundancies built in where we can pick up flights and this is something the regulatory bodies are looking at very uh really intently because they they know that this makes it uh de facto redundancy that's very interesting for them. >> Thank you so much for that insight, Jean. I think uh we have a last one, but you only have 30 seconds to answer that. So, Jean, the question is uh as the SOC really trained to manage a drone video feed? Did you have to still train them? Any experiences that you can share? A quick thought on that. >> Uh yes, they are trying to do that and we also share controls with the the guys in the CCTV rooms that are already able to handle it. So, we mainly do it, but it's possible to share the controls directly with the end user. **[28:06]** >> Perfect. So, guys, that's how we have come to the end of the session. So, again, uh really appreciate Jean for you to taking out your time and for that insightful talk about how you have been able to assist Garda World in order to uh support drone dock deployments and indeed without them having to invest anything up front, you still are able to build such a business model. So, yep, uh kudos for that. And guys, thank you so much again for joining in and tuning in for the session. Uh we have a lot more exciting things lined up. Uh so, please stay tuned and you can head over to the agenda tab to uh take a highlight of what all other sessions which are lined up uh for the next few hours. And yes, Jean, uh any closing thoughts that you would love to share from our side? >> Partnerships are >> everything. >> That's it is. So, yeah. I think we can take that word. So, let's build partnerships and help each other grow. So, yeah. That could be a good summary for this. So, again, thank you so much, guys. Looking forward to talking with you guys soon and have a great day. I hope you guys are able to enjoy **[29:11]** all the other sessions as well. Cheers. Take care and stay tuned. Good night. >> Thank you.