# Integrating Aerial Security with Enterprise-Grade Autonomous Drone Solutions

- Event: NestGen ’25
- Published: March 7, 2025
- Length: 29:22
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/VZ7waM6gKSM/

> 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.

## Transcript

**[0:20]** welcome everyone to another Powerhouse session at nesen 2025 I'm deep Gupta from FlytBase and today we are talking about a game changer in security how Enterprise great autonomous drones are transforming aial surveillance think about it traditional security is reactive cameras record alarm sound and then you respond but what if security could be proactive what if drones could autonomously detect verify and respond before a situation escalates that's exactly what we're diving into today and to break it all down we have three industry leaders who are shaping the future of drone powered security Chris Fink CEO of UV leading the charge in making high performance drone Solutions accessible to Enterprises Matt ryar VP of remote Ops at uvt specializing in scaling remote drone operations for critical security applications and Todd Ling VP of commercial operations from premium security bringing expertise in deploying drones where they matter most welcome gentlemen so

**[1:21]** we have some housekeeping rules before we get into the good stuff a quick rundown of how things will flow you can drop your Q&A in the Q&A box anytime our speakers will tackle them in the last segment the session is recorded So if you miss anything don't worry you can rewatch it later and then you can share insights thoughts and your favorite takeaways of Linkin and Twitter using n gen 2025 all right so let's jump in yeah M you can share your screen hey everybody thanks for being here deep huge uh thanks for the welcome and uh that that lovely tagline that you wrote I got to say NestGen and flight bases marketing is always on point so it's making us look real good appreciate everybody being here um little bit about uvt so we were founded in 2014 I found it in the Orlando Florida area um stting the construction progression mapping area uh service provider World

**[2:25]** which I know a lot of folks that are on here are probably living in right now maybe actually tuning in from your truck while you're you know capturing some data doing doing the Lord's work um we've now shifted and over the last 10 years we've become one of the largest dealers to public safety security um and all those related um Industries and so remote operations has been a huge push for us specifically again speaking to Public Safety into the dfr drones as first responder space um been a longtime partner of DJI we've got a a very large physical footprint as you can see there on the slide all the way west to California and East to New Jersey smattering in between pretty heavy here in in the central area I'm based at our HQ which is in fville Arkansas uh Mr ryar there that you see is up north in Michigan we do operate a 247 um demo site up there with uh I think we've got five docks there five or six docks couple still in crates um all kinds of cool stuff going on up there but we offer a full service TurnKey um system solution platform uh from Consulting Hardware software training you know renting a crane to put the dock up on a roof um and then

**[3:28]** partnering for Flight Services after sales support Etc uh we do also have pilot training through one of our partners um as well so that can be a customized uh program for your team based off of problems that you've had questions that you had regulatory hurdles that you're going through um or it can be um just a turnkey 107 solution as well on the Consulting side of the house I briefly mentioned Regulatory and regulations uh we do offer full COA waiver writing um as well as just general site surveys you know assessing an area to make sure that it's going to be suitable for whatever your operation are in this case doc based drones which of course bring with it a whole onslaught of new regulatory um changes and requirements whether that's detecting a void systems radar cie Etc um speaking of all those things on the hardware and software side we are a director tier one dealer with all of our suppliers and manufacturers we don't just sign up with somebody who comes out with something cool we actually buy it we test it we field it we make sure it works we work with Partners like FlytBase to make sure that it's going to be integrated with software platforms um out there that our users are actually using and of course

**[4:32]** we follow that up with post sales support so we do offer a 247365 Omni Channel support structure um and we've been super fortunate to partner with Premier security U Mr lennings on on the meeting today um and it's a perfect example of when industry on the security side or Public Safety side come together with uvt for for that full TurnKey solution Todd thanks Chris thanks deep and the team at FlytBase for the introduction and putting this together uh obviously the team at uvt for uh everything you've done for us and bringing us to the table here to have this conversation today uh Premier Security Solutions was founded in 2013 by our CEO Dave forti uh he's retired law enforcement U we got start started in the school security space uh in physical guard service um we started out at one Local District uh because we all come from a law enforcement background uh supporting the schools and providing that level of security that's unfortunately needed in the United States uh was an honor for us and and today we've expanded those physical guards services and schools uh protecting

**[5:32]** more than 35,000 students across 60 schools in southeast Michigan um but in 20120 we began to use technology to provide a a higher level of security and create a more proactive approach and we'll talk about how that proactiveness uh led to us being part of this conversation in in the Drone space and um laying out how we use drones today to provide protection for our clients across the country but uh we have a 247 Global Security operations center here in Michigan thankfully we are here in Michigan and because uvt has uh a brick and mortar location here our connection in 2023 was really pivotal to where we're at today uh but our Operation Center has about 150 Personnel assigned to it 247 we watch about 4,000 cameras across the United States monitoring them live for Fortune 500 companies ultra high net worth families VIP clients school districts box retail stores um and we've gotten really good at what we do and that is to redu theft crime and protect assets around the

**[6:32]** country uh in late 2023 uh we took a very strategic step and trying to become a true anti-me organization and that led to us looking at drones as a possible solution to both protect our clients but also protect our boots on the ground uh our numbers had increased in more than 1,400 hourly guards across the country um and with that becomes you know an added Threat Level to our own folks so when we approach a team at uvt uh through our law enforcement relationships uh we quickly identified that there was an opportunity for us to partner and take to our customer a new solution that really wasn't seen in the security space um and that led to our deployment of drones which we've done more than um 6,000 flights today in partnership with uvt uh protecting our customer assets and have had a a a great success at doing so um we are not reactionary and we are always preparing to be proactive and stop potential issue before becomes a problem and we need law enforcement support but today we have

**[7:34]** operations and sales in 17 States uh we do remote monitoring from coast to coast and we have a you know 800 hourly guards uh in a growing drone Fleet by the day so appreciate being on the uh session today Chris do you want to talk a little bit about Flight Services yeah absolutely sorry I was trying to get the presentation low but it timed out um yeah so currently through the the gck the Global Security operations center which is uh owned and managed by Premier security up in Burton Michigan we are deploying um 24/7 operations uh in in the commercial security space for um several of premier's customers and now joint customers as well um it's it's interesting to see how the technology shifted because when this started we were all about the DJI do1 and then pretty quickly realized the DJI do2 had come out and it was already a pretty suitable solution just with all the lessons learned and so we do operate the DJI doc 2 um out of that gck so we have U Pilots there they've got Premier on one shoulder and EVT on the other and they are there as a joint representation and all those

**[8:36]** operations are done um by licens fa part 107 pilots and following all applicable laws and regulations U Matt and his team he asked me to do the talking but he should really be the one up here uh pounding his chess because he's done a fantastic job building out our remote operations team with various pieces of security from the required daa technology getting our waivers written for shielded operations at various sites um and things like that the uh if you compare like what Todd said you know boots on the ground guards are still a thing drones aren't going to replace those necessarily at least not today but having that eye in the sky whether it's something as simple as just giving those boots on the ground extra peace of mind being their backup watching their Corners checking their Lanes finding things that maybe they couldn't find through thermal technology um it's a it's a heavy lift and and there's there could be some significant delays with um you know getting units on scene whether that's a a theft a burglary vandalism whatever um and all of these services or flights can be scheduled either on a regular basis through full autonomous flights or they can be flown manually so we do a combination of both we've got autonomous routes that we build out there's a human obviously in the gck

**[9:39]** there that you can see uh pictured in the slide monitoring that video calling out other things being in that gck is a pretty powerful thing you're able to immediately call out and get folks that are looking at those um fixed position cameras that can you know call attention to certain things and then vice versa they can request that a drone respond um and and essentially get another set of eyes a very dynamic set of eyes on there Matt filling any gaps I left behind no you were spot on and and you alluded to the regulatory side uh that uvt and premere have gone to uh an extensive hurdles really to get those waivers put in place but really the fa has been uh so good to work with on that side of the house and enabling these operations to scale and and grow we're all very excited for what that future looks like on the regulatory side as uh there are still some limitations currently to date uh the technology at this point this Crossroads has far surpassed the regulatory environment and for organizations like FlytBase and other manufacturers who are working really hard to push and and integrate and really innovate that next

**[10:41]** generation of that leg regulatory scene uh helps move that needle for us so thanks to all the work that uh deepe crew has been doing and others uh in the space to help enable this we're excited right now to look forward to that hopefully called part 108 coming out sometime this year to really look what that framework's going to going to be like but just on the regulatory side want everyone to know that uh the fa has been very good to work with here in the US uh you can absolutely conduct these operations uh in a safe legal capacity as it stands today but if we look towards true scale and enablement in the next few years that really will Point towards that new regulation that hopefully we'll see sometime uh later this year Todd we've had a couple awesome wins uh in the gck with the team uh in a variety of different capacities uh but would you talk a little bit about uh the incident back in August and uh what happened that night yeah we protect uh about $4 billion in inventory daily for uh some of the largest manufacturers in North America um it's no

**[11:42]** secret that there is a a high threat high crime rate uh of the the assets that we protect every day um but by adding in the Drone technology and remote drone operations we've really been able to um show the success in that and um very few times uh when there is a a threat that occurs and there is a response by a security team regardless of of who the contractor or vendor is across North America uh By the time law enforcement's contacted and authorities arrive uh the suspect has fled the scene um and you really just left to clean up the pieces and put another case File together to maybe down the road create something out of it but this past August uh we had a breach of one of our facilities uh by five suspects uh it was first identified by Operation Center uh the Drone was on a a flight pattern that was away from this location at that time uh but our operator called it out and we followed our protocol uh absolutely perfectly in the gck in collaboration both with uvt and

**[12:43]** our law enforcement Partners but uh when this breach occurred um we were able to get the Drone and our pilot to take control of that and fly the Drone in order to give us visual of these suspects without the Drone in place uh flying that evening at that Manufacturing facility uh we would have never seen these suspects after they left the scene were driving walking down Schaefer Road uh but we were able to call that out uh you can see the suspects here in this video uh they actually seem quite complacent because I think they think this is over with but they quickly realized that we've contacted our law enforcement friends they responded to the scene and were able to take five suspects into custody uh what could have occurred here is these five suspects could have stolen 3/4 of a million dollars in inventory in 15 minutes uh but this was a win for team Premier team uvt that night uh our customer has seen this as validation and and what we're doing and the proactiveness that we're able to provide so hats off to our pilot that night and our team that was able to uh take a

**[13:48]** victory awesome and right alongside that I think we've all noticed that there's an uptick in drone activity across the country and trying to layer that level of drone detection in with with uh these uh protection asset protection is important a lot of these customer sites uh nefarious drone use for a lot of different purposes including pre- scouting of sites has started to become a reality for many in this space and so layering in this drone detection can help that pilot a DEC conflict and keep that airspace safe and secure make sure there's no inflight incidents but then also be on the monitoring side of the house for any activity that might be used uh from the Drone side to pre out those sites Todd have you seen with your customers an uptick in uh those types of drone spottings around your facilities and how are they reacting to that uh drone detection there on site there's certainly been an uptick in the uh last six months and our customers reaching out to us or even our boots on the ground uh reporting that there's been drone sightings over any one of these

**[14:50]** facilities that we protect um in the last 30 days we've had four incidents at four different facilities where uh drones were observed flying over these locations um and it quickly results in a conversation with our customers and getting them educated on um what's occurring and what we can do to help uh detect this type of activity and you know protect their assets even further so there is a another whole bucket of of security needs here when it comes to drone detection um and understanding that the threat is not only on the ground it's in the sky just like we're trying to protect it from the sky so um it's certainly of concern on our on our mind makes sense and and from a pilot uh interface or Pilot operation side uh the pilots right now flying per for Premiere have that visibility of other drones in the area right in that same paint of glass and the software they're using uh to conduct those operations and so I would encourage anyone looking into these types of operations to to have that thought process in Mind of a lot of different systems and a lot of

**[15:51]** different Windows is good because the technology is helping us uh navigate many of these different situations but if you look at towards Tech analogy like flight based and other platforms that can help bring all of that information into one paint of glass it helps that pilot act in a much more efficient capacity there's uh something with the flight based platform called flinks that allow that interface to other thirdparty systems whether it be drone detection or mapping softwares uh which really can help you through that agnostic ecosystem of of understanding that in one Paine of glass deep I know we uh have a couple questions there bruan but we'll KCK it back to you to uh throw those out to the group here yeah sure Matt thank you for that so first question is we have from Alexander Wasa and it is how is your team handling the cyber security site in the Drone space Chris do you want to take that one yeah absolutely so specific to this uh

**[16:52]** the deployments that we've talked about and Premier as our customer we we've had quite a bit of flexibility because the infrastructure that we've installed on site at at these various sites which we can't go into a lot of detail about um they're completely disconnected from that customers Network we're not just plugging a cable in and connecting another iot device we have our own cloud layers on top of that um we've got you know cradle point and other LTE modems on board we've done starlink before we have done hardwired installations outside of premere and and I think even a couple for Premiere um but it all comes down to the customers's you know sort of temperament and temperature in that regard but your question Alexander is spoton because cyber security is is probably the the number one talking point now that regulations on the Drone side are becoming a bit easier to to navigate a little bit more um you know commonplace common knowledge there are some serious cyber security um measures that need to be taken I was a former um it and ciso director at an FDIC regulated bank and believe me we've gone through or I've gone through numerous safety and soundness exams and so a lot of it's just talking to the customer some

**[17:53]** customers have their Network pretty mature that you can plug in a device and put it onto a virtual Land network and filter all that traffic you can monitor International traffic you know even domestic Solutions need something in between there you need something in between that device and your actual land or your local area network but specific to Premiere I could go on about this for days because I'm a super nerd but um specific to Premiere these are completely um off network devices they're still on the internet through either LT or or starlink um and another satellite technology but they're not connected to the network so that allowed us quite a bit of flexibility both on the data security and cyber security side but also candidly it's really promoted us to be able to move these assets around Premier manufacturers some beautiful security trailers with uh also hard mounted cameras and uh some dock technology that we put on there and so because it's trailer born trailer based we're able to move those around and keeping it off network has allowed us to do that and keep the assets and data secure thank you um thank you for that answer Chris so the next question that we

**[18:54]** have is um uh can you walk us through a real world case study so I think to has already done that uh where you know five people were were detected uh and they were taken into B later so now uh where I'm getting with the next question is how are you planning to use AI for detecting those people like right now there was an operator behind and he was the one who spotted out there were a few people uh who were you know traveling down the road or who were walking down the road so how with the you know newer technological advancements are you planning to you know Implement AI in your drone based Solutions so right right now and I'll kick it over to Todd here because him and I had this same conversation in another capacity just recently but uh right now ubt is is working with flight based and other manufacturers to help add those layers into our current workflows uh to provide those to customers up till this point the regulatory environment hasn't allowed a lot of that automation to happen so uh there hasn't been a great uh case study around that uh to actually deploy some of that technology

**[19:56]** because of that pilot needing to physically be in the seat during that entire automated response uh but we're seeing a huge uptick and a huge request to do exactly that uh to be able to integrate AI in different aspects of the workflow to help that pilot assist them through that process of identifying potential issues uh in addition to the work that they're doing on camera but Todd any insight on that yeah uh certainly in the AI space and Matt I don't know how much I can share here but um you know our customer base that is uh using our doct drone Services has come to realize that there's a additional advantages to this when it comes to uh asset tracking um so uh our customers have recently reached out to us and said hey can we get the Drone back up in the in the air can you use your technology to give us a count of a certain product and how many are potentially in a certain region um and Matt and the team have been able to respond immediately for that because we have a pilot 247 in house uh when that customer call comes in we're able to use some of this new AI technology to report back on uh you know an inventory account for for

**[21:00]** example and say yeah there's uh 143 units stored in this location currently um we had a a recent scenario that was extremely unique where the customer reached out and had requested that we add additional flights uh over an area that actually wasn't within our airspace but because of the technology on our DJI drone and the uh great resolution the camera provides we were able to stay within our uh approved area and maintain visual of this property for eight hours balancing the two drones that we had on site uh and continue to update on inventory counts in that area as they dealt with a a growing issue at the time so certainly um see where uh continued um technology advancements in AI are going to add additional resources on the security front but it may be also a position like we've seen where our customer is deploying the Drone for security but there's also allart added benefits that we can provide them as part of that deep we're seeing AI used on the detection side as well as uh even the airspace

**[22:05]** awareness side a lot of our airspace awareness partners are now adding those different layers in uh radar companies helping with uh aircraft classification things to help along with these processes of getting BB loss waivers in the process too and so right now you look at every aspect of this industry and it's many folks are trying to leverage AI whether it be from the detection side on the Security application or all the way through that entire workflow of different ways where we can leverage the technology integrating those pieces together with both software and Hardware to get to that uh to get to that full ecosystem understood understood Matt and thank you do for that answer so um next question is that with remote operations becoming more prevalent in the industry what are the biggest bottlenecks uh do you face like in insuring consistent drone autonomy and seamless uh Fleet Management so like how do you maintain consistency doing on open issues so for our teams um because we already had a wellestablished um you know

**[23:07]** operating procedure for physical infrastructure that's in the field we have a full-time Logistics team and we've partnered with uvt to increase those numbers but um because of where our deployments are across the Midwest uh our 247 team is ready to respond at any given time if there's a battery issue or a connectivity issue but I have to say I have been extremely impressed with the reliability of the technology and the fact that um unless it's a weather related issue that we're not in the air uh our operations have been very fluid and there has been very few instances where we've had downtime uh related to a fleet issue and and getting a response out there to oversee that and handle it when we initially deployed our first uh drone for security operations um the only issue we ran into is realizing that really any site where you are committing to a real security presence you have to have multiple dock drones at that location because because of flight time and downtime for recharging

**[24:07]** uh you don't want to get caught in a in a situation where uh a dock is returning a drone is returning home because uh it needs to charge but you have a a legitimate uh security risk going on at that time so um Premier and uvt through our our work together are committed to when we approach a customer uh for this you know security space that's going to come with reliability and knowing that our team and our setup is going to answer the call understood understood so Todd I have just one more question for you so um how do you like how do Enterprise justify the investment uh in autonomous drones like like are we at a Tipping Point where drones are becoming a musthave rather than a nice to have what are your opinions on that yeah I think in the next three to five years uh I have no doubt that the the security space for drones is going to increase substantially um and the the the cost benefit to it already exists because uh you have to realize some of these locations where security

**[25:09]** is being paid for with boots on the ground uh they're they're funding you know 12 24 guards per shift 247 to secure a large manufacturing facility or retail space that CS at a very high costs but if you can deploy a drone uh to cover a more proactive area outside even the factory or location to call out things that aren't getting called out until they're an issue you can now look at reducing your guards your physical guard presence so if you get to a ratio where you're able to reduce your guard presence and increase your dock drone presence um it really be cost neutral at some point uh and if you have asset protection that's occurring at a level it never did before at the end of year losses are 50% of what they were the year before it it solves itself very quickly uh one thing we didn't discuss and it's on the the topic of reliability uh yeah all have employees that work for us or with us they call in they don't wear their uniform of the day we deal with it in the security industry

**[26:10]** very heavily where um a lot of security companies are thought of as a temp agency that's not what premere is and that's why we committed to using technology to make sure we're on the Forefront of this but doc drones don't call in sick they wear their uniform every day they're ready to work it's easy for us to put a pilot in a controlled environment in our G stock to fly that drone we know it's going to show up every single day so the customer sees the results they get with that and that uh we're ready to deploy at anytime understood understood so thank you so much uh Todd for that answer and thank you so much Chris and Matt for you know joining in so let me just you know have some uh closing thoughts and then uh we can wrap it up so I just have a few takeaways so drones are moving from surveillance tools to proactive security assets so it's not about watching it's not it's about acting scaling operations is the real Challenge and expertise and deployment remote Ops and automation is the key the ROI is real as Todd mentioned just now like they are you know uh in some cases drones

**[27:18]** are about to complement the security guards and the Personnel but in some cases when the Drone covers a larger area in a shorter piece of time it can also replace them so and Enterprises investing in drone security are seeing faster response times better situational awareness and reduced operational cost so a huge thank you to you uh Chris Matt and Todd for your insights and for joining in if you want to learn more you can check out the uvt booth in the Expo and then you know we can continue to have this conversation and enjoy the rest of the N gen to everyone and Matt Chris uh to if you guys have any closing thoughts not on this side thanks so much for your your time deep and uh always a pleasure Chris and Todd sitting on a panel with you too yeah absolutely same to you Matt only closing thought is uh a lot of what we talked about is a layered approach I don't want anybody to think that this all happened on day one day one we had one dock drone out there we had some problems because we had some gaps and coverage and we added another layer to it and then the regulations was another layer and then

**[28:18]** training and then deployments and then drone techn or drone detection I should say so it's all a layered approach crawl walk runs really really important when you're looking to deploy a system like what we've done for Premiere and any vendor or any manufacturer or any platform that says yeah we can do all that on day one you don't need to do any of that we can go straight to 100 miles an hour is probably lying to you because they need some AR I would encourage you to slow things down and really take a holistic approach to what you've done and that's exactly what Premier has done because they're willing to invest their technology to better serve their customer and I do appreciate FlytBase uh for for inviting uvt to be a part of this thank you deep flight thank you uh for the opportunity it's been an honor to serve on this session and we look forward to the future of security and drum space all right so thank you everyone thank you everyone for joining in and yeah uh you can you know move on to the next uh session so thank you