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Austin Declared a Drone-Free Zone During SXSW
itwbennett writes Organizers of SXSW said this week that flying of drones is banned for safety reasons. 'The airwaves and/or frequency spectrums generally used in the remote control of drones are too congested during the popular event to ensure operation safe from interference,' they said in a statement. The Austin Police Department will be watching for drones in crowded or public areas and anyone flying one could have it seized, the organizers warned.
I think i care more about homeopathy than this shit.
So since when does an event organizer and the local PD make up the FCC and the FAA combined?
Under who's authority? Has anyone ran this ban past the FCC and/or FAA? You know, the controlling agencies for radio frequencies and the nation's air space?
I question the police's unilateral authority on this to just up and arrest RC operators willy nilly without a crime having been committed. At best someone may be guilty of trespassing if they are operating one on the property, but if they're not and just fly one overhead and take pics/video, then what?
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
Bad: too big, too commercialized. Good: less hipster appeal.
mine. all mine.
What if you train a mouse to fly a miniature aircraft and have it fly around SXSW, is that allowed?
Austin, as usual, is full of shit.
And why can't I fly my laser guided drone?
My drone works on the amateur radio band for which I have a valid license. Your anti-ISM/WiFi/Bluetooth/2.4/5.8Ghz rules do not apply to me.
The city council could pass an ordinance, which APD could then enforce, but as it stands, unless the ordinance has been passed recently, no such ordinance exists.
That said, the parks and recreation department did recently decide to ban all R/C airplanes in all parks (page 11), with the only current exceptions being the HCAM and ARCA fields. That said, those rules only apply to parks -- if you fly from a street, or your driveway or a school or something, they don't apply.
(Oddly enough, I don't think anybody even knew about the ban. Based on the response I got from the city, I was the only person city wide to comment on it (and no, I was not in favor.)
In any event, if somebody is flying over a crowd, they might be able to find a law to charge somebody with. But if not over people and not over a park, not in a dangerous manner ... I don't see where they'd have any say in the matter.
But if someone is flying it, it's not a drone...
So tell me again how a music festival is going to congest the airwaves and spectrum? Lets get specific. Are they suggesting that their equipment will drown out all 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz signals? What about those people flying drones on UHF or VHF? Are they suggesting that those frequencies will be drowned out too? How about autonomous drones that return to home when there's a disconnection with the receiver? Are they blotting out the GPS signals that drones can use for autonomous flight?
Either the premise is an absolute load of garbage (pretty much a certainty), or the festival is in massive break of FCC guidelines.
I wish we could ban the hipsters as well.
(Of course, if they did that, they might lose half a dozen attendees.)
Drone:
noun
1.
the male of the honeybee and other bees, stingless and making no honey.
2.
a.an unmanned aircraft or ship that can navigate autonomously, without human control or beyond line of sight:
"the GPS of a U.S. spy drone."
b.(loosely) any unmanned aircraft or ship that is guided remotely:
"a radio-controlled drone."
3.
a person who lives on the labor of others; parasitic loafer.
4.
a drudge.
seems as though this could be difficult to enforce as #3 compromises most of the peeps there
thebadgerone
Leave us alone and go back to your maker community, you and the 3d printed horse you rode on.
Leave us alone and go back to your maker community, you and the 3d printed horse you rode on.
I am not in the "maker" community, I do not own a horse 3d printed or otherwise, but I can read a dictionary. As I have lived in the mentioned community I feel I may comment on my personal observations. I would like to know who this "US" you talk of is, as I believe this is a public forum. If I am incorrect in that please let me know when it became "Your" forum.
thebadgerone
...that what they really want is to keep people from using drones to film stuff if they didn't pay to see. Their reasoning is bullshit otherwise.
As for FAA regs, yeah, whatever. I don't think any of what's been posted so far could successfully be used in court unless you really acted like a tool while using a drone over SXSW. Good luck catching the operator unless they're a moron and standing right outside the fences. Most drones are too quick and agile to be followed, and there is very little they can do to knock it down (unless you fly right above heads, at which point fuck you anyway for being a dipshit) that wouldn't endanger all the other people around.
What is this? A city ordinance? Are we talking about a $500 fine? Could you actually face jail time for flying your drone? The stories I've looked at say yes. But also interesting, Chaotic Moons Studios have loudly protested the ban since the ban has grounded their drone- Drone Tyrone. http://venturebeat.com/2015/03... Apparently it can shoot silly string, spray paint and a 3 foot flame. Also, Bryce Bencivengo, Austin’s senior public information officer, has said some exceptions will be made for some drones, those that have made previous arrangements with SXSW. Wonder who you have to bribe?
so an event that mostly celebrates attention-seeking "artists" who latch onto Tech to give themselves some relevance where in the purer Art world they'd be totally ignored (this crappy sculpture or painting is now SXSW worthy because it has an arduino and lights up, or hangs from a quadcopter and flies) is gonna be upset that their "intellectual property" will be recorded and distributed without their consent, and what little bit of profit they could have made from self aggrandizement is lost. SXSW is mostly another flavor of Burning Man with more "multimedia" and less chemical enhancements and nudity.
They might have to do something actually creative instead of the same art school stuff pasted to a tech buzzword, or learn about tech instead of being a parasite on someone else's achievements.
(to the dozen-ish REAL innovator-artists at SXSW, keep doing what you do. I can hope your works get the attention it deserves and doesn't get lost in the marketing noise)