Excelerate Technology Partners With Heliguy

Heliguy, one of the world’s leading drone specialists, has partnered with Excelerate, the global market leader in resilient communications technology, to provide a comprehensive solution for real-time incident response and data acquisition.

Designed to benefit the emergency services and major infrastructure firms, the alliance is based around Heliguy’s renowned model of UAS supply and support, and Excelerate’s innovative UAV Streamer, which makes live incident video footage more accessible.

To develop the partnership, Heliguy and Excelerate will build on their experience of working with the emergency services and other top-level enterprise clients at home and abroad, Examples between them includes Greater Manchester Police, London Fire Brigade, National UK and Middle East Ambulance & Resilience Services and Thames Valley Police.

Both companies will leverage each other’s complimentary technology experience and capabilities and will join forces on product development projects. Heliguy will add the UAV Streamer, and other Excelerate solutions, to its product portfolio, while Excelerate will extend the Heliguy business model to their own customers who require drone hardware and services.

The collaboration aligns two award-winning businesses who have in-house R&D departments and share many clients, as well as both winning a place on an £8million framework agreement with YPO, in conjunction with the Home Office, to supply drones and communications technology to public sector organisations, primarily the emergency services.

Cardiff-based Excelerate – a winner at the 2019 Counter Terror Awards – specialises in providing resilient communications for critical environments on-board rapid response vehicles, command and control units or in a portable solution; supporting interoperability, resilience and multi-agency collaboration.

Thanks to Excelerate’s hybrid approach to connectivity, through the use of both cellular and satellite networks, the company has become a trusted partner to deliver solutions to support emergency services, government organisations, maritime operations, the oil and gas sector, and national infrastructure.

One of Excelerate’s key products is the UAV Streamer and ExStream Video Application. By simply plugging the solution into a drone, live footage is securely streamed over public or private networks and can be accessed securely anywhere via any authorised device with an internet connection. This helps improve tactical coordination and emergency response.

David Savage, Excelerate Group Chairman and Chief Executive, said: “With over 19 years of proven integration experience, we were the first company in Europe to start delivering broadband via satellite to emergency services’ Incident Command Vehicles.

“Excelerate pioneered the provision of resilient, zero-gap connectivity in the Emergency Responder market and are now at the forefront of delivering and supporting specialist response solutions for mobile and remote environments. As such, we support NHS Ambulance Services in the UK, the majority of the UK’s Fire and Rescue Services, with growing demand in other markets and sectors including Police and utilities.

“During our time in the industry, we have seen how drones have evolved and become a key tool for the emergency services, helping to provide vital situational awareness and shape deployment tactics.

“Real-time footage is critical in these situations, but we know that during a complex and evolving incident, this isn’t always accessible beyond the pilot. Therefore, we developed our UAV Streamer which resolves this problem by making live video streams more accessible.

“Heliguy is a renowned drone company and we believe that working together in partnership is an exciting, sensible and practical move to help clients utilise the best technology to enhance their operations.”

With more than a decade of experience, Heliguy is the UK’s largest and longest-standing DJI-accredited drone retailer, with in-house technicians and a renowned training team.

Heliguy, a DJI Gold Partner and European enterprise award winner, supplies drones to major clients across the nuclear, construction, infrastructure, and public safety sectors, and has delivered industry-leading Emergency Services Drone Operators Training courses to the likes of Derbyshire Constabulary and South Yorkshire Police.

The company has recently expanded into America, opening in Texas to serve the U.S. commercial and consumer drone markets.

Ruairi Hardman, Business Development Manager at Heliguy, said:

“We are really excited about this partnership.

“Heliguy has become a market leader in the supply of drones and UAVs in the UK and internationally, and Excelerate has developed some complementary solutions which give greater capability to our ecosystem.

“We are delighted to add Excelerate’s own Exstream UAV Secure Video Streaming product and service to our portfolio. This cost-effective and easy-to-use system allows a drone pilot to share real-time footage with as many devices as are authorised anywhere in the world. Many of our clients will benefit from this system, as well as Excelerate’s other solutions, which provide resilient communications and connectivity.

“The other great thing about this partnership is that both Excelerate and Heliguy have their own inhouse R&D capabilities, which means we have a combined ability to satisfy customer needs that might be more bespoke, challenging or new.”