Drones tested by MLB for Aerial Coverage of Baseball Games

MLB is no longer the change-averse institution it once was, as evidenced by its embrace of highly questionable rule changes in recent seasons. The MLB has now demonstrated its willingness to experiment with television coverage of the game by using video feeds from a DJI drone during a college tournament this weekend.

MLB deployed a DJI Inspire II above specific action during the “MLB4″ collegiate baseball tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, in a sign that America’s favourite sport is not buying into the anti-China emotions sweeping the nation’s capital — and driving prohibitions on Chinese-built drones.

In addition to overflights to capture the entire field and stadium, the UAV was also supposed to track batters as they circled the bases after hits and pitchers as they walked between dugouts and the mound. Aerial images of relievers jogging in from the bullpen and stop-time scenarios were other possibilities. At the Salt River Fields, the shared Spring Training home of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies, DJI-delivered drone images were to be featured at a pair of games between UC Berkeley and the University of Houston, and Texas Christian University and San Diego State.

JibTek, a drone business based in Las Vegas, provided a Zenmuse X7 gimbal for the DJI Inspire II. The craft was piloted by a single pilot with the assistance of a spotter, and the aerial coverage was added six weeks before the event. The UAV had been tested for safe deployment throughout the yard without posing a risk to persons below, in addition to taking images of the interior of the park and regions outside during breaks in play.