Uncle Toad’s Creates First Ever Live Racing Drone for Live Sports & Events

Award-winning production company, Uncle Toad’s, was recently tapped with developing and implementing a first-of-its-kind camera angle for the the Natural Selection Tour, founded by professional snowboarder Travis Rice.

The goal was to create a new camera angle to follow the snowboarders without adding another body to the event course. From a technical standpoint, it also needed the ability to take any and all variations of a snowboard run due to there being no set course for the snowboarders and it needed to be live.

A specialized drone became the obvious choice, but there was just one issue: it didn't exist.

Uncle Toad’s created the first ever live stabilized Racing Drone, or First Person View (FPV) Drone, used for primary coverage, in partnership with a world championship racer, Gabriel Kocher (Gab707), whose piloting skills are the best in the world. Gabriel followed every single snowboarder down the venue, and the angle provided the perspective as if the viewer was playing a video game.

As for challenges, the remote location posed a significant hurdle. Uncle Toad’s worked with their partners at RF Wireless to help execute the almost entirely wireless broadcast, which consisted of a 13 camera shoot atop a remote mountain, with the production team headquartered in a parking lot two miles away.

In total Uncle Toad’s built five drones, all of which are one of a kind stabilized racing drones. This type of drone angle will help all sorts of programs, especially those taking place within challenging remote locations, including motocross, mountain biking, cycling, sailing and more, providing the newest and most exciting angle available on the market today.

“We’re constantly seeking new ways to cover our programming; similar to the world’s first jet ski camera for surfing, this drone was purposely built for our needs,” said Chris Steblay, Creative Director of Uncle Toad’s. “It’s a one of a kind piece of technology and we know there will be plenty of other opportunities to fly this thing.”

Uncle Toad’s is looking forward to the 2022 Natural Selection Tour.