Report Route Finder for Drone Thermal Data
You Have Flown the Site. Which Report Fits the Data?
Drone Media Imaging reports on thermal survey data on three routes: a Certified Report, a Professional Opinion or a Data Review. Which one applies depends on who flew the survey, what you need back and what evidence of the capture exists. The route finder on this page asks up to four questions and shows what you would receive, and who could rely on it.
Know what you will receive, and who can rely on it, before you commit.
You Have Flown the Site. Which Report Fits the Data?
A drone thermal survey produces data, not answers. What that data can be turned into depends on more than the quality of the flying: it depends on who captured it, what was recorded on the day and what evidence exists of how the capture was carried out. A report that has to satisfy an insurer or a warranty provider needs more behind it than one written to plan your own maintenance.
That is why Drone Media Imaging reports on three routes, and why it pays to know which one your job sits on before the aircraft leaves the ground.
The route finder below asks up to four plain questions. As you answer, the map beside it traces your path, and at the end it shows the route, the documents you receive, who may rely on them and what we need from you. If you have not flown yet, the third question matters most. For solar PV in particular, a Certified Report always depends on a data collection protocol signed before the survey, so the best moment to use the finder is before you fly. Nothing you enter is stored.
Find Your Report Route
Four questions, answered in moments
The finder works through the same questions we would ask on a first call. You can step back and change an answer at any point.
It starts with who captures the data. If Drone Media Imaging flies the survey, the outcome is a Certified Report and there is nothing more to decide. If you or your pilot fly it, three more questions follow.
Next comes what you need back. Some operators only want to know whether a flight has captured anything worth pursuing, and a Data Review answers that at a lower fee. A full analysis moves on.
The third question is about evidence. Certification covers the data and the analysis together, so we need to see how the survey was flown as well as what it recorded. A data collection protocol signed before the survey provides that, and so does a signed statement from a thermographer qualified to Level 1 or above. On solar PV the protocol is always required, whoever the pilot is. Where the flight has not happened yet, the finder shows the protocol-first route.
The last question applies where certification is not available. If you issue reports under your own brand, the Professional Opinion comes with un-named working text for you to build on. If you do not, you receive the signed opinion on its own.
Your route, and everything delivered on it, appears straight away.
Report route finder
Which report fits your job?
Answer up to four questions to see what you receive, and who can rely on it.
Certified Report. A defensible Level 3 analysis that we stand behind. Suitable for insurance, warranty and compliance use.
Professional Opinion. The same analysis and care, at the same fee, for your use alone. Not certified.
Data Review. A screening of your data, for your own use. No opinion and no certification.
From Your Route to a Quotation
After the route finder
The finder is a guide. The route is confirmed in our quotation, in writing, before any work starts.
For a Certified Report or a Professional Opinion you then send the original radiometric files, exactly as they came off the aircraft, with the conditions recorded on the day. We check the data when it arrives. Where it supports the route quoted, the analysis begins. Where something falls short of what certification needs, we tell you what it is and why, and the choice is yours: correct and resubmit, or continue as a Professional Opinion at the same fee. Camera calibration is not one of those tests. Most drone thermal cameras cannot be calibrated by the user, and the report simply states that as a limitation.
A Data Review needs less: images we can view, the site and the capture date. It is ordered and paid for at the outset.
On every route the work is survey analysis and reporting only, and your client relationship stays yours. Documents we sign carry the Drone Media Imaging name and our Level 3 certification, and are passed on only complete and unaltered. Working text and a Data Review carry no name, because they are for your own use.
