Five Questions With:
Christopher Williams

The ways we use drones have increased over the past few years. Recent news stories have shown drones being developed for everything from delivering supplies to troops in battle to remotely disinfecting Chinese hospitals treating patients with coronavirus.

Closer to home, Providence Business News spoke with Clone City Drones owner Christopher Williams about his industry.

PBN: We last spoke with you in 2015, when you told PBN that coming up with a name for Cloud City Drones wasn’t easy. You said the word “drone” can have negative military connotations. Is that negative perception getting better now?

WILLIAMS: A lot has changed in the drone industry. Usage of the word “drone” no longer carries negative feelings, mostly due to heavy sales of drones in the consumer segment, as these items became hot gifts for the holidays. Also, the use of drones on TV saving people on every crime police show has helped a lot.

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PBN: What are the top three most common reasons you see customers buying drones?

WILLIAMS: For Cloud City, we decided to move away from the consumer market and focus on commercial and government customers. We are seeing huge growth in the public-safety market, as well as inspection, infrastructure and agricultural usage.

While aerial photography is still the No. 1 reason drones are used, we’re seeing new ways of using the technology to transport items like small parcels or lifesaving payloads. We see drones being used to deliver pesticides more evenly and efficiently to crops, or even coordinated light shows at the Super Bowl for theatrical purposes.

PBN: Have privacy concerns complicated the drone market in terms of legislation, regulation or anything else?

WILLIAMS: In my opinion, the whole privacy issue was to be argued from the start. We have seen these tools used for search and rescue, solar and gas inspections, geological mapping, shark spotting, whale monitoring, accident reconstruction, and now, deliveries. The one thing they remain weak at doing at this level is spying.

Think about it: Someone with a pair of binoculars at the top of a street could spy on someone much better and for a longer amount of time than they could using a drone. I mean, really, how often do you actually see a drone fly around today? When we opened Cloud City, people thought drones were going to blot out the sun in the sky.

PBN: What are some benefits of drone use that the general public may not be aware of?

WILLIAMS: That’s the best part of my job: it changes all the time. This is a new frontier. Exciting ways of using this technology are being presented all the time – from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on Cape Cod wanting to track climate change to drones being used to find lost World War II aircraft under the snow in Greenland. The sky IS the limit – no pun intended.

PBN: How would you sum up what’s happened in the drone industry in the past few years?

WILLIAMS: We’re starting to see general cooling of the drone industry on the consumer side. Just about every toy and electronics store carries these products that offer incredible photography at a low price point. The business side, however, is just starting to heat up, with no end in sight.

Susan Shalhoub is a PBN contributing writer.