Dedrone (Axon) PTZ-Kamera (sehr hohe Reichweite, FLIR)

The Dedrone PTZ camera with very long range is made by FLIR and is an EO/IR pan-tilt-zoom camera: a daylight channel and a thermal channel on a movable head. It confirms drones visually by day and night and is integrated into the DedroneTracker.AI software. The manufacturer names airports, critical infrastructure and military as fields of use; the design is fixed.

The day channel offers 120x optical zoom at 1080p, the thermal channel 22x zoom at 720p. As detection range for drones the manufacturer states 2 km, up to 4 km under ideal conditions. Detecting means that an object stands out as a drone; identifying, that is telling type and features apart, needs markedly more pixels on the target and succeeds only at shorter distance. The value 360 degrees describes the pan range of the head, not a simultaneously visible field of view.

As a passive sensor the camera emits nothing and touches neither the frequency regime nor the operator limits for jammers. Data protection has to be observed: recordings of people and property fall under data protection law (in the EU the GDPR), which matters for siting, viewing angle and storage. Defeating a detected drone is a matter for the competent authorities (in Germany under Section 15a LuftSiG, in Poland under Article 156ze of the Aviation Law).

In selection the question is whether a thermal channel is needed: it works without light, but its contrast depends on the temperature difference to the background. Cameras of this kind are usually cued by a radar or radio detector that assigns the target; in DedroneTracker.AI the camera is part of that chain. Wear concerns the pan and tilt drives, seals and viewing window; thermal cameras need regular calibration depending on design, and the alignment to the cueing sensor must be right. Weather, light and drone size determine the achievable distance.