DJI teases upcoming conference presentation

We’ve become so accustomed to DJI teasing its new product releases that we jump whenever we see a DJI graphic. If it’s something that looks like it could possibly be related to a new product, it immediately grabs our attention. And that’s the case again now.

DJI has a great history of offering little glimpses that have all of us guessing without revealing too much. In fact, it’s generally only in retrospect that you can look back at those teased images and say: “Now I get it…” But that still doesn’t stop us (and others) from guessing. And so when we stumbled upon a little blurb related to an upcoming conference presentation, we had to stop and take a closer look. It’s related to a presentation scheduled for October 14 at the Intergeo conference, the biggest geospatial conference on the circuit.

The conference will take place October 13-15 and will be virtual. DJI will obviously be presenting; here’s the image announcing the session:

The DJI Enterprise Insights blog posted this image, along with the following brief description: “DJI will be taking center stage to unveil its latest surveying and mapping solutions and to talk about different application scenarios where drones play an instrumental role.”

Robotics specialist

The person who will be presenting at this event is Arjun Sukumar Menon, an engineering manager within DJI’s robotics division.

The blog goes on to state: “Discover the most advanced drone solutions in the market today from DJI Enterprise. Tune-in as DJI unveils how it continues to break boundaries with its NEWEST solution optimized for the collection of geospatial data.”

So, what will DJI unveil?

We can’t say for sure. But it does talk about “drone solutions.” The “Superior Accuracy” likely refers to geospatial accuracy. If that’s something improving on the company’s already-accurate RealTime Kinematic Sensors, or RTK, that would be pretty special.

Images

The graphic also contains a couple of images. The shape on the left is evocative of the Inspire 2 nose, while the image on the right-hand side looks — possibly — like a drone leg. One person who looked at the image thought it could perhaps be an Inspire 3. While that would be exciting, we doubt it — given that the Inspire line has always been more optimized more for cinematography than anything else.

Event?

We also question whether DJI would unveil a new drone at a conference run by someone else, rather than an event put on specifically by DJI. Now, we have seen DJI launch products at third-party events in the past (the Osmo Mobile, for example, debuted at the World Mobile Congress a few years back). And then there was the unveil of a new Matrice in 2017 at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. Once again, it was an image with just a hint of what was to come (though this promotion had a bigger hint than most):

One more clue?

We also noted in the DJI Enterprise post that there are some flight demonstrations planned at the conference. The Phantom 4 RTK will take centre stage on October 13, along with Terra:

The DJI announcement is on October 14. And the flight demos for the 15th? Well, nothing specific. But it’s related to “Surveying Solutions” — the same topic that DJI is addressing on the 14th. Makes you wonder…

Best guess?

Hey: Let’s be honest. In the absence of someone from DJI telling us what’s going to take place, we’re left to speculate like everyone else. We like to think that we have a slight edge, having watched the company over the years and attended multiple launch events in person and online. And so, without quite putting our necks out there, we’re going to suggest this announcement will be about a new sensor for even greater spatial accuracy, and new software that helps to automate the process of mapping and surveying.

Between the two, there would indeed be some news. If there’s a new drone unveiled, we’d be surprised. And we’d also be delighted, at least in this case, to be proven wrong.

Regardless, when that announcement comes we pledge to bring the details to you with “Instant Clarity and Superior Accuracy.”

Your turn

Okay. Why don’t you try being the editor? Based on your own knowledge of the drone sphere, what do you think DJI might be planning on announcing? Let us know in the comments below!