February, 2022 - 19th Designs LLC

Aerial Solutions

27 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

Six Ways Drones Are Revolutionizing Agriculture

Drones aren’t new technology by any means. Now, however, thanks to robust investments and a somewhat more relaxed regulatory environment, it appears their time has arrived—especially in agriculture.

provided by PricewaterhouseCoopers

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)—better known as drones—have been used commercially since the early 1980s. Today, however, practical applications for drones are expanding faster than ever in a variety of industries, thanks to robust investments and the relaxing of some regulations governing their use. Responding to the rapidly evolving technology, companies are creating new business and operating models for UAVs.

The total addressable value of drone-powered solutions in all applicable industries is significant—more than $127 billion, according to a recent PwC analysis. Among the most promising areas is agriculture, where drones offer the potential for addressing several major challenges. With the world’s population projected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, experts expect agricultural consumption to increase by nearly 70 percent over the same time period. In addition, extreme weather events are on the rise, creating additional obstacles to productivity.

Agricultural producers must embrace revolutionary strategies for producing food, increasing productivity, and making sustainability a priority. Drones are part of the solution, along with closer collaboration between governments, technology leaders, and industry.

Six Options for Agricultural Drones

Drone technology will give the agriculture industry a high-technology makeover, with planning and strategy based on real-time data gathering and processing. PwC estimates the market for drone-powered solutions in agriculture at $32.4 billion. Following are six ways aerial and ground-based drones will be used throughout the crop cycle:

1. Soil and field analysis: Drones can be instrumental at the start of the crop cycle. They produce precise 3-D maps for early soil analysis, useful in planning seed planting patterns. After planting, drone-driven soil analysis provides data for irrigation and nitrogen-level management.

2. Planting: Startups have created drone-planting systems that achieve an uptake rate of 75 percent and decrease planting costs by 85 percent. These systems shoot pods with seeds and plant nutrients into the soil, providing the plant all the nutrients necessary to sustain life.

3. Crop spraying: Distance-measuring equipment—ultrasonic echoing and lasers such as those used in the light-detection and ranging, or LiDAR, method—enables a drone to adjust altitude as the topography and geography vary, and thus avoid collisions. Consequently, drones can scan the ground and spray the correct amount of liquid, modulating distance from the ground and spraying in real time for even coverage. The result: increased efficiency with a reduction of in the amount of chemicals penetrating into groundwater. In fact, experts estimate that aerial spraying can be completed up to five times faster with drones than with traditional machinery.

4. Crop monitoring: Vast fields and low efficiency in crop monitoring together create farming’s largest obstacle. Monitoring challenges are exacerbated by increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, which drive risk and field maintenance costs. Previously, satellite imagery offered the most advanced form of monitoring. But there were drawbacks. Images had to be ordered in advance, could be taken only once a day, and were imprecise. Further, services were extremely costly and the images’ quality typically suffered on certain days. Today, time-series animations can show the precise development of a crop and reveal production inefficiencies, enabling better crop management.

5. Irrigation: Drones with hyperspectral, multispectral, or thermal sensors can identify which parts of a field are dry or need improvements. Additionally, once the crop is growing, drones allow the calculation of the vegetation index, which describes the relative density and health of the crop, and show the heat signature, the amount of energy or heat the crop emits.

6. Health assessment: It’s essential to assess crop health and spot bacterial or fungal infections on trees. By scanning a crop using both visible and near-infrared light, drone-carried devices can identify which plants reflect different amounts of green light and NIR light. This information can produce multispectral images that track changes in plants and indicate their health. A speedy response can save an entire orchard. In addition, as soon as a sickness is discovered, farmers can apply and monitor remedies more precisely. These two possibilities increase a plant’s ability to overcome disease. And in the case of crop failure, the farmer will be able to document losses more efficiently for insurance claims.

Creative Media

21 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

How Algorithms Work in social media

*Article posted from Prable

Social media has become one of the leading marketing platforms for businesses. They use the platforms to engage with customers, build brand awareness, and generate leads. However, it’s not easy to stand out when there are thousands of social media business accounts. You need the right approach to put you in front of your target audience before your competitors get there first. One of the fundamental ways to succeed on social media platforms is understanding how their algorithms work. They will give you insights into what kind of content will pop up in users’ timelines and win their hearts. Since each platform uses specific rules, this article will explain how the algorithms of five popular social media platforms work. You’ll also find some tips on how to optimize your content for these platforms.

Facebook

With around 2.7 billion active users, Facebook is the most popular social media platform. It can be a huge potential market for your business. Moreover, this platform provides Facebook Shops to help create an online store easily.

How Facebook Algorithm Works

Users’ preferences are one of the main factors in ranking news feeds. The algorithm prioritizes types of content the users previously like, comment, and share. To make sure Facebook predicts correctly, it will survey people to ask if the content is meaningful.

Twitter

With its features like mentions and trending tabs, Twitter helps businesses interact with customers directly and share what’s happening in the company.

How Twitter Algorithm Works

Twitter used to display content in chronological order. Now, it has a mix of real-time and algorithmic content based on:

Recency. How recently a Tweet was posted.
Engagement. Refers to the number of clicks, favorites, retweets, and impressions.
Activity. Means how active users are – how long since they were online and how much they use Twitter.
Media. The type of media users engage with the most, like GIFs and images.

Still, many users enjoy the chronological order timeline. In 2018, Twitter allowed users to turn off the algorithm and let users see the latest Tweets first.

Instagram

If your target market is people under 35, Instagram is the perfect platform to use. It’s because the majority of its active users are younger generations.

How Instagram Algorithm Works

User behavior is one of the key elements that determine Instagram users’ timelines. They will get more updates from the types of posts and accounts they engage with the most. Now, the algorithm also considers words in the alt text and caption. It’s because of the upgraded Explore page that lets users search by keywords.

TikTok

Even though TikTok is relatively new, the user base grew by almost 800% in the last couple of years. Many big companies like Dunkin’ Donuts and The Washington Post use this platform very successfully. However, keep in mind that TikTok’s largest user base is young people. So think about your target audience before using this platform for your business.

How TikTok Algorithm Works

When delivering personalized content, the TikTok algorithm considers several factors:

User interactions. Refer to videos you like, comment on, and share.
Video information. Include details, such as captions and hashtags.
Account and device settings. Consist of your language preferences and country settings.

YouTube

YouTube is a perfect platform to grow a community and educate customers. It’s the most-used search engine, as many people enjoy watching videos more than reading. The visual and audio format makes any topic easier to understand.

How YouTube Algorithm Works

YouTube algorithm looks at the videos’ impressions and engagement metrics, like watch time, likes, and comments. It also pays attention to how often a channel uploads new videos and how much time the audience spends on the channel after watching a video. When recommending particular channels or videos, YouTube will look at what topics users are subscribed to and have watched in the past.

Help combat global warming

Starting in 2013, NASA began sending remote-controlled planes filled with monitoring equipment to the edge of the atmosphere to do some unprecedented measurements on the thickness of the tropopause — the fluid layer between the stratosphere and troposphere. Translation for those of us without degrees in atmospheric science: they’re checking to see how water vapor and the ozone interact, and thus the possibility of retroactively curbing climate change.

Provide unique news coverage

When warzones or crowds make it too difficult or dangerous to get the full picture, drones are a huge help, offering access to stories that an on-the-ground reporter wouldn’t be capable of capturing. And there’s no question they’ve become one of the most powerful tools for newsrooms.

Make agriculture more efficient

Like a protective parent, most farmers are all-consumed with the status of their crops’ health. Traditionally, that means surveying the growing fields with piloted aircraft or satellites, which can get expensive, fast. Having special agricultural drones outfitted to fly low and stream photos/videos, collect soil and water samples, and perhaps even serve as precision crop-dusters could be a game-changer when it comes to high-value crops.

Transport medical supplies to hard-to-reach locales

Around the world right now, over 1 billion people live without access to proper roads, which means over 1 billion people are potentially too remote to receive emergency aid. With the help of upstart drone companies like Matternet, that will all change. Its goal is to develop a network of reliable and easy-to-operate UAVs for organizations like Doctors Without Borders and other aid agencies to deliver urgent supplies in minutes, rather than days or weeks.

Put out wildfires

It’s no surprise that fighting a raging forest fire is both incredibly dangerous and seriously complicated. Flames flare up unexpectedly, conditions change rapidly, and communication to people on the ground gets mucked up in thick clouds of smoke. That’s where the drones come in, collecting and sending info on wind conditions up close in real time. Down the road, they may even help snuff flames out themselves with robotic precision.

Provide fast medical help

As rapid as a normal 911 response is, there are plenty of medical emergencies that must be dealt with during the 10 minutes it takes an ambulance to arrive. Enter the Ambulance Drone, a recently unveiled concept designed to zoom to the GPS coordinates of an emergency call with a load of EMS-standard supplies, including a defibrillator. It’s also equipped with a microphone and speakers so a medical professional on the other end can provide simple instructions to revive or stabilize a victim.

Build bridges

Bridge-building is a notoriously fraught and dangerous undertaking, requiring tons of manpower and money. That’s why engineers are designing ways to offload the hassle to teams of drones, which have already proven successful in “weaving” mini pedestrian suspension bridges.

Deliver packages and pizza

While much has been made of the drone delivery program being developed by Amazon, DHL, and others, it’s hard to argue with the prospect of a delicious, piping-hot pie arriving in minutes whenever you happen to get hungry, with or without a physical address. So far, a few mom-and-pop pizzerias around the world and even Domino’s in the UK have been experimenting with drone delivery. The future sounds delicious.

Reforest the planet

We all know how destructive drones can be, but thanks to some ambitious Earth-loving engineers drones are also becoming a hugely restorative force, helping to re-forest some of the 15.3 billion trees destroyed each year.

Help protect endangered species and habitats

Keeping tabs on endangered species and environments has always been an immensely crucial and difficult gig for biologists and researchers in the field, but it could get a lot easier with help from an army of low-cost, camera-equipped drones. By accessing treetops and other hard-to-reach areas without disturbing precious natural habitats, they’ll get a rare peek at the day-to-day goings on, like a bionic Jane Goodall. They’re also useful to track movements of hunters in places where poaching is a problem.

Entertain us

GoPros have made it easier than ever to capture kickass POV footage, but imagine how much more epic those wild and crazy stunts (and fireworks!) would look from the unique angle of a drone following every move? That’s exactly what the AirDog does. It’s an auto-stabilizing quadcopter with a camera mount designed to auto-track the movements of whoever’s wearing its tracker wristband.

Aerial Solutions

13 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

UAVs for Construction

dji inspire — Article sourced from GBA Builders*

Over the past few years, the use of UAVs/UAS/Drones has increased significantly. Much of this usage has been for the better, some has been for the worse. Many “hobbyist” drone pilots began to enter the market illegally and performed work against FAA-mandated certification. To legally operate a drone for commercial applications, the pilot must pass FAA certification tests that are in place to maintain both safety in the skies and on the ground. To the uninitiated, this may seem like the difference of using a gypsy cab instead of a duly licensed taxi, but it isn’t. The FAA takes its role in burgeoning drone use very seriously, and those who get caught without the proper certifications are subject to some hefty fines and possibly even jail time.

But through its maturation in industry, drone technology has found a definitive and growing place on construction project sites. Construction companies are now adjusting the way they seek to accomplish tasks based on this new technology. Construction projects are complicated, time-consuming and resource-intensive endeavors that typically involve lots of legwork, stamina and attention to detail. The use of drone technology can help minimize the legwork – accelerating schedule times and increasing safety on site.

The following are just a few of the uses for drones on the modern construction site:

Surveying

Drones can quickly survey a job site and efficiently build maps. Instead of using larger human resources, heavy machinery and expensive surveying tools that produce complex data, drones can compile the data quickly and accurately, allowing the firm to cut the time and money it takes in half while providing greater accuracy.

Drones in construction have made surveying much easier by simplifying data collection, allowing the owner or manager the ability to focus their energies on putting collected data to use instead of figuring out how to get it. The drones can transmit data quickly to a live feed and SD data storage instantaneously. This makes the task of creating accurate maps and providing valuable data to numerous companies much easier. Information you acquire can be uploaded to a server where it can be accessed by individuals all over the globe who you allow authorization.

Progress Reports

Project sites may not always be easily accessible to your clients. They may just be too busy to stop by, or they may be halfway around the world and site visits get cost prohibitive. In this case, drones can relay a large amount of information in one, neat package. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a flyover aerial or data-laden, interactive walk-through is worth what amount to the Library of Congress?

Job Site Monitoring

For project managers who routinely shuffle between multiple job sites, putting a drone in the air to monitor work progress, safety standards, incoming material inventory, etc. can save a lot of time, energy and money. The main responsibility of a project manager is to ensure the workers on their job site remain continuously productive. In any project, it is natural for there to be times of high and low energy, but a drone can help pinpoint chokepoints in your production schedule. It can provide you with a video log in case any equipment on site turns up missing.

Inspecting Structures

Commercial building management relies on yearly inspections to monitor wear and tear of their structures. Traditional inspection tactics can include precarious climbs up to the roof or other parts of the structure using scaffolding or a harness. The time saving that is realized when utilizing a drone for inspection has really transformed the construction industry. Whether it is for a building, bridge or tunnel, drones have significantly simplified the inspection process and thus had a direct impact on both schedule and budget.

Better Safety Records

Drones in construction can do a great job of hovering over a location that is too dangerous for a worker to access and can save lives by monitoring workplace conditions in areas that are very hard to reach. In manufacturing plants, drones can help with reconnaissance, sending images of the conditions that can be expected before a worker is dispatched.

Plant reliability and maintenance is another area of safety code that can benefit from drone use. With drones, it is possible to send back images to the engineering and maintenance teams in order to identify the cause of a malfunction or breakdown immediately.

In the past when managers were concerned about safety issues, they would walk around sometimes very large plants hoping to get a glimpse of what the issues were. And while getting a human pair of eyes and ears on the floor is always appreciated, it may not be the best method to efficiently identify safety issues. But with the use of a drone and monitoring device, a safety manager can see what is happening in real time and can make dramatic improvements instantly.

Maintaining Schedules & Budgets

By identifying the parts of the project that are going off-track, having the ability to prevent time-lost accidents or causalities and rigorously monitoring your job sites, a construction manager will be much better prepared to remove any additions to project schedules or costs. Many construction managers will tell you that maintaining real-time control over multiple, multi-faceted projects can be one of their greatest challenges. The more information you have at your fingertips can mean more control you have over your project ultimately. And if something does go wrong on your site (and every project will have something that goes wrong on site), the real-time information that a drone provides will allow you to correct the problem quickly – minimizing losses in both time and money.

And in a nutshell, that is what drones do best on construction sites; they minimize losses while maximizing efficiencies. UAVs have proven themselves in the construction industry as valuable tools in the project manager’s toolbox. And yes, I will drone on about it.

Creative Media

10 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

The Insider’s Guide to Why SEO Matters

*Article from engaged digital

Looking for a way to transform your website, company, and profit margins?

It may sound like a dream, but it isn’t. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your answer to changing the game on your digital presence and staying competitive in the industry.

The good news is, you don’t have to get a degree in marketing to understand SEO or even to implement it. Businesses of all sizes are upping their SEO game and seeing immediate payoffs.

Read on to learn why SEO matters now in your digital strategy.

1. SEO Gives You Organic Traffic

This is the number one reason for why SEO matters today. When you optimize your website for search engines, you give your website the chance to rank highly in searches.

The higher your website appears on search results lists, the more likely you are to get clicks from interested users. This is organic traffic.

The best thing about organic traffic is that it is free! You need to put some time and effort in, but over time, the ROI is really good. Organic traffic is a great channel for leads and conversions, as they find you due to searching for products or services your business offers.

2. Get Your Brand Noticed

As a business owner, you are likely seeking ways to get your brand noticed. SEO will let your website soar to the top of search results so that your brand can easily be recognized by a wide variety of users.

The more highly and consistently your website ranks, the greater the odds of your brand image sticking in the minds of consumers–and staying there. Top of mind awareness is something you should be striving for.

3. Increase Conversions

Because SEO gives you organic traffic and ‘free’ marketing, it is also a fantastic tool for increasing conversions. More leads mean more potential for conversions. The mere fact that people found your site because of a search increases the chance of a conversion.

Businesses are also able to rank highly because they are “trusted” by search engines. This means that they comply with SEO guidelines, have good, solid backlinks, contain quality content and are generally more credible.

4. Organize Your Website and Impress Users

For SEO to work effectively, you have to structure your website around certain keywords and subjects. This leads to carefully curated and fresh content.

Because of Google’s SEO guidelines, websites that use SEO professionally will have organized and distinct pages. This can lead to a more positive user experience overall.

5. Broaden Online Reach

Because so many consumers are comfortable relying on search engines to buy products, query information, and find jobs, you’ll be able to expand your audience from local to global with SEO.

The higher your ranking on a search results page (SERP) due to your SEO efforts, the more likely you are to appear on the radar of companies and searchers from across the globe.

The greater your online reach, the greater your potential to gain more conversions.

Social media in and of itself can lead to increased sales for your business, with the right strategy in mind.

SEO can contribute to your social media presence. Sometimes users will be searching for recent rather than dated content. Social media posts will surface as fresh content that works collaboratively with Search Engine Optimization.

Why SEO Matters

Search Engine Optimization is becoming the leader in inbound and digital marketing. If you’re wondering why SEO matters, take a look at what it can do for your business.

SEO matters because it keeps your business competitive and enables you to get more (free) organic traffic to your website. It organizes your site effectively, increases conversion rates, and reaches more audiences.

All of this can lead to greater profit margins, a larger customer base, and an elevated brand image.

At Engaged Digital, we believe in the power of SEO. Let us help you today with your SEO so that you can take advantage of its amazing benefits, stay competitive as a company, and grow your business.

Aerial Solutions

4 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

Why Agriculture Benefits With Drones

*Article from EasternPeak*

Drone best top applications in agriculture

The use of drones for precision agriculture is gaining momentum because of their capability to deliver the most up-to-date info fast and efficiently. The evolution of drone software and its overall affordability also account for the increased application of drones. Let’s now explore how drones can be used for agriculture, more specifically.

Estimating soil condition

Smart farming is data-driven, enabling farmers to take action based on accurate information on soil conditions. Extracting this data had previously involved physical visits to the field and gathering metrics manually. Equipped with agriculture smart sensors, drones can collect and deliver this data – needless to say, they can also do it in a faster and more precise manner.

Planting future crops

The soil gets prepared for planting and a drone shoots seeds in it, rather than using outdated planting techniques. Using drones for seed planting is relatively new, yet, some companies are experimenting with this approach.

For example, Agmaps (One of the software’s we use) is an Ohio based company that uses drone technology to gather various field data and provide field side reports.

Fighting infections and pests

Not only can agriculture drones inform farmers on soil conditions using thermal, multispectral and hyperspectral technology, they can also detect field areas inflicted by weeds, infections and pests. Based on this data, farmers can decide on the exact amounts of chemicals needed to fight infestations, and not only help reduce expenses, but also contribute to better field health.

Agriculture spraying

Smart farms also use drones for agriculture spraying, which helps limit human contact with fertilizers, pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Drones can handle this task faster and more efficiently than vehicles and airplanes; they are also a great alternative for farms that still use manual labor.

Drones are also irreplaceable when it comes to spot treatment. They can detect infected areas with sensors and cameras and work on them while leaving the healthy part of the field intact. This not only saves time and increases safety, but also helps reduce expenses.

Crop surveillance

Agricultural fields occupy large areas, and it’s often nearly impossible to estimate the overall state of crops. By using drones for agriculture mapping, farmers can stay updated on the health of plants in a particular area and indicate which field areas require attention.

To estimate the state of crops, drones inspect the field with infrared cameras and determine light absorption rates. Based on accurate, real-time info, farmers can take measures to improve the state of plants in any location.

Livestock monitoring

In livestock farming, drones can keep an eye on the cattle as it grazes on pastures, reducing the need for human workforce on horseback and trucks. Using thermal sensor technology, drones can find lost cattle, detect injured or sick animals, and calculate their exact numbers. Admittedly, drones are capable of doing a better cattle surveillance job than herding dogs.

Creative Media

3 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

Why You Should Use Motion Graphics in your Marketing

*Article Orginally Posted by School of Motion*

The rise of visual media within content marketing
In the modern digital marketplace, content is king. If you want to attract the eyeballs and clicks needed to survive online, you have to produce something worth seeing, reading, and sharing. While a number of sites use click-bait or outright plagiarism to bring in potential customers, quality content always rises to top…and nothing adds more quality than solid motion design.

Using-motion-graphics-in-marketing-article-template.jpg
Sure, we are a little biased in this case. We run an online school for motion designers, and we think all of these artists deserve a ton of paying work. That doesn’t mean we aren’t right. Modern online content can always benefit with the addition of motion design graphics. Whether you’re dropping an informative GIF or a full-on animation, plugging in some MoGraph will set your site out ahead of the pack.

In this article, we’ll take a look at:

Why content marketing is here to stay
The rise in video content
Creating content for social media
Why motion graphics are an effective medium
Why motion graphics are cost-effective
How you can train your team and add motion to your tool kit
Content Marketing is Here to Stay
why-use-motion-design-marketing-1.jpg
What is Content Marketing? Simply put, it’s most of the internet these days. Content marketing is a way for companies to reach out to their communities and potential customers through articles, videos, podcasts, and social media messaging. These can come in a number of forms, but the main idea is to provide some form of free information in exchange for the viewer’s attention.

Surprise! You’re reading some content right now. Okay, that wasn’t much of a surprise.

Content Marketing can be an article about “10 ways brighter smiles improve your work life” written by a toothpaste company, or a video showcasing all the unconventional uses of a blender. It’s entertaining with a pinch of educational, and it advertises a product without feeling like an advertisement. According to HubSpot, roughly 70% of companies are using content marketing to push their products and services.

With so much of the online world saturated with content marketing, it’s become harder and harder to stand out. Articles and social posts just won’t cut it…which is why more marketers are turning to video content.

The Rise of Video Content in Marketing

As more and more companies flooded the internet with listicles and click-bait, marketers turned to video content to grab viewers’ attention. If you’ve watched YouTube for more than ten minutes, you’ve noticed the new ads. They can range from the high-end (professional videos with actors and effects and 1-7 cute dogs) to the cringe-inducing (hiring D-list TikTok stars to pretend to be wowed by a mobile game/Tinder competitor).

Regardless of the quality, these video ads are likely still more effective than even the best article. Why?

“In the world of digital marketing, video reigns supreme.”
Larry Mutenda, Anthill Magazine, May 2020

Aerial Solutions

3 Feb 2022 19th Designs LLC

The Use of Drones in Agriculture Today

*Article share from DJI Enterprise*

How agriculture drones are changing how farmers work
By DJI Enterprise

It used to be that agriculture involved quite a bit of guesswork: What would the weather patterns be? What kind of crop yield could be expected?

Over the years, farmers have found innovative ways to answer these questions as much as possible with new technologies. Agriculture drones are the next step in this process. Agriculture drones can be used to do anything from precision agriculture, to efficiently dispersing weed control or fertilizers, to optimizing field management. The results include reduced operation costs, improved crop quality, and increased yield rate.

The rapidly changing world of agriculture
The farming operations of today look quite different than even a few decades ago. New technology has allowed the growers of today to optimize each part of their operations — from field spraying to grow cycles and crop health.

A big part of that transformation can be attributed to drones and other types of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). With an agriculture drone, farmers get in-depth data analysis and mission planning as well as new tools capable of handling physical work.

Whether you’re an independent farmer or a leader of a larger organization, drone technology can help you beat your harvest goals and yield more crops with fewer resources. Two of the main ways that the right UAV and payload can help are efficient crop spraying and field mapping.

We utilize software such as: AgMaps and Drone Deploy*