The Alta Story

ALTA was founded by Prof. John A. Ciampa, the inventor and founder of Pictometry. The Alta team was assembled in 2011 beginning with Dr. Bertrand Dano, Alta’s Chief Scientist, who remains a Professor of Physics at the University of Miami. Later Alta was joined by one of Dr. Dano’s students, Candido Hernandez, now serving as Alta’s Chief Engineer. Not long after, Dr. Nelson Melo, a senior scientist from NOAA came aboard. Alta moved to the FIU campus in 2013 and shared research facilities with Dr Rishe, professor and Center Director. At FIU Alta offered courses and engaged in projects on campus and in the nearby town of Sweetwater, employing FIU students and operators.

Like many tech companies, our story started in a garage in 2011. The original plan was to experiment with drifting balloons to capture images over long distances, at unattended, self-regulated altitudes. We rapidly mastered buoyancy controls using automatic valves and water ballast.

Later the need for controls changed our focus to tethers, reels, power supplies, imaging sensors and transmission technology. The new 3G cell-networked tri-camera system was developed with the help of the Rochester Institute of Technology.

In 2014, with an NSF grant, matched by FIU, hundreds of flight hours were logged by FIU student operators, with thousands of images at different altitudes.

Each field experience led to another lab development with a view to serving the end user’s needs which could not be fulfilled by manned aircraft of unmanned drones.

We developed our own gimbal and designed numerous camera arrays using one to three simultaneously recording cameras.

Ultimately, we turned to existing cameras such as DJI’s, due to the extensive range of image control built in the camera/gimbal and companion application.

We are currently developing two types of tether: [Power only] and [Power + Fiber]. The first will be compatible with the Zen/Ranger, as well as the Nighthawk and Dragoneye 2.1 by Nextvision. The second will be dedicated to IP cameras.

We also developed our Mobile Command Center, for extended operations. Using a 12 feet trailer, we equipped it with all the electronics and screens possible to control and record the aerial images for extended time. Using dedicated antennas, we can broadly share the view with clients and officials. Moreover, the size is such that the blimp fits inside for overnight storage. The longest filed operation we did was 6 days, with continuous recording.