The kit · Summerland, BC
The two drones I fly,and what they do.
When you hire Kendal Ventures, the person on the phone flies the two aircraft below and builds the map, model, or frame you receive, in-house, from Summerland.
Mapping & inspection · the workhorse
DJI Matrice 4E
The Matrice 4E does most of the work: three cameras, built-in RTK, and an onboard computer, flown for orthomosaics, 3D models, cut/fill volumes, and roof and site imagery.
- Cameras
- Triple: 20 MP wide (4/3 CMOS), 48 MP medium-tele, 48 MP tele: wide overview through tight detail
- Shutter
- Mechanical shutter on the wide camera: distortion-free frames at mapping speed
- Positioning
- Built-in RTK, 1 cm + 1 ppm horizontal: the basis for georeferenced NAD83(CSRS) deliverables
- Sensing
- Omnidirectional vision with six low-light sensors: safe, repeatable flight lines around structures, day or dusk
- Endurance
- Up to 49 minutes on a charge
- Onboard compute
- Carries the DJI Manifold 3 edge computer (below)
DJI Matrice 4E · intelligent flight
The M4E flies a lot of the hard parts itself.
The M4E helps with the hard parts: onboard AI reads the scene, four flight modes hold a steady line, and low-light sensors keep it stable into dusk. Because the flight lines repeat, captures from different months can be lined up and compared. All visual: RGB, no thermal.
The four intelligent flight modes
- SmartTrackLocks onto a chosen subject with automatic zoom, so the frame stays clean while the aircraft does the following.
- FlyToSet a destination and the drone plans its own path and speed.
- Cruise ControlHolds a steady speed along a line, freeing the operator to concentrate on the imagery.
- Point of InterestOrbits a subject for consistent passes: the basis for clean 3D modelling.
Onboard intelligence & sensing
- Built-in AI detection
- Detects vehicles, vessels, and people on the live RGB feed. Visual only, never thermal.
- Smart 3D Capture
- Rough models and mapping routes generated right on the controller, for irregular structures.
- Coverage view
- The map shows what's already covered, so I can see the gaps and fill them before landing.
- Laser rangefinder
- A built-in laser rangefinder measures to a distant point (up to 1,800 m) for on-the-spot distances.
- Low-light navigation
- Six low-light fisheye sensors sharpen positioning for obstacle avoidance and safe return in dim conditions.
Security & monitoring · visual
The same drone can watch a site during the day or after dark.
The same aircraft works as a visual monitoring tool: vehicle and person detection runs on the live feed, in real time, for the people responsible on the ground. Strictly visual, RGB only: never thermal, never guaranteed surveillance tracking.
- Site & perimeter monitoring
- An aerial overview of a site or perimeter, once or as a program.
- Live-feed detection
- A visual heads-up processed onboard by the Manifold 3, for the people responsible on the ground.
- After-dark response
- Full-colour night navigation keeps the aircraft flying into dim conditions: a faster look after dark.
- Search assist
- A second pair of eyes to help cover ground in a search, supporting the people leading it, not replacing them.
Coming gear · on the way
Two Matrice 4 Series accessories take the after-dark work further:
- DJI AL1 Spotlight
- An aircraft-mounted spotlight for after-dark flying. In the kit now.
- DJI AS1 Speaker Coming
- An aircraft-mounted loudspeaker for voice broadcast over a site.
Crop health · multispectral
DJI Mavic 3 Multispectral
The Mavic 3 Multispectral scouts a whole block in one short flight, so a grower walks only the rows that need it. Four single-band sensors alongside the RGB camera read the near-infrared and red-edge light a plant gives off: the basis for the relative-vigor maps a grower and agronomist read.
- RGB camera
- 20 MP, 4/3 CMOS: the true-colour reference layer
- Multispectral
- Four 5 MP single-band sensors: Green (560 nm), Red (650 nm), Red Edge (730 nm) and Near-Infrared (860 nm)
- Indices
- NDVI, NDRE, GNDVI, OSAVI and more, presented as relative vigor for grower and agronomist review, never a diagnosis
- Light reference
- A sunlight sensor records ambient light on every flight, keeping maps comparable block to block
- Positioning
- RTK, 1 cm + 1 ppm horizontal: every band aligned to real-world coordinates
- Endurance
- Up to 43 minutes on a charge
The kit at work · Demonstration capture
The kind of thingthis gear can produce.
A vigor map, a volume report, a 3D tour a buyer can walk, a cinematic aerial over the Kettle Valley trestle: the kind of thing these two drones can produce, all quoted to what your job needs.
Onboard compute · DJI Manifold 3
The M4E carries a small computer, so some of the work starts while it's still flying.
The Matrice 4E carries a Manifold 3, a rugged edge computer, so the heavy lifting begins in flight instead of waiting on a desk. The bare-earth terrain layer below comes off the same pipeline.
- AI compute
- Up to 100 TOPS (60 from the GPU + 40 from the DLA)
- Memory / storage
- 16 GB LPDDR5 · 256 GB SSD
- Build
- IP55-rated, 120 g, rated for field temperatures from −20 to 50 °C
From the air to your screen
- Capture: RTK flightCentimetre-accurate positioning on every frame, with ground control where the job calls for it.
- Process: DJI TerraOrthomosaics, point clouds and 3D meshes, including Gaussian-splat reconstructions, built from the raw imagery.
- Refine: QGIS & BlenderMaps styled and analysed in QGIS; models cleaned and staged in Blender for the web.
- Deliver: georeferencedInteractive 3D, maps and reports in NAD83(CSRS), through a shared folder you keep.
One kit · every kind of job
It's the same two drones, whatever your job is.
Mapping, crop health, terrain and volumes, roofs, estates, property records, cinematic aerials, interactive 3D: all from the same two drones. The person who flies your site processes the data and hands you the results. If it can be seen from the air, ask me and I'll tell you if I can do it.
Request a quote
Tell me what you're working on.
A vineyard block, a build site, a listing, a roof: send it over and I'll come back with straight answers and a clear scope.
Every inquiry gets a reply within one business day.