SkyeBrowse, the videogrammetry platform known for turning simple drone and phone video into 2D maps and 3D models in minutes, rolled out a major lineup update this week.
While traditional drone photogrammetry relies on capturing hundreds of individual overlapping photos, SkyeBrowse is known for a more unique approach where it processes single, continuous video files.
That approach traces back to a very specific moment for SkyeBrowse Co-Founder and CEO Bobby Ouyang.
“It was a motorcycle crash near my university that I experienced firsthand,” Ouyang said in an interview with The Drone Girl. “The road stayed closed for hours while the scene got documented the traditional way, and I remember thinking there had to be a faster way to capture it. Photogrammetry needs hundreds of overlapping photos and hours of processing. A drone or a phone already records video, and video has the overlap built in. So we built the system around a single continuous video instead.”
With SkyeBrowse, the drone simply needs to make a two-minute orbit, then it uploads the data, takes a few minutes to make the model — and from there the road reopens.
SkyeBrowse has also found a way to solve the challenge of massive file sizes when it comes to gathering aerial data. For example, a typical 4K drone video that’s two minute long would necessitate roughly 1 GB. Meanwhile, a standard 300-photo photogrammetry set can run 3 to 6 GB.
SkyeBrowse’s Rapid Upload tool compresses that file by nearly 10x before it’s actually transmitted, effectively making video uploads through SkyeBrowse up to ten times smaller when operating over cellular data in the field.
This week’s major release builds on that core engine, introducing powerful new viewer tools alongside an overhauled pricing lineup.
With it comes a new pricing plan structure where you can choose from one of three tiers (more on them later):
- Commercial ($24.99/model)
- Pro ($49.99/model)
- Public Safety & Enterprise ($199/model/year)
Bringing custom 3D objects into the scene
The standout feature in this release is the new “Import Custom 3D Model” tool.
Users can now import GLB or STL files directly into a captured SkyeBrowse 3D scene. Operators can set units, rotate, scale and place up to three composite layers within the environment.
Real-world applications of this include allowing construction managers to test equipment placement on a job site or helping architects visualize a proposed structure inside a real space. Tactical teams can also use it to model proposed obstacles or staging areas during incident planning.
If you have the highest tier Public Safety & Enterprise plan, you also gain the ability to attach multiple photos to a single annotation point, letting you keep damage close-ups, wide views and other supporting evidence neatly organized at exact spatial locations.
Beyond drones: Body cams, 360 cameras, and AI CAD
While SkyeBrowse has built its name on drone mapping, it’s not solely for aerial videos. In fact, Ouyang said that roughly one in three models processed by SkyeBrowse now comes from a non-drone source.
“Non-drone uploads are the fastest growing category for us,” Ouyang said. “Body cameras, handheld 360 cameras like Insta360 and plain iPhone video make up a growing share of interior uploads. Drones struggle indoors, and a 360 camera on a stick shines there, so we added the Interior Mapping toggle and native Insta360 file support.”
Once captured, SkyeBrowse’s AI tools can turn those raw visual models into CAD-ready files.
“Manually tracing a site plan over a point cloud is usually half a day to a full day for a typical crash or crime scene,” Ouyang said. “AI Site Plan traces the orthophoto in under a minute and exports a DXF. Call it four to eight hours down to a few minutes plus some cleanup.”
What to know about the new pricing plans
Alongside the feature updates, SkyeBrowse is restructuring its subscription plans. While legacy Lite and Premium subscribers will retain their current plans and pricing, new signups will choose from a per-model pricing structure:
- Commercial ($24.99/model monthly, $19.99 billed annually): Built for everyday site mapping, construction monitoring, and roof inspections. It includes 8K processing, 0.5-inch accuracy, measuring tools (area, angle, volume), up to 5 users and 3 months of model storage.
- Pro ($49.99/model monthly, $39.99 billed annually): Designed for professional deliverables. It adds model exports, AI Floor Plans, AI Site Plans, topographic maps, line-of-sight analysis, sun/shadow studies, custom 3D model imports and 1 year of model storage.
- Public Safety & Enterprise ($199/model/year billed annually): The complete suite built for crash reconstruction, crime scenes and tactical pre-planning. It features 16K Ultra processing, 0.1-inch accuracy, CJIS compliance, Axon Evidence.com integration, AI Moving Object Removal, 100GB video uploads, unlimited users and guaranteed 5-year model storage.
As is fairly common with software, SkyeBrowse runs on a “freemium model,” and that free tier is not going away.
“The free tier is where people learn,” Ouyang said. “Nobody in public safety starts out knowing how to fly a mapping mission. They need to upload a bad orbit, see why it failed and fly again. If a credit card is in front of that first attempt, the learning stops.”
For what it’s worth, the reason to upgrade would be for the resolution, tooling, exports and storage.
What’s next for SkyeBrowse: Real-time modeling in the air
In the future, SkyeBrowse says it will be able to eliminate the post-flight upload waiting period entirely.
“The next step is the model building itself while the drone is still in the air, so a Drone as First Responder (DFR) team sees a live 3D scene instead of a flat video feed,” Ouyang said. “We’ve announced a Paladin integration for near real-time modeling in DFR workflows, and that’s where the whole product is heading. The end state is an investigator who never has to learn a 3D tool.”
Check out the updated plans and new 3D viewer tools over at https://www.skyebrowse.com/news/posts/skyebrowse-commercial-pro-public-safety-enterprise.
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