ABOUT OUR AUSTIN WORK
Austin Drone Videography and Live Broadcast
Air Views Media flew drone coverage at Austin City Limits in Zilker Park for the festival's Hulu live broadcast, including an over-the-crowd micro drone on Sabrina Carpenter's set. Downtown, we filmed aerials of The Independent, the tower known as the Jenga building, for Science Channel's Impossible Engineering. Those two jobs cover both sides of what we do: live coverage for a stream, and cinematic aerials for television. We're based in Augusta, GA, and Texas is a regular trip for us. Our crews travel to festivals, broadcasts and productions in any state, and Austin gets the same crew that has flown EDC Las Vegas every year since 2021. We fly live aerial broadcast, concerts and festivals, FPV cinematography, stadium video-board feeds and creative work, and we plan the FAA airspace and the Texas stadium rules before anything flies. See every city we fly.
Austin City Limits and a tower on TV
At Austin City Limits, Air Views Media flew drone coverage for the festival's Hulu live broadcast, including an over-the-crowd micro drone on Sabrina Carpenter's set. On festival broadcasts we typically run over-crowd FPV drones for close passes, cinema drones for the wide shots and feeds cabled to the broadcast truck. More on concert and festival drones.
For Impossible Engineering, we flew aerials of The Independent, the 58-story residential tower downtown whose stacked, offset blocks earned it the Jenga building nickname. Architectural aerials like that are a different kind of job from festival flying, built on slow, precise passes. See our film and commercial work.
Airspace and Texas drone law in Austin
Downtown Austin and Zilker Park are under Austin-Bergstrom International's Class C airspace, so outdoor flights need FAA authorization for the exact location and altitude.
Texas adds a state rule on top of the FAA's. Under Texas Government Code §423.0046, flying a drone over a sports venue with 30,000 or more seats at or below 400 feet is an offense unless an exception applies, such as flying for the venue or with its prior written consent. Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium qualifies, and we get the venue's written consent as part of planning. Big college football games also carry the FAA's standing stadium restriction, and NASCAR events at Circuit of the Americas can carry one too. Inside those areas and times, we fly only with approval.
Live crews and film crews
For ACL-style festival broadcasts, we bring a multi-person team: pilots on the over-crowd FPV drones, a pilot on the cinema drone, visual observers, and a crew member at the truck where the cabled feeds land. For TV and architecture work like Impossible Engineering, the crew is smaller and the flying is slower, planned shot by shot with the director and timed around light, wind and street traffic. For stadium work, see how we flew inside Truist Park for the Braves.
Waivers and broadcast setup
Air Views Media is run by Clark Lupton, an FAA Part 107 certified pilot since 2017. Our FAA Part 107 remote pilots operate under FAA waivers for flight over people (§107.39), over moving vehicles (§107.145), multiple aircraft (§107.35), beyond visual line of sight (§107.31), operation from a moving vehicle (§107.25) and operating limitations (§107.51). For live shows, our setup puts a COFDM camera transmitter on a micro FPV drone carrying a PROTON 4K FLEX camera, so the truck can shade it (iris, color, exposure) through Cyanview like any other camera, with feeds cabled into the truck. See our FPV live broadcast setup and FAA waiver consulting.
Austin drone questions
Have you flown Austin City Limits?
Yes. We flew drone coverage for the festival's Hulu live broadcast, including an over-the-crowd micro drone on Sabrina Carpenter's set.
Did you film the Jenga building in Austin?
Yes. We filmed aerials of The Independent, the downtown tower nicknamed the Jenga building, for Science Channel's Impossible Engineering.
Can you fly over a Texas stadium?
Texas law makes it an offense to fly at or below 400 feet over a sports venue with 30,000 or more seats unless an exception applies, such as the venue's prior written consent. We get that consent, plus any FAA approval needed for game days.
Can you fly at Circuit of the Americas?
Yes, with planning. We coordinate with the track and check for event flight restrictions, which can apply during some race weekends.
Do you shoot film and commercial work in Austin?
Yes. Alongside festival broadcasts we shoot aerials for TV, commercials and brands. Our TV credits include Impossible Engineering and So You Think You Can Dance on FOX.
Are you based in Austin?
No. We're based in Augusta, GA, with a second location in Lynchburg, VA, and we travel to Austin for festivals, broadcasts and productions.
Related pages: Dallas · New Orleans · Los Angeles · EDC Las Vegas case study · All locations
Call 706-284-8364, email clark@airviewsmedia.com or request a quote.