Press Release by Cape Productions:
Launching Winter 2015, Cape Productions offers its drone video service to skiers and snowboarders to capture their favorite runs in professionally edited videos. Available at select resorts across North America this season, Cape has created a new way to use autonomous drone technology to beautifully capture people’s favorite memories without taking them out of their experience or requiring any additional work. Backed by some of the nations leading venture capitalists, Cape’s first official winter season follows successfully filming hundreds of customers in Canada last season, in addition to aiding the U.S. Ski Team with their training in New Zealand this summer.
Resort partnerships include Winter Park Resort (CO), Copper Mountain (CO), Timberline Lodge (OR), Mount Hood Meadows (OR), Powder Mountain (UT), Homewood Mountain (CA), Mountain Creek (NY), Fernie Alpine Resort (British Columbia), and Schweitzer Mountain (ID). Launch dates for each resort, as well as new resort locations, will be announced in November and continue throughout the season.
While personal drone use is banned across most major resorts, Cape has worked with government and resort officials to safely bring their drone video service to the public. “Since its founding, Cape has worked closely with ski resorts, as well as NSAA, to create the new gold standard for safe drone operations at ski areas for both winter and summer recreational activities,” said Dave Byrd, Director of Risk and Regulatory Affairs for the National Ski Areas Association. Cape’s drones automatically fly with you to record your favorite moments on snow. Customers sign up, meet Cape on the mountain, and get filmed by the drones while riding, then receive a professionally edited and published video online to share with friends and family. Cape’s proprietary drone technology can fly up to 40 mph, staying ahead of even the most hardcore athletes. The drones automatically maintain safe distance from the ground and all major obstacles like trees, chairlifts and crowded areas while withstanding the treacherous weather conditions and high altitudes found at mountain resorts.
“Time with friends and family in the outdoors is sacred. Capturing video of these experiences and managing camera equipment takes us out of the moment, and video editing is both difficult and time consuming. Today, we are excited to announce the start of a new chapter in drones and consumer video as a whole, ” said Jason Soll, CEO and co-founder of Cape. “We’ve taken a completely different approach by doing all of the hard work for our customers in a way that is fast, affordable, and beautiful. To make this possible, we spent the last year and a half building one of the safest large-scale drone operations in the world.”
For their first on-snow camp of the 2016 season, the U.S. Ski Team partnered with Cape to capture training sessions with Olympic gold medalists Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Ted Ligety and other U.S. Ski Team athletes at the picturesque Coronet Peak in Queenstown, New Zealand. “The unique camera angles we got and the stunning footage provided our coaches and athletes with a great experience and those images sent to our fans inspired us all. Our experience with Cape was exceptional and I have no doubt they will be successful in both the consumer and professional space with their technology and customer service,” said Mike Jaquet, Chief Marketing Officer for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
Cape’s team includes Google alumni and Stanford engineers, along with world class athletes – including a former U.S. Ski Team member and former pro snowboarder. Their mission is to offer everybody the ability to have amazing videos made for them without carrying and managing additional equipment or enduring the hard work of video editing and publishing. Their goal is to develop technology that disappears and makes people’s lives easier and more enjoyable.
With over $10 million raised from investors, including funds from the world’s largest venture capital firm, New Enterprise Associates, Cape is expanding its team and operations rapidly. For more information about Cape, along with access to discounts for the service, visit www.cape.com.
