Zoom is looking for new use cases involving drone video feeds that will turn what is videoconferencing software into a complete collaboration platform.

Pilot projects involving geographical mapping and searching for missing people are underway in India, while the application is already in use in policing in the US.

Speaking after the launch of Zoom Events in India, Sameer Raje, general manager and head of India and SAARC at Zoom, told the Economic Times newspaper: “We are launching something for a customer where Zoom meetings are being used on a drone system to provide feedback for geographical mapping and geographical survey, as well as finding missing people.”

Raje said Zoom could be used to monitor plants, factories and pipelines as well as for geotagging in land surveys.

“As of now, in India, we are doing some of the pilots (and) are in the very initial stages,” he added.

In the US, Zoom is used in law enforcement to take live feeds from multiples teams and get them back to control rooms.

“By integrating Zoom with drone footage, body cam technology, and other physical on-site components, public safety departments can reduce risk to team members while increasing visibility and situational awareness,” Zoom says on its website.

Raje added: “In the US, Zoom is being utilised by the law enforcement agencies and the police to take live feed from multiple teams and get it back to the control room. This is then shared with the senior leadership and there are multiple people on a Zoom meeting observing the live feed from the drone, which is out in the field.”

The Zoom Events platform just launched in India combines Zoom Webinars, Zoom Meetings and Team Chat into a single solution for event organisers. Since its launch in 2021, it has been used by more than 7,000 customers and the platform averages 150 events a day. Zoom also hosted Zoomtopia 2021, with more than 30,000 virtual attendees, on Zoom Events.