Virtual Drone Experience · care homes & community groups · Berkshire · Bucks · Oxon

Flight, brought into the room.

A live drone's-eye session where everyone gets a window seat. Not a film on a screen — the aircraft is in the room, flying now, and the residents can see themselves in it, waving back from above.

Forty-five seconds — the kit tested at home, and the kind of view the flight goes looking for once it is outside.

From the first home

“We had the Virtual Drone Experience at Lent Rise House in September. The residents watched the drone flying in the lounge and could see themselves on the big screen, and it was really, really good. Andy was easy to have in the building and everyone stayed comfortable throughout.”

Cheryl Wheatley · Lent Rise House, Burnham

What happens

Three parts, and the room sets the pace.

Built around the home's normal activity slot, and shaped with the coordinator beforehand rather than on the day. Everything is slow, level and announced before it happens.

The aircraft in the room

A small indoor drone, hovering, close enough to see properly — and the view from its camera live on the big screen. Residents look up at it, then look across at themselves from above, and wave. A recording cannot do this. It is the whole reason the session is live.

Out the window

Where the grounds and the weather allow, the view goes outside: over the garden, up, and there is the building from above — there is your window, the bench by the path, the road you came in on. Their own place, from a viewpoint nobody in the room has ever had of it.

The goggles

Optional, one resident at a time, seated, for half a minute or so — the view filling their whole vision while the room carries on watching the screen. The big bright screen is the main event; the goggles are the extra for whoever wants them.

A flint church with a wooden tower seen from the air, the River Thames and wooded countryside behind it. — The kind of view — a place you know, from a viewpoint you have never had of it.

Box-style FPV goggles worn by an older woman seated in an armchair. — One person at a time, seated, for half a minute or so.

How it is run

The care part is the specification, not a preference.

This is a room of seated, often frail people, and a pilot who is concentrating. Every one of these is fixed procedure, not something decided on the day.

A member of staff spots, with one word. One person watches the room and the aircraft, and says stop. The pilot cuts power. It is agreed and rehearsed before anything takes off.
Nothing moves without being announced. Slow, level, wide, long holds, horizon flat. No dives, no fast turns. Motion that is announced does not disorient; motion that arrives unannounced does.
Goggles are always seated, always brief, always optional. They go over most spectacles, the fit is adjusted in seconds, and a staff hand on the shoulder stays there throughout. Anyone who would rather just watch the screen watches the screen.
Infection control is brought with us. Single-use hygienic face masks per resident, alcohol wipes on the goggles between turns, hand sanitiser.
Consent and capacity stay with the home. The home decides who takes part, and cameras stay off residents' faces unless the home has cleared it.
Your TV is checked before the day. Lounge TVs are often wall-mounted, with the input locked or the remote missing — so the screen, a free HDMI input and the remote are confirmed by phone in advance, never discovered on arrival.

Practical

What is needed, and what is brought.

FROM YOU

A lounge or activity room, a big TV with a free HDMI input and its remote, a mains socket, and a coordinator who knows which residents would enjoy it. The room size, TV, input and socket are confirmed in advance by phone — never discovered on arrival.

FROM US

Aircraft, goggles, cabling, hygiene kit — and arrival 15 to 30 minutes early to set up and walk the room quietly before anyone comes in.

WHERE

Based in Slough. Within an hour: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Greater London. Further afield by arrangement.

Sessions: Quoted per home
Qualification: GVC · CAA authorised
Public liability: £10m
DBS: Basic · clear

Getting a session in the diary

A phone call is usually faster than a form.

Tell me the home, roughly how many residents, and the activity slot you have in mind, and you will get a straight answer the same day — including if it is not right for your room. Sessions are quoted per home; ask and you get a figure, not a brochure.

Call +44 7415 502186 Email instead

Here for the survey side?

Parallax Aerial also flies monthly construction progress records — the same mission every visit, orthomosaic and a month-to-month comparison. Different work, same aircraft discipline, and it lives on the home page.

Construction progress monitoring