UTICA — SkyTubeLive, a Mohawk Valley tech startup, sees a big future for private live streaming of drone videos, especially in emergency services. 

Brian Barris and Mat DePasquale founded the company and created the application, which enhances the ability of first responders to react to emergencies. SkyTubeLive created a private, secure web platform and mobile app that a first responder can see on any device — phone, tablet, and computer — what the drone sees, allowing personnel to be quickly dispatched to areas that need them most.

Barris and DePasquale started SkyTubeLive in 2015 with a $25,000 grant from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), according to Barris. The founders use common space in a warehouse at the Mohawk Valley Community College’s thINCubator (short for “the home for innovative new companies,” a business incubator and student accelerator located at 326 Broad St. in the Bagg’s Square East district of Utica. It exists to help build startups and grow businesses in Central New York. “The space is great,” Barris tells CNYBJ.

Shortly after release of the beta version of their application, the SkyTubeLive founders determined that first responders — police, fire, and rescue — are the ones who can most benefit from it. These departments often already have drones with video capabilities, so live video is the next step, and SkyTubeLive can help with that, Barris says.

SkyTubeLive came in second place in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Commercialization Academy Demo Day and IDEA NY (Innovation & Development Entrepreneurial Accelerator) business accelerator competition on March 21, winning a prize of $100,000. 

“This is huge. It will allow us to do all kinds of stuff that we’ve thought about for years, and now we finally have the resources to do those things, so this is really going to make a massive difference for us. It’s just amazing,” Barris said in a news release issued by Griffiss Institute, which partnered with AFRL on the competition. Specifically, the prize money will help the company travel to drone conferences where it can get “our name in front of emergency responders across the country,” Barris adds in the interview.

Six teams from the current AFRL Information Directorate Commercialization Academy pitched their startup ideas in cybersecurity, big data, information systems, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for $300,000 in total prize seed funding provided by IDEA NY Mohawk Valley.

The judges’ panel evaluated each startup based on such factors as: the ability of the business to affect the Mohawk Valley’s startup ecosystem and high-tech economy, the culture of innovation that has been created within the startup due to incorporating AFRL technology, the sustainability of the solution beyond the initial startup period and go-to market strategy, according to the Griffiss Institute release.

The startups were incubated by early-stage venture capital firm Wasabi Ventures, while embarking on an acceleration process to either build a sustainable startup, or enhance technology from an already existing startup, with Department of Defense intellectual property from the AFRL Information Directorate.

This wasn’t the only competition in which SkyTubeLive participated. The company was one of 16 semifinalists in the Genius NY 2.0 program in Syracuse in late 2017. Genius NY is a business-accelerator program at CenterState CEO’s Tech Garden.

Barris declined to disclose annual revenue for his company. He says the firm derives its revenue from selling monthly or yearly subscriptions to the application. “The pricing structure is based on purchasing a license and paying monthly or yearly,” says Barris.

SkyTubeLive’s founders have extensive experience with imagery and software development. Barris earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Caltech (California Institute of Technology) and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii. He has two decades of experience in aerospace, having worked at Helios Remote Sensing Systems and Electromagnetic Systems, Inc. according to his LinkedIn profile.

DePasquale is a software engineer who earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology. He has two decades of experience in software development and engineering. He worked at Black River Systems, Helios Remote Sensing Systems, and Global Info Tek., according to DePasquale’s LinkedIn page.

The two men met while working together at one of their previous employers, Barris says.

UTICA — The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties has announced an initiative that it says will result in a “vision-and-action” plan for downtown Utica’s several districts, “to tie together current and future developments that are reshaping the area’s urban center.” 

The Community Foundation made the announcement in late April in partnership with the City of Utica, Oneida County, the Greater Utica Chamber of Commerce, Mohawk Valley EDGE and the Genesis Group.

“So much has happened in recent years, and, with much more on the way, we decided that it was time to put the pieces together in a meaningful way, to make sure that they work together,” Alicia Dicks, president and CEO of the Community Foundation, said in a news release. “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for this community to make the most of a rising tide of optimism and lay the groundwork for an increasingly vibrant, livable city.”

The group is working with NBBJ, a Seattle, Washington–based architecture firm, to prepare the plan, which will embrace a “broad definition of downtown Utica.

That definition ranges “from Bagg’s Square and the Bleecker Street corridor on the east, to the Brewery district on the west; from Harbor Point on the north to Oneida Square and the arts district on the south.” 

The new downtown hospital and the Genesee Street corridor will form the “core” of the plan; the U District and Oriskany Street improvements are also “critical elements.” The result will be an “urban-design framework” that will help guide future development and other steps to make downtown Utica “greater than the sum of its parts.”

“As downtown Utica continues to grow and redevelop, we must work collaboratively to ensure our community reaches its absolute potential,” Utica Mayor Robert Palmieri said in the release. “I commend the Community Foundation for their proactive efforts, and all of our partners who have worked diligently on this exciting initiative.”

Working with the Community Foundation and its partners, NBBJ is discussing the matter with an array of elected officials, community leaders, key business owners, and neighborhood groups. Over the last several months, the firm has also drawn on previous planning studies and documentation, so that the current project “complements” existing and historical economic-development and urban-planning work.

“Utica has a rich history of architecture, tremendous natural assets and a wonderful diversity of social capital that this plan will build on,” Kim Way, NBBJ principal, contended in the release. “We are excited to be a part of Utica’s transformation, and the plan envisioned for the City will provide guidance for future development, infrastructure improvements and placemaking opportunities — changes that will support a walkable and livable 21st-century urban center.” 

The revitalization of downtown Utica is an “essential” component to the success of Oneida County,” Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, Jr. added.

“We are happy to work in collaboration with the city, the Community Foundation, NBBJ and our other community partners in executing our shared vision of how to take its development to the next level. I believe the U-District’s Adirondack Bank and Nexus centers can serve as a launching pad that, together with MVHS’s downtown medical center campus and Harbor Point, will link every district of Utica and completely transform our entire region.”

The U District is described as a conceptual plan for the Utica arts, sports & entertainment district, per a document on the website of Oneida County government.

“We’re really at the beginning stages of what will transform this community over the years to come,” Dicks said. “What NBBJ will provide is a strategic framework, a roadmap, a guide … and realizing each of the elements that it foresees will be guided by community residents and stakeholders.”