#DRONEWEEK is a live multicast on Periscope – the first of its kind – exploring the world’s most powerful machines by drone. The pilot episodes for the series occurred over five days, using a custom-built drone flying over and through five different GE facilities. Dramatic flyover footage was followed by interviews and expert commentary from GE scientists and technologists to provide details and context for audiences.

The weeklong event took viewers across the country: to a Blow-Out Preventer manufacturing facility in Houston, TX; a jet engine testing facility in Peebles, OH; a wind farm in Tehachapi, CA; a locomotive manufacturing plant in Fort Worth, TX; and a Power and Water testing facility in Greenville, SC.

The use of drones wasn’t new for GE. But customizing the camera set up for Periscope presented several challenges. A 3D-printed custom camera mount was used to stabilize an iPhone during flight. And the landing gear on our drone was customized to compensate for the extra weight.

For each facility “flyover,” a GE tech responded to questions within the comment feed. During these sessions, we also collected some of the better questions and posed them to an on-site engineer immediately following the flyover.

The launch included pre-recorded clips pushed out across all GE owned channels, including ge.com, twitter, Youtube, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Periscope stream drew over 20,000 live viewers, resulting in a 15% engagement rate on Twitter. Additionally, there were 2.6 million views on Youtube and a total of 48 million earned media impressions. Throughout the week, almost 1,000 questions were posed to GE engineers via Periscope comments.