See the sky.
See the weather.
In any light.
A drone overhead, a helicopter on approach, cloud building after dark. Thermal SKY turns the same continuous watch upward, so the crew sees the air above the vessel by day, at night and in poor light, and has it on the record.
The one direction nobody is watching is up
Cameras on a vessel look outward and down: the deck, the waterline, the horizon. The air above is left to whoever happens to look up, and after dark there is very little for the eye to find. A small drone shows little or no light. Cloud is black on black.
In thermal, both are plain to see. A drone or a helicopter is a warm object against a cold sky, and cloud reads bright against clear air. Thermal SKY adds four upward thermal lenses to the masthead unit, so the sky sits in the same 360° picture as the water around the vessel. By day, Panoblu Seaview covers it in colour.
Awareness, not detection. Panoblu shows the sky and records it. It does not classify aircraft, track them or raise an alarm. The crew sees it, and the crew decides.
A drone, the cloud and the harbour in one picture
Recorded on a Panoblu thermal unit during a harbour trial, looking up. Nothing was aimed at the drone. It was in the picture, like everything else.
-
The drone
Motors and battery run warm. Against a clear sky the aircraft stands out as a bright point, with its arms visible on a closer look.
-
The weather
Clear sky reads cold and dark, cloud reads bright. Cover, breaks and cloud moving in show up without any light to see them by.
-
Everything else
The quay, the berths and the water stay in the same frame. Looking up costs nothing below.
Straight up
Towards the horizon
Sample footage from a trial. What is visible on a given day depends on the aircraft, its distance and the atmosphere.
For vessels with security needs and aircraft of their own
Security sees it in the panorama while it is still on its way in, and the recording keeps when it came and from which side. It is one part of 360° perimeter security.
Approach, landing and departure in one continuous view, with the deck and the water around it. Every movement is recorded for the debrief.
Launch and recovery after dark, with the aircraft in view against the sky and the landing spot in the same picture.
Cloud cover and build-up visible on the night watch, at anchor or before flying. A view of the sky, to set beside the forecast and the instruments.
Two ways of seeing the same sky
Four upward thermal lenses in the same masthead housing, taking the thermal array from 12 lenses to 16. Thermal needs no light and is completely passive: it emits nothing. It is an add-on to Panoblu IR or to the combined Seaview & IR system, specified with the build.
Thermal SKY in the component guideVisible light in colour, continuous through 360° in every direction, the sky included. 8K capture, so a digital zoom into a point overhead still holds detail. In daylight it is the natural view of an aircraft or a squall line. As the light goes, thermal takes over.
Explore Panoblu SeaviewHeavy rain and dense fog shorten how far thermal sees, as they do for every sensor.
What it is, and what it is not
It is
- A continuous view of the air above the vessel, with nothing to aim and nothing to switch on.
- Recorded with the rest of the 360° panorama, so an overflight can be reviewed afterwards.
- Available to the bridge and the security team in the Panoblu app, or in the vessel's VMS over ONVIF.
It is not
- A drone detection or counter-drone system. There are no automatic alerts.
- A certified helideck or aviation aid. Flight operations stay with the pilot and the deck team.
- A weather instrument. It shows the sky. It does not measure or forecast it.
Add the sky to the watch
Tell us about the vessel, its security brief and what flies from it. We will show you the upward view and work out the right configuration.
Talk to our team →