About SPH Engineering

SPH Engineering is an expert in drone technology development, providing UAV software solutions, integration services, and custom development to advance drone applications for surveying, data collection and processing, and entertainment.

Founded in 2013 in Latvia (EU), SPH Engineering has a global customer and partner network in over 150 countries.

Core technologies developed by SPH Engineering

  • UgCS: Flight Planning & Control
    One of the world's leading flight-planning software for complex drone surveys.
  • Integrated Systems
    The core technology - SkyHub enables the advanced integration of drones, diverse sensors, and the UgCS software, expanding the capabilities of geophysical, hydrographic, industrial, archeological surveying, and environmental monitoring.
  • Drone Show Technologies
    Leading solution to manage drone light shows for entertainment and advertisement.
  • Data Processing & Custom Development
    Solutions for image, point cloud, geophysical data processing, and delivering essential technologies to facilitate your drone-based business.

SPH Engineering started out with the idea that drones are just computers with motors, propellers, and sensors that require smart software to fly efficiently. With this in mind, Alexey Dobrovolskiy (CTO) founded a start-up to test the idea. In 2013, the drone market did not exist yet and drone inspections were almost unaffordable due to high costs and technological complexity. This was not a promising context to introduce UgCS, a universal ground control software for UAV mission planning and flight control. After a few years of ups and downs, market tests, and continuous communication about why software to manage drone flights could be useful, UgCS became an industry-standard solution to support drone pilots and surveyors.

Passionate about innovations and ready to experiment, between 2016 and 2018 the co-founders integrated a GPR sensor with a drone to look for a lost WW2 plane in an expedition to Greenland and developed the first version of software to manage multiple drones to perform a drone light show in a US amusement park. These projects resulted in the launch of two product lines: Integrated Systems, enabling the integration of up to 10+ diverse sensors, and Drone Show Technologies to manage drone swarm shows.

In January 2021, the SPH's team shifted to its newly built office with an in-house Test Field where part of the entire area is a Test Range dedicated to geophysical sensors.

Mission - Vision - Values

Our mission is to make ideas fly

Our vision is to be at the forefront of technology and innovate in advance

Our values include flight safety, data accuracy, and a professional approach

Core Technologies

UgCS: Flight Planning & Control

UgCS (sphengineering.com/ugcs) by SPH Engineering is one of the world's leading flight planning software solutions for drones with users in more than 150 countries. Since 2013 the team has constantly been working to make UgCS better and meet the requirements of even the most demanding professional drone pilots and surveyors. What sets UgCS apart from other flight planning solutions is that flight planning is done on PC/Mac, it is installed locally and can be used offline. UgCS is also fast, gives a 3D environment built on a gaming engine to plan flights in, and comes with other important features such as terrain following and LiDAR flight planning tools. UgCS supports the most popular UAV platforms on the market most popular drones including DJI M300, M30, Mavic 3 Enterprise series, M600, M2X0, Inspire, Phantom series, Mavic 2 series, Autel EVO II series and other MAVLink-compatible drones.

Products

Integrated Systems

Integrated Systems (sphengineering.com/is) is one of SPH Engineering's business lines enabling the advanced technological integration between a drone, various sensors, the UgCS SkyHub hardware, and the UgCS software. Within 5 years in geophysics, SPH Engineering has developed an in-house sensor test field. Starting out with the integration of Ground Penetrating Radars (GPR) for archeological expeditions in Greenland and Peru, UgCS Integrated Systems has been constantly testing and supporting new types of sensors. Integration of Echo Sounders, Methane detectors, Magnetometers, and Metal detectors, enriched with radar altimeters, is supported across a wide range of industries worldwide.

Products

Drone Show Technologies

Drone Show Technologies (DroneShowSoftware.com) of SPH Engineering offers a comprehensive software solution for designing and executing captivating drone shows. Drone Show Software powers 70% of all commercially successful drone shows and is trusted by 7 times Guinness World Record holders. The software enables users to create intricate 3D animations, synchronize drones in real-time, and seamlessly manage entire shows from a single interface. Supporting a wide range of drones, it empowers users to craft customized shows for any occasion or event.

Products

Data Processing & Custom Development

Data Processing & Custom Development (sphengineering.com/dp) combines solutions like DroneGIS and ImageInspector for image, point cloud, geophysical data processing and reporting; and providing custom technology development to facilitate drone-based business. The expertise of SPH Engineering team in implementing, integrating, and developing technologies for the drone industry support companies to unleash the potential of unmanned systems.

Products

Management

ALEXEY SMIRNOV

ALEXEY SMIRNOV

Regional Director

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ALEXEY DOBROVOLSKIY

ALEXEY DOBROVOLSKIY

CEO, Chief Technical Officer
Co-Founder, Member of The Board

Alexey DOBROVOLSKIY is Chief Technical Officer, Member of The Board and Co-Founder at SPH Engineering, a multiproduct drone software company and UAV integration services provider. Since founding SPH Engineering in 2013, he has introduced a number of solutions that are recognized globally like software to manage drone shows and drone-based industrial product lines. Currently, Alexey is responsible for strategy management and development and liaises with a few main customers. He also spends a lot of time in the field, testing SPH's solutions in real-life scenarios.

Before founding SPH Engineering, Alexey had gained 20+ years of experience in the software industry. He graduated from one of the leading tech universities in Eastern Europe and started his career as a software developer. Later, he acted as a senior project manager and team lead: the largest team led by Alexey consisted of 450 specialists (analysts, software developers, Q&A experts, consultants). The main focus was on custom software development for multiple industries (financial, insurance, logistics, manufacturing, etc.), while project scale varied from tens to tens of thousands of users.

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MADARA MAZKALNE

MADARA MAZKALNE

Sales Director

Madara MAZKALNE is Sales Director at SPH Engineering. Having been with SPH Engineering since 2015, she has built up her career from an account manager to Sales Director. Her main area of responsibility has been partner relationships, including launches of Reseller and Educational programs. Thanks to her passion, the company has today a global reseller network in 60+ countries ensuring the availability of SPH's products and solutions in local markets, language support, and training courses. As a Sales Director, her main focus is to support and develop an internal sales team as she considers people as the main company`s asset and teamwork as a key to success. The same principle she applies to partnerships and the company`s clients. She graduated from Riga Technical University and completed MBA studies at Latvian Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences. Before joining SPH Engineering, she gained about 10+ years of project management experience mainly in the corporate sector.

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KRISTAPS BRASS

KRISTAPS BRASS

Product Owner of UgCS

Kristaps BRASS is an Engineer and Product Owner of UgCS at SPH Engineering. Having been with SPH Engineering since 2014, Kristaps has worked on countless field flight tests, lead customers training in Riga and around the world (from Brazil to Australia), and even participated in an expedition to Greenland in 2019 together with Alexey Dobrovolskiy, CTO. Kristaps graduated from Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and Tallinn University of Technology where he studied Integrated Engineering. He is currently heading the UgCS development and product team toward making UgCS flight planning software the leading choice for professional drone pilots.

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JANIS KUZE

JANIS KUZE

Director of Special Projects

Janis KUZE is Director of Special Projects at SPH Engineering. He has been with SPH Engineering from the early days and took care of commercial aspects and business development in the role of Sales Director. Today with the company gaining scale and the sales team established, he has a chance to move closer to where his heart lays. Janis as a Director of Special Projects enjoys helping clients with custom projects, and looks for interesting and challenging opportunities or expeditions where some new solutions can be tested and new niche needs can be identified. The crazier the better, be it the jungles of Papua New Guinea or the cold deserts of Greenland's glaciers, Janis will help to find the right approach and technology for your needs. He graduated from the University of Latvia and gained about 15 years of experience in IT project management. For a few years, he was also a board member of the Latvian Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems.

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ALEXANDER LEVANDOVSKIY

ALEXANDER LEVANDOVSKIY

Head of Drone Show Technologies

Alexander LEVANDOVSKIY is the head of the Drone Show Software division at SPH Engineering, a multiproduct drone software company and UAV integration services provider. He started building his career as an intern and UAV tech manager within the UgCS reseller network and then shifted in-house to lead a newly launched Drone Show Software division. Within a few years in the drone show business, together with a team of professionals, he has built the brand from scratch. Today, Drone Show Software is the only commercially available solution to manage drone swarm shows and is used in 55 countries globally. He graduated from one of the leading tech universities in Eastern Europe and started his career as an expert in the certification of electrical equipment at KEMA Labs, CESI.

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