Compliance first, by design.

01 SACAA

Certified to fly, by the aviation authority.

Pharos holds a Remote Operator Certificate from the South African Civil Aviation Authority under Part 101 of the Civil Aviation Regulations. It is the certificate that lets a company fly drones commercially, and it is what makes a Pharos station legal to operate on your site.

Every flight is flown by a licensed remote pilot, named in the flight log. Our aircraft are registered, our operations manual is approved, and every flight, every battery and every maintenance task is logged.

• Remote Operator Certificate (ROC), Part 101
• Licensed remote pilots on every flight, named in the log
• Registered aircraft and an approved operations manual
• Flight, battery and maintenance records kept for every aircraft

02 BVLOS and night

Approved to fly beyond sight, and after dark.

BVLOS means beyond visual line of sight. The pilot does not stand next to the aircraft: they fly it from our operations room, through the station on your site. That approval is what lets a station launch on a trigger in under 60 seconds with nobody on the ground.

Our night approval covers the hours that matter most for security: the poaching window, the theft hours and the fire watch. Before every launch the station checks the weather, and the aircraft flies with its lights on, its obstacle sensing active and a planned route home.

• Approved for beyond visual line of sight operations
• Approved for night flying
• Weather checked by the station before every launch
• Planned routes and a return path on every flight

03 PSIRA

Registered as a security service provider.

In South Africa, anyone who provides a security service must be registered with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority. Patrolling a site and verifying alarms is a security service, so Pharos is registered with PSIRA as a security service provider.

We work alongside your armed response and guards, not around them. The pilot confirms what is there and talks your response onto the position; your security company does what it already does, with far better information.

• Registered with PSIRA as a security service provider
• Works with your existing armed response and guards
• Patrol and alarm verification as a registered service
• Incident reports your security company can act on

04 POPIA

Footage handled under POPIA.

A camera in the sky collects personal information, so we treat every frame that way. Our Information Officer is registered with the Information Regulator, and every service agreement sets out why we record, who sees the footage and how long it is kept.

Detection runs on the aircraft itself, not on a server in another country. Footage goes only to the people you name, and we help you put up the signs and notices POPIA expects, so everyone on your site knows what is watched and why.

• Information Officer registered with the Information Regulator
• Retention periods written into every service agreement
• Footage shared only with the people you name
• Signage and notices set up with you before the station goes live

05 Our code and the evidence chain

Our own software. Evidence that holds up.

The aircraft and the station are DJI hardware. Everything that makes them one service is software we wrote ourselves: the link that lets your alarms launch the aircraft, the bridge into your control room, the EarthRanger link for reserves, and the pipeline that turns every capture into a report. It is ours, so we maintain it and we answer for it.

Our evidence chain seals every clip and every flight log the moment it is captured, with the flight ID, times, pilot, station and position attached. If anything were changed afterwards, it would show. That chain of custody is what makes the footage hold up with SAPS, your insurer and in court.

• Our own software between the hardware and your systems
• Every clip and flight log sealed at capture
• A chain of custody: flight ID, times, pilot, station and position
• Evidence packs ready for SAPS, insurers and court