New quoting platform gives agricultural drone operators instant access to insurance options and creates a one-stop-shop partnership opportunity for agricultural drone distributors.

LEWISVILLE, Texas, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — VTI Drone Zone, a specialized insurance platform built for agricultural spray drone operators, today announced the launch of its instant quoting capability, giving operators access to agricultural spray drone insurance quotes from every admitted US market writing spraying drone insurance through one streamlined digital experience.

Designed specifically for the fast-growing aerial application drone industry, VTI DroneZone allows qualified operators to complete a guided quote process, compare available admitted-market options, and move forward with coverage without the traditional delays, back-and-forth, or requirement to speak with an agent before receiving their insurance options.

For agricultural drone operators, the platform simplifies what has historically been a complex and time-sensitive process. Instead of chasing individual quotes or waiting days for responses, operators can now use VTI Drone Zone to quickly access market options tailored to their specific operation, including aircraft

details, pilot experience, chemical liability needs, hull coverage, spare parts, and other key underwriting factors.

“Ag drone operators are moving fast, and their insurance process needs to move just as quickly,” said Vaughn Tolbert, founder of VT Insurance Agency and VTI Drone Zone. “VTI Drone Zone was created to make agricultural spray drone insurance faster, easier, and more transparent by giving operators directly appointed access to admitted-market quotes through one guided platform.”

The announcement also creates a major opportunity for drone distributors, dealers, and manufacturers serving the agricultural spray drone market. By partnering with VTI Drone Zone, distributors can offer customers a more complete buying experience — not only helping their customers purchase the right drone, but also helping them secure tailored insurance coverage for their specific aerial application needs through a partnership with the nation’s #1 brokerage.

For distributors, the partnership model is designed to support full end-to-end service. Customers purchasing agricultural spray drones often need coverage quickly before they can begin work, meet contract requirements, or satisfy financing and operational obligations. VTI Drone Zone gives distributors a simple way to assist their customers with a dedicated insurance platform built specifically for the needs of spray drone operators.

“Drone distributors are already helping operators choose the right equipment,” Tolbert added. “By partnering with VTI Drone Zone, they can become a true one-stop-shop — helping customers move from purchase to protection to operation with far less friction.”

VTI Drone Zone’s quoting experience is designed around the realities of agricultural aerial application, including FAA requirements, state pesticide requirements, approved aircraft, pilot qualifications, chemical liability, non-chemical liability, hull coverage, lien holders, additional insureds, and claims history. The platform helps operators submit the information underwriters need while reducing confusion and improving quote speed.

As agricultural drone adoption continues to grow, VTI Drone Zone aims to bring more efficiency, transparency, and market access to one of the most specialized areas of aviation insurance.

Agricultural spray drone operators and drone distributors interested in learning more can visit:

DroneZone Website: https://www.vtidronezone.com

VT Insurance Website: https://vtinsuranceagency.com/

About VTI Drone Zone

VTI Drone Zone is a specialized digital quoting platform for agricultural spray drone insurance. Built for the unique needs of aerial application drone operators, the platform helps users access admitted-market insurance options through a guided quote experience designed around aircraft, pilot, chemical liability, hull, spare parts, and operational risk details.

Media Contact:

Vaughn Tolbert

Owner and CEO

VTI Drone Zone / VT Insurance Agency

info@vtinsuranceagency.com

(972) 729-9553

https://www.vtidronezone.com/

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SOURCE VTI DroneZone

Newly Expanded to Include Films Longer Than 10 Minutes, the Computer Animation Festival Honors Three Winning Films From South Africa, the United States, and France

LOS ANGELES, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — SIGGRAPH 2026, the world’s premier conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques, is once again spotlighting the future of visual storytelling through two of its most anticipated programs: the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions. Taking place from 19–23 July 2026 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, this year’s conference once again puts the spotlight on a global slate of animated storytelling and the studios shaping today’s most ambitious productions.

The Computer Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH’s prestigious animation showcase and an Academy Award® Qualifying Festival for its “Best in Show” short film, expanded eligibility this year to include films longer than 10 minutes. This change broadened the range of stories and filmmakers it could feature, which, as Marina Antunes, SIGGRAPH 2026 Computer Animation Festival Director, explained, “helped us in reaching out to films and filmmakers that probably would not have submitted in previous years.”

The 2026 honorees represent three countries and a shared interest in how the past shapes the present and the future:

Best in Show: “Apart“
Pola Maneli, Social Popcorn Films (South Africa, United States)
In apartheid South Africa, a forbidden friendship between two boys is tested by a life-saving act that forces them to confront the hate dividing their world. Written by Spike Lee and brought to life by a team rooted in South African culture and history, the film blends four animation techniques — traditional 2D frame-to-frame, cut-out, 3D, and 2.5D — across roughly 18,000 frames crafted by a team of more than 250 creatives.

Best Student Project: “Beyond Words“
Antoine Barbannaud, Théo Merlet, Cyril Buisson, Damien Poncelet, Anthonin Haüy, Timothée Vergught, Mathis De Sauvecanne, Thémys Cheynel, Lilou Tiprez, Leandro Leijnen, and Romain Gueusset with Creative Seeds (France)
In a Viking world, a girl’s mother goes to battle following her husband’s death, and the emotions stemming from that distance haunt them as mysterious wolves appear. Built on the team’s proprietary “Hunter” pipeline with in-house motion capture, the student film delivered over 130 shots featuring fur and cloth simulation and complex facial animation across six hand-modeled characters.

Jury’s Choice: “18 Months“
Paulo Garcia and Natalia Gouvea (United States)
A true story about the unexpected paths to becoming a family: When Danny and Pete find a newborn in a subway station, their journey to adopt him is retold to mirror the stages of pregnancy, challenging traditional definitions of what it takes to build a family. The film was crafted with stop-motion animation, using handmade puppets and sets, with only minimal use of software for editing and cleanup.

“Stories about how the past shapes the present and our future were really at the forefront this year, with filmmakers exploring social justice, inclusivity, and environmental stories,” said Antunes. “They are using the past as a starting point, looking back not to forget what has come before, but to shape what is happening now and what is coming in the future. The Computer Animation Festival consistently sets the bar for where technology and creativity converge, so you are guaranteed to see the best of the best.”

The Computer Animation Festival includes screenings of the Electronic Theater and Animation Theater, giving attendees multiple ways to experience emerging trends in animation from across the globe. Several of the top films will also be featured in SIGGRAPH’s Computer Animation Festival Traveling Show, a touring collection that brings the Electronic Theater to campuses, festivals, and communities worldwide.

Complementing the creative showcase of the Computer Animation Festival, the Production Sessions program invites attendees behind the scenes of some of the world’s most ambitious productions, offering a rare look at the artistry and innovation of today’s blockbuster films, immersive experiences, and scientific visualization.

In a marquee session, Wētā FX and Lightstorm Entertainment present “Wētā FX Presents: Avatar: Fire and Ash“, a behind-the-scenes look at the 3,100+ shots that return audiences to Pandora. The Academy Award-winning team will detail how it blended extensive native stereo photography with fully digital, performance-captured characters and handcrafted every element of the world, from creatures and clans to the film’s titular fire, created in Kora, a new addition to Wētā FX’s global simulation framework, Loki. The team created over 2,500 facial motion shots for 30 speaking characters using a proprietary facial system built to preserve each actor’s performance.

Other highlights include:

“Visualizing the Moon for Artemis II” — NASA shows how cinematic scientific visualization, built from publicly available datasets and high-end 3D rendering, recreates the exact lighting astronauts will encounter on the far side of the Moon. The work has helped plan observations and train the crew for Artemis II, the first crewed flight to the Moon since Apollo 17.”We’re All In This Together: The Making of Disney and Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’” — Pixar Animation Studios reveals the cross-departmental pipeline that let physical simulation and artistically directed stylization coexist in every shot, balancing broad comedy, suspense, and the beauty of nature photography.”Bringing The Mandalorian and Grogu to Life: Virtual Production, Creatures, and VFX Innovations” — Industrial Light & Magic unpacks how real-time technology, virtual production workflows, and time-tested VFX techniques came together to bring the latest “Star Wars” feature to the big screen.“Dear Upstairs Neighbors”: Artist-Centered, AI-Assisted Expressionistic Animation — A hybrid team of animation veterans and researchers at Google DeepMind shares how artist-driven, AI-assisted workflows shaped an expressionistic, painterly short, with artists in control as both creators and co-designers at every step.

“Production Sessions cover the full production, from the very start of the concept art and the story all the way to the end, giving you a really great general view of the entire pipeline,” said Valerie Bernard, SIGGRAPH 2026 Production Sessions Chair. “We get to learn about so many creative challenges that teams had to solve by getting multiple departments to work together. They are for everyone. When I first started going to SIGGRAPH, I learned the most about production workflows from Production Sessions, and they are just as amazing for veterans of the industry who like to be reminded why we do this job.”

Together, the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions program demonstrate how SIGGRAPH continues to celebrate bold storytelling while advancing the future of computer graphics and interactive techniques. To explore this year’s conference and offerings, visit the website to see where animation and visual effects are headed, and register now to experience everything the Computer Animation Festival and Production Sessions have to offer at SIGGRAPH 2026.

About ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH, and SIGGRAPH 2026

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting educators, researchers, and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM SIGGRAPH is a special interest group within ACM that serves as an interdisciplinary community for members in research, technology, and applications in computer graphics and interactive techniques. The SIGGRAPH conference is the world’s leading annual interdisciplinary educational experience showcasing the latest in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2026, the 53rd annual conference hosted by ACM SIGGRAPH, will take place live 19–23 July at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

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SOURCE SIGGRAPH 2026

Helsinki-based expert Bonusetu.com outlines THL’s new “2-4-2” gambling risk limits and explains why strong bank ID identification, the same technology behind registration-free casinos, is what will make such limits enforceable when Finland opens its licensed market in 2027.

HELSINKI, June 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has launched a new set of gambling risk limits built around a single rule: no more than 2% of monthly net income, 4 gambling days per month, and 2 recurring game types. Bonusetu.com examines the new framework and why its real-world success depends on the bank ID identification already standard in the country’s registration-free casinos.

The “2-4-2” Rule and the Player’s Credit Line

THL packaged the new limits as a player’s credit line (*pelaajan luottorivi*), a memorable “2-4-2” mnemonic released alongside a self-assessment gambling test (*rahapelitesti*) that lets a player gauge their own relationship with gambling. The thresholds are deliberately simple: keep monthly spend under 2% of net income, gamble on no more than 4 days a month, and stick to no more than 2 recurring game types. The guidance lands against a backdrop where 70% of Finns reported gambling in the past 12 months.

The numbers are not arbitrary. The framework adapts Canada’s Lower-Risk Gambling Guidelines, reworked for Finnish conditions between 2022 and 2024. Where Canada anchors its limit to 1% of gross household income, THL chose 2% of net personal income to better match how Finnish households actually think about money.

According to the THL’s assessment, the introduction of the licensing system will shift the focus of the gambling system from preventing and reducing harms to emphasizing gambling revenue; for this reason, they felt it was best to launch the 2-4-2 rule right now.

“A risk limit only works if the casino knows exactly who is sitting behind the screen,” said Tommi Korhonen, acting CEO of Bonusetu.com. “THL hands players the 2-4-2 rule, but the rule has no teeth unless the operator can verify identity, age, and play history in real time. Bank ID does that at the door. Registration-free does not mean anonymous, it means the player is identified before the first euro is staked, not after.”

Why a Limit Needs to Know the Player

A spending cap is only as strong as a casino‘s ability to recognize who is actually playing. That recognition runs on strong identification (*vahva tunnistautuminen*) through bank credentials, the technology that lets a player log in with Nordea, OP, or S-Pankki details instead of filling out a signup form. The “no registration” label describes the missing form, not a missing identity check.

Verified age: Bank ID confirms a player is over 18 before the first spin, closing a gap that form-based signups leave open to minors.Recognized identity: One verified identity per player turns play-history limits like 2-4-2 into something a system can enforce, not just a slogan a player is asked to remember.

This is the same identification layer that already powers Finland’s registration-free casinos, a category Bonusetu tracks in detail at https://bonusetu.com/nettikasinot-ilman-rekisteroitymista/, where access is gated by a verified, personal bank login rather than a manual account.

Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Helsinki, Bonusetu.com is a leading Finnish comparison platform for online casinos. We are committed to promoting responsible gambling by providing Finnish players with transparent, data-driven reviews and up-to-date information on market regulations.

For more information and to access our responsible gambling test, please visit https://www.bonusetu.com.

Contact

Tommi Korhonen
media@bonusetu.com

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Source: https://thl.fi/-/thl-lanseeraa-uudet-rahapelaamisen-riskirajat-ja-rahapelitestin-pelaajan-luottorivi-auttaa-pelaamisen-hallinnassa

Photo(s):
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Press release distributed by PRLog

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SOURCE Bonusetu.com