Hover carries a drone's video and MAVLink from the field to the people who need it. To get there you set up two machines: a field machine on the drone's local network, and a command-post machine where the operator runs their ground-control software (GCS). Both run Hover; the managed cloud relay connects them. If you haven't met the vocabulary yet, Concepts is a two-minute read that makes the rest of this page faster.
What you need: a machine on the drone's local network (Linux, macOS, or Windows), a command-post machine (Windows or macOS), an internet uplink at the field site, and a drone that exposes RTSP video and MAVLink. No firewall changes; the field side only makes outbound connections.
1. Sign up and create your organization
Go to dash.hoverfeed.com/signup and sign in with Google or with a one-time email code. On first sign-in, Hover walks you through a short setup: confirm your name, name your organization, and optionally invite teammates by email.
When you finish, Hover creates your organization, a default tenant, a default team, and your first deployment automatically, all on the free Pilot tier. You become the Org Admin. Nothing to install yet; the next step puts Hover on your machines.
2. Install Hover
Install on both the field machine and the command-post machine. There are two ways to run the relay: the Hover CLI (a command-line tool) or the Hover Relay desktop app (a point-and-click version of the same roles). Use whichever fits each operator.
The CLI
One line per platform:
- macOS and Linux:
curl -fsSL https://get.hoverfeed.com/install.sh | sh - Windows (PowerShell):
irm https://get.hoverfeed.com/install.ps1 | iex
On macOS this installs through Homebrew; on Linux and Windows it downloads the signed release, verifies its checksum, and puts hover on your path. Confirm it worked:
hover --version
Then sign the CLI in to your account:
hover login
This opens your browser to the same Google sign-in, then stores a token on that machine. (See the CLI guide for flags, headless login, and running Hover as a service.)
The desktop app
Prefer not to use a terminal? Download Hover Relay for macOS, Windows, or Linux from downloads.hoverfeed.com. On first launch it asks whether this machine is in the field or at the command post, then signs you in with Google. It runs the same two roles as the CLI.
3. Create a deployment
A deployment is one field unit you operate, usually one drone. Signup already made your first one, so you can skip ahead. To add more, open Deployments in the dashboard and create one; it mints its own credentials, so there's nothing to copy by hand. From the CLI you can list and select the deployments you have:
hover deployments list
Note the deployment you want to use; the relay commands below take it with --deployment, and the CLI resolves its connection details for you.
4. Pair and see your first feed
Pairing connects the two sides through the relay. Run one role on each machine.
On the field machine (next to the drone)
hover proxy start --deployment <deployment-id>
The proxy connects to the drone on the local network, registers with the relay, and starts forwarding video and MAVLink. (In the desktop app: pick the deployment on the Relay tab, set the drone's address, and press Start.)
On the command-post machine
hover client start --deployment <deployment-id>
The client exposes the drone locally: video at rtsp://127.0.0.1:5554 and MAVLink on a local port. Point your existing GCS (CCA3, Mission Planner, QGroundControl) at 127.0.0.1 as if the drone were on the same desk, and the video plays. Watch link health in the Hover Relay app, or with hover logs <deployment-id>.
No drone yet? Try it end to end first. On one machine, hover simulate --deployment <id> stands in a fake drone (your webcam plus synthetic telemetry) and runs the field side. Run hover client start --deployment <id> alongside it, then hover videofeed --rtsp 127.0.0.1:5554 to pull the stream. When videofeed prints PLAY ok, video is flowing the full path: drone, proxy, relay, client, viewer.
That's the whole loop. From here, How it works explains how the relay holds the link up over cellular networks. Once you're flying, the dashboard adds recording, sharing, and more.
Want the architecture behind the relay?
How it works →