Syncing 360° Video with GPS (DJI SRT / GPX)

360° video is the fastest way to capture a site as it is — but on its own it has one problem: it does not know where it is. Unlike photos, video files carry no EXIF GPS tag. The position data lives in a separate sidecar file the camera writes during the flight or walk. Upload that file alongside the video and the video stops being a recording and becomes a navigable data layer on the map.

Supported sidecars (DJI SRT; Insta360/GoPro/Ricoh GPX)

The track format and export path differ per manufacturer:

Device	Track format	Where it comes from
DJI	.SRT	Written next to the video when subtitle/telemetry recording is on
Insta360	.GPX	GPX export from Insta360 Studio
GoPro	.GPX	GPX export via Quik / GoPro Player
Ricoh	.GPX	Export from the companion mobile app
Other	.SRT / .GPX	The manufacturer's telemetry export

The critical rule: the sidecar's base name must match the video exactly. flight-01.mp4 pairs with flight-01.srt. If the names differ, the track cannot be bound to the video and the video uploads without position.

DJI's .SRT is technically a subtitle file with a timestamp, latitude/longitude and altitude embedded in each subtitle block. GPX is the standard GPS track format. Both do the same job: map time → position.

Choosing the sidecar during upload

Provide the video and the sidecar together in the same selection — tick both in the file picker or drag them in as a pair. Track files are flagged with their own icon in the upload list, so you can confirm the pairing was made before sending.

Technical limits: .mp4, .webm or .mov video with a 2:1 equirectangular ratio (width must be twice the height — otherwise the upload stops with the warning "a 2:1 equirectangular ratio is expected"), up to 30 GB and 30 minutes per file. 360° video upload is part of the Professional plan; on the Free plan this tab is locked. Videos above 200 MB are sent with resumable chunked upload — if the connection drops, the upload continues rather than restarting. See Supported Formats for all limits.

No track file? Nothing is lost: upload the video without position and place it on the map manually. There is no route sync, but the video still plays.

Route on the map + playback sync

Once the track is parsed, a route line is drawn on the map with a position marker on it. Playing the video moves the marker along the route in real time; scrubbing the timeline jumps the marker instantly. The sync runs from video to map — the video timeline is what determines the position.

A view cone accompanies the marker, showing which direction you are currently looking. As you turn the 360° view the cone rotates with it, which removes the "which façade am I looking at?" problem entirely.

Practical uses:

• Corridor inspection — fly a road, channel or powerline; scrub to the relevant second on the timeline and the marker shows exactly that chainage on the map.
• Site walkthrough — hand the client a navigable site rather than a single video file.
• Defect localisation — read the coordinate of something you spotted in the video and leave it as a note.

Extracting geotagged frames from video

Video flows nicely but is awkward to work on. So during upload you can generate geotagged 360° photos at intervals along the route. The interval is chosen as a distance: presets of 25 / 50 / 100 m (default 50 m), or a custom value between 10 and 500 m; at most 300 frames are extracted per video. At every interval a frame is captured, tagged with its position on the track and shown as a point on the map. The result is a street-view version of your own site: you step between points forwards and backwards.

Three things to know:

1. Extraction runs in the browser, during upload. It puts no extra load on the server, but do not close the tab.
2. Frame heading is assumed to be the direction of travel — accurate when the camera is fixed to the airframe, approximate when it was turned by hand.
3. Codec matters. If the browser cannot decode the video (usually HEVC/H.265), frames cannot be extracted; try Chrome, Edge or Safari. Even if extraction stops midway, the frames produced so far and the video itself still upload — the work is not thrown away.

Summary

Question	Answer
Does video carry GPS?	No — position comes from the sidecar
Which formats?	DJI .SRT; Insta360/GoPro/Ricoh .GPX
Naming rule?	Sidecar base name must match the video
Size limits?	.mp4/.webm/.mov, 2:1 ratio; 30 GB / 30 minutes; chunked upload above 200 MB
What does sync do?	Marker follows the route, cone shows view direction (video → map)
Frame extraction?	Every 25/50/100 m along the route (custom 10–500 m), max 300 frames, in-browser
Which plan?	360° video is part of the Professional plan
No track file?	Video uploads unpositioned and is placed manually