Pete Kelsey

Pete Kelsey, founder of VCTO Labs LLC, is a reality capture specialist with more than 25 years of experience leading strategic, story-driven projects that bring new insight to historically and culturally significant places. He works with LiDAR, photogrammetry, multispectral imaging, terrestrial laser scanning, GPR, and SONAR applying these technologies not as ends in themselves, but as tools to deepen understanding, preservation, and public engagement. His work focuses on projects where spatial data can fundamentally change how familiar stories are seen, understood, and sustained.

Pete’s work has been recognized by major global media outlets including The New York Times and CNN, most notably for his leadership on the comprehensive 3D mapping of Alcatraz Island. That project combined robots, drones, lasers, and high-performance computing to create one of the most complete digital records ever produced of a U.S. national historic landmark. His reality capture expertise has also been featured on National Geographic documentary television, including Buried Secrets of WWII, where modern remote sensing techniques are used to uncover hidden wartime landscapes and reinterpret history through data. Additional documentary film work includes projects for broadcast and digital platforms where reality capture is used to visualize inaccessible environments, support investigative storytelling, and translate complex spatial data into compelling on-screen narratives. These include National Geographic’s Drain the Oceans and History Channel’s The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch, where geospatial data and advanced sensing are used to explore hidden, controversial, or hard-to-access locations.

In addition to media and documentary work, Pete collaborates closely with hardware and software vendors to push the limits of what reality capture can achieve at scale. These partnerships ensure that ambitious ideas can be executed reliably in the field and transformed into actionable, enduring datasets. Known for bridging technology, narrative, and real-world impact, Pete Kelsey’s work sits at the intersection of geospatial science, preservation, and storytelling.