As event managers, you may spend hours surfing the Internet for answers to: How does a drone show work? How many drones do I need? What’s the price? What needs to be taken into account? What if the weather turns bad on a show day? and still not find half of them. The more you surf, the more questions fill up your head, making this entertainment option beyond reach.
We feel your pain. That is why we decided to walk you through the entire process of having a drone show, from ‘OK, I need this insane option” to “Wow, this show was a jaw-dropper”.
Welcome to the world’s first ULTIMATE GUIDE TO DRONE LIGHT SHOWS! It will allow you to consider this entertainment option with the highest efficiency, safety and impact. Let’s dive in!
- What a drone light show really is?
- Are drone shows suitable for any events?
- How to choose a drone show company
- 5 points to form a request for a drone show
- Work out show concept and cooperation terms
- Sign the contract and pay for the show
- How to select a good location for a drone show
- Design the drone show: process in the making
- Transport the drones and the crew, get permits
- Run test flights before final drone show
- Sync the drone show with other elements
- It’s showtime. Drone artwork in the night sky
- Bonus: measuring the drone show impact
What a drone light show really is?
First things first. Drone show is a 10-15 minute aerial spectacle by synchronized drones carrying controllable LEDs and programmed to arrange themselves into spectacular formations against the night sky. UAVs can picture anything in the sky, from humble silhouettes to enormous objects up to 1 km wide, real-size skyscrapers, moving 3D objects or even live portraits. For higher visual and emotional effect, drones can be equipped with pyrotechnics or other payloads.
Lumasky uses quadcopters specially designed for aerial performances. They are equipped with colorful LEDs, radios, and batteries. Compared to other drones in the industry, one of our drones’ distinct advantages is a space-saving size, which can reduce the client’s logistic expenses due to small packing dimensions.
Who makes drone shows? Engineers responsible for assembling drones, designers and 3D animators responsible for drawing the show and preparing it to fly, pilots for making it fly correctly, videographer for recording how jaw-droppingly it finally flew. And other folks responsible for operations, paperwork and content, and contributing to the show each step of the way.
This mind-blowing entertainment option can be incorporated in and elevate medium and big-scale events throughout the world, captivate large audiences, advertise products and promote businesses.
To find out how exactly it is created and taken to the skies, read on.
Are drone shows suitable for any events?
As terrific as the idea of having a drone show may be, not all events qualify.
The following event formats are perfect for drone dances:
- outdoor national celebrations
- VIP weddings and exclusive parties
- music and sporting events
- brand or product launches
- corporate gatherings
- tourism promotions
- all in all, any occasion with a budget over $30,000.
Yet there are several ‘ifs’ that make a drone show almost or totally unfeasible:
- if it’s a small-budgeted event like kids’ party, family anniversary, surprise to one’s soulmate (if one actually can afford surprise parties at this price, then drone shows are a great option)
- if it’s a daytime event, for the show is designed for the night sky only
- if it’s an indoor party, for only some providers offer an indoor drone show option, plus this format is limited in terms of space and expressiveness
- if the event is held at a heavily populated urban area, for drones must not fly above people and roads, plus there can be some regulatory restrictions and spatial limitations
- if the venue is near airports, military bases or in environmentally sensitive areas like wildlife reserves, for special authorization in such zones is pretty hard to get
- if the event takes place in areas with constantly heavy weather conditions like in Alaska at -40॰C
- if it’s a country/region/city where drone shows are prohibited in general or permitted with restrictions, this to be checked with local authorities.
If none of the above limits you, your event has every chance to be elevated with a drone show marvel. Choosing a marvel provider is the next step.
How to choose a drone show company
Drone show makers can differ substantially by plenty of factors. Some operate globally or domestically only, do or do not produce own drones, have large or limited fleet of drones, do or do not make indoor drone shows, do or do not offer pyro drones/other visual effects/extra entertaining options, can or cannot obtain flight permits in a drone show country, etc.
Still, the following 5 factors are a must-check when deciding on a drone show company:
- Experience and Expertise. As event managers, you might have encountered careless service providers, who wasted your nerves at a minimum, or ruined your event and/or your reputation at a maximum.To avoid this, focus on companies with a proven track record of delivering successful drone light shows, worldwide operations is an advantage. Check their portfolio, cases for major brands and events, awards, as well as public feedback on their shows.
- Authorization and Safety. Grand-scale events are always highly crowded. Safety comes as priority here. Make sure you hire a company that follows the necessary regulations and guidelines, and has the insurance coverage certificates for safe and compliant performance during your event. You don’t want to bear any health, financial or reputational risks in case something happens, don’t you?
- Innovations and Creativity. In today’s world the event’s success depends on innovations ft. creativity able to amaze people. You need a provider that uses advanced drones with cutting-edge LED technology capable of creating intricate animations, 3D designs, dynamic color transitions, and extra top-notch features to wow the viewers above and beyond. Like at Lumasky, when we pushed the boundaries by letting the event attendees not only watch but literally play with drones in the sky.
- Flexibility and professionalism. ‘Things may not go as planned’, we bet all eventers nodded in agreement at this statement. Make sure to ask the following questions to the chosen provider: Do you have a backup plan in case of force majeure or bad weather? If my client wants to edit animations 2 days to the show, can you do that? Can you fix any technical issues that may occur during the display? At a multimedia event, can you sync a drone show with other audiovisual elements?Feel free to expand this list with the questions clearing out any uncertainties about your specific event.
- Cost. Key factor for all drone show seekers. Clearly, world-class professionals able to work under tight deadlines and in challenging conditions ask for a higher check. If you agree to this check, you get a successful show and a successful event. If you go for a cheaper option, make sure you marry the above points with your ‘budget fitting’ goal.
5 points to form a request for a drone show
So, the drone show company is chosen. To form a relevant request put down 5 key things for your future show:
- date
- location
- event
- idea (Goal: is to celebrate/amaze/advertise? Format: is it a separate show or a part of a bigger one with other entertaining elements?)
- estimated number of drones (if no idea, the manager will further help you out with calculations)
- budget (this one may also be skipped until the next step).
Work out show concept and cooperation terms
After the drone show manager reaches you, the first thing to learn is how drone shows work in general. To summarize, a drone show maker:
After this brief intro, the Q & A session starts. Here is the checklist of 11 basic parameters to be discussed:
- Overall concept: what’s the event and what’s the show dedicated to, what’s your client’s goal, what extra elements the drone light show shall be combined with.
- Optimal number of drones for the concept. Start from these numbers: 200 drones for a private party, 500-1,000 drones for city and nation scale celebrations, 2,000+ drones for huge record-breaking performances. Apart from event type, an image makes a difference: a nice 3D portrait needs at least 1,000 drones, while a country flag can be executed with 50 drones only.
- Visual extras to give stronger expressiveness to drone formations: pyro drones, flash drones, pyro planes.
- Extra features like interactive show options we’ve mentioned earlier.
- Other elements of the event: shall a drone show be paired with fireworks, lasers, smoke effects, 3D mapping, stage artists, other elements and performing teams?
- Music: it’s always nicer to watch the show to music instead of just to the sound of buzzing drones. Do you have a soundtrack or shall it still be written in line with the show concept? At Lumasky we have an employed music composer. We provide our clients with complete drone shows as short films which adds an extra layer of magic and immersiveness.
- Project timeline: when and what progress to follow up. Normally, it takes the provider 2-3 months from idea to launch. The average project runtime at Lumasky is 4 weeks, look at the example below.
- Tech rider indicating how to choose and prepare the launch site, where to accommodate the team and what to provide it with, as well as how to ensure drone storage and security.
- Logistics and flight permits. While flight permits are a must, the logistic operations and expenses arise when the drone show takes place anywhere but the provider’s city.
- Possible risks and force majeure:
– if it’s raining before the show, it can be postponed for a couple of hours or until it clears off the next day, or some drones may even fly in light rain
– if it’s windy, the provider can shorten the display time of 1-2 animations to save battery charge without affecting the storytelling; also some drones are able to fly in high winds but that shortens the show time, this to be checked with the chosen provider
– what’s the action plan if a country’s leader suddenly passes away and all entertainment events are canceled (this one is not hypothetical, Lumasky has faced this unexpected news right before the show 3 times in 3 countries)
– or other unforeseen circumstances you may want to check in regard to your specific event.
- And finally… the cost of all this magic that starts from $30,000. The cost is mainly formed of 5 factors:
– number of drones wanted– customization (some companies make stock animations and sell them to everybody for lower price)– extra options like pyro, flash drones or any other payload, or interactive features
– date of the show (Is it a peak season? Is it 2 weeks or 2 months before the event? Is the entire or limited fleet available?)
– country, for there are different show providers with different pricing after all.
Sign the contract and pay for the show
After negotiating the above, fix it on paper.
Key terms to be mentioned in the contract: date, location, number of drones, cost of services, allocation of the parties’ obligations on logistics and flight permits, as well as the risk mitigation plan in case of unexpected weather conditions. The latter is of utmost importance. The drone show is pretty weather-dependent fun, while any client pretty much wants to secure himself, his event and his expenses, isn’t that so?
More details on who’s responsible for negotiating the drone show with the local authorities ー in the below paragraph ‘Transport the drones and the crew, get permits’.
Payment terms are subject to negotiation with the show provider. Some companies can ask for a 100% advance payment in case of the first-time collaboration. Some ask for a 50% advance payment with the second half to be paid after the show. The overall amount can also be split into more parts with fixed payment dates. It’s always up for discussion.
How to select a good location for a drone show
The very work on a drone show starts with choosing a location of the show. It splits into 2 stages:
1. The client chooses a launch site.
The size of a launch pad from where drones take off depends on the size of drones which vary from company to company. At Lumasky, we request the area 12×12 m for 100 drones, 30×30 m for 500 drones and so on. Minimum distance between drones is 1 m.
A launch site should be located no further than 200 m from the main flight zone. No small garbage, holes, dust, sand, or grass should be on it. It must be swept clean before the crew arrives. Carpets or stage podiums are the best options. Also there should be no high objects near the launch site, such as high-rise buildings, radio antennas or trees. No wires and other obstacles above the site and along the entire route of the drones.
2. The provider inspects the chosen launch site.
The drone show specialist inspects the site online and offline. If it is even and obstacle-free, online inspection with satellite images is enough. If the location is rough, the drone show specialist can travel additionally to the launch site for physical check. Namely, he checks the feasibility of a show in the chosen location, tests the navigation, confirms or recommends to change the place, or updates the tech rider if needed. Say, if the drones take off from the sand, a carpet or other covering is needed; or if it’s a hot location, a tent is a must for the team and drones not to overheat.
The inspecting pilot also checks safety and weather at the location. Drone swarms should not fly over people or traffic, hit mountains in the background or fly too low above water. Weather forecasts are monitored tightly too. In case of a windy location, pilots can ask the designers to shorten the time of transitions between formations without affecting the show time.
Monitoring weather windows for the show really matters. Just check this: for the past 24 months NONE of Lumasky drone shows was canceled due to weather conditions. Even the recent one during once-in-a-life-time storm in Dubai.
Design the drone show: process in the making
Now the idea is being brought to life. What drone light show wizards do at this stage with the client or for the client:
- develop a detailed concept, that is to gather references in a moodboard and form a comprehensive narrative that aligns with the client’s goals whether it is to celebrate in style, generate incredible emotions, advertise in a new way, or reach the biggest possible audience with the show
- decide on the most relevant and appealing images to display: 10 or 15 pictures, 2D or 3D, pictures or writings, animated or motionless, the sequence of images, color range
- design all of the above beauty which comes in the following stages:
– drawing the images in a specific 3D software (Houdini, Blender, or another relevant one), convert them into dots, where these dots represent the actual drones
– animating drone movements and color if it is possible and required by the client
– compiling separate animations into one choreography, linking them together in a narrative, designing and animating nice transitions between the formations, and finalizing the show animation
– synchronizing the final animation with the show music
– getting the coordinates and color values of each drone through special tools in the software, which makes the flight missions for each drone so that they know where to fly and which color to give at what moment
– putting the above data in the format “time, X, Y, Z (coordinates), R, G, B (colors)” into binary files
– sending these binary files over to the show pilots, these files to be later read by the drone autopilots and completed by the drone swarm during final performance.
Now the animation is ready and waiting to be sent up to the skies.
Transport the drones and the crew, get permits
To have a drone show, you can’t just invite a provider to launch drones at your place. Bureaucracy kicks in. Get ready to obtain flight permits and handle other related paperwork.
- If you’re doing a show with a local provider, it makes things easier. You may bear none or only intercity logistic costs. As for obtaining permits, usually a local drone show provider takes on these obligations.
Take Lumasky for example. Its main logistic hub with the biggest drone pack is based in the UAE. If you order a Lumasky drone show in Dubai, we take care of the whole package of documents ourselves. To name a few, a flight permit, no-objection certificates (implying that the relevant authority/land owner does not object against you flying over or using his land for the show), a civil aviation approval, security clearance, and a dozen of other papers.
Next to the UAE, Mexico is another country where Lumasky is able to free their clients from getting all the required permits by doing this job themselves.
- If you’re doing a show with a foreign provider, a full logistical cycle shall be arranged. Look below.
3 points you need to note about the logistics of foreign providers:
- Timing: the best possible timing for logistic operations and legal paperwork is 4 weeks to the show. Which is an optimal time, for the industry’s average time of drone show negotiation starts 2-3 months to the show.
- Cost of delivery mainly consists of 2 parts: cost of logistics, and cost of customs clearance in case a drone light show is based in another country. Make sure you deliver this logistic setup to your clients so that they know what exactly the cost is made of.
- Obligations can vary at this stage. Either logistics and all papers are taken care of by the drone show company, or the obligations are split between the provider and the client, or other scenario depending on your negotiation terms with the drone show provider.
Don’t get too concerned about the above points. Hiring a foreign provider may add some extra docs and expenses, but he may also offer a bigger drone fleet, a greater experience in handling weather and other challenges, more captivating animations and some unique options local providers may not have.
Run test flights before final drone show
Test flights are done to ensure the main show is run on time and error-free.
Normally, before the show day the pilots run test flights with 1-50 drones followed the next day by the full rehearsal with the entire fleet to check that every drone catches signals from satellite systems, supported by the ground station which corrects the data in real-time in case the satellite signals are inaccurate. This is done for utmost precision that makes drone choreography correct, recognizable, and enjoyable.
In case of bugs, there are still 1-2 days to fix them, so that on day X the client gets exactly what he expected and paid for.
Sync the drone show with other elements
Often a drone light show needs to be synced with music and various audiovisual elements like fireworks, lasers, artists’ live performance. Otherwise the drone swarm in the sky will look cut off from the overall picture, may be dimmed by nearby smoke effects or simply collide with fireworks bursting in the air.
Usually there works a show director who connects the dots altogether and conducts this multi orchestra down to seconds. To sync the elements he creates timecodes using a special device (timecode generator or timecode machine) used by every performing crew. It contains the unified timeline of the whole performance written in digital codes, where the drone pilots see the time when to start their specific performance. As soon as the director sends a signal, the pilots command the drones to take off. And the magic begins
It’s showtime. Drone artwork in the night sky
The moment you’ve come all this way down for. The drone show is on. Drones take off the ground, position themselves in the air and start building eye-catching formations against the night sky and leaving the spectators breathless.
While drones are dancing, take whatever best place you want, in the excited crowd or at VIP seats. And finally, take time to enjoy this light spectacle.
As soon as the last drone lands, the show is over. The client receives final accounting documents. The drone show crew packs up their stuff and usually leaves the next day or in a day in case too many drones and equipment need to be dismantled.
In a week or so, many drone show providers also share with the client the quality footage of the drone show, viewers’ reaction and overall surroundings.
Bonus: measuring the drone show impact
If the creativity of the drone show is freaking jaw-dropping, it gets viral. In this case, the show can be subject to further analytics and measurement.
The show witnesses massively share their footage of insane displays and their reactions. It’s getting picked up by the media, and travels at the speed of light. If niche influencers with wide audiences were invited to the event to stream live, or other promotion channels were engaged, the effect gets multiplied.
Then comes the time to reap a harvest. In a day or two it will be possible to track and calculate social mentions and the overall reach. In a month or two, it will be possible to measure the level of the client’s brand or event awareness.
Apart from viral shows, it also applies to drone shows that were launched specifically as part of marketing campaigns.
THE END. Now you have the fullest understanding of drone show mechanics. Use this ultimate guide to check what points to fix with the drone show company and what to clarify to the end client who chose to uplevel his future event with a drone light show.
Shall you have any questions left, contact us and we’ll be happy to walk you through every single detail.
