EXCLUSIVE: A look behind London’s huge New Year’s drone light show

On New Year’s Eve, London introduced drones to its fireworks display for the first time. We watched it and loved it so much that we shared it with all of you. We have put together a short exclusive piece on the show’s inner workings with the help of the company behind the drones, SKYMAGIC.

If you haven’t yet had the chance to watch the show, be sure to check out our original post on the show.

The almost nine-minute New Year’s Eve celebration showed off drones in one of the best ways possible, entertaining people.

What went into creating the show?

We worked with Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency that worked in partnership with the Mayor of London’s office, to provide the show’s drone performance element alongside pyrotechnics from Titanium Fireworks and lighting design from Durham Marenghi, all set to music production by On the Sly.

If you have seen the show, you would know that a little more work went into it than some other drone shows. It turns out that the Mayor’s office had a vision in mind for the show, which included all of the special guests featured in it.

In most cases, we design our shows so they can be seen from any angle, like with our Zurich show. In this case, it was designed specifically for television, so everything had to be set up just right to work with the cameras as well as the fireworks that took place alongside our fleet of drones.

How did you hide the show from the public?

Due to the nature of drone shows, rehearsals are a must, whether they are virtual or physical. For this show, the SKYMAGIC team sent its drones up in the early hours of the morning to hide them from as many people as possible. On top of this, the show’s animation was also created, but nothing beats rehearsing in the real world.

Did the weather play a factor in the show?

Obviously, one of our main concerns was the weather. As they are quite delicate and need to be in exactly the right place for the designs to work, any rain or strong wind would have made the show a no-go. Thankfully, there was no rain on the night, and we had barely any wind for the entire time we were there.

SKYMAGIC was founded in 2015 and has grown to have offices in the UK and Singapore. The team behind this specific show has over 10,000 hours from flying drones across the globe. To ensure the drones perform perfectly, SKYMAGIC developed its swarm software to control drones for indoor and outdoor shows.

Drone light shows

Drone light shows have been a hit ever since Intel started performing them at major events to show off its technology. Check out the rest of our coverage on drone light shows and the countries using them the most.

• Hyundai, BTS light up the sky with a 1,000 drone show
• Drone show lights up Scottish sky for Hogmana
• 1,100 drones used to raise awareness of police emergency number in China
• Behind President-elect Biden’s breathtaking drone show
• BTS lights up the sky with drones in today’s performance on NBC

What do you think about drone light shows? Would you watch a drone light show considering the benefits they have over fireworks? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo: Jack Morton & Kois Miah