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Thursday, October 11, 2018
How Swarms of Super Intelligent Drones Are Taking Over Live Entertainment
gizmodo.com: Concerts can be boring. Typically, you’ve got an artist on stage singing songs and stuff, and then a bunch of spotlights beaming columns of color through some fake smoke. But something new is on the horizon, and it’s equal parts creepy and futuristic.
8 comments:
GabeM
said...
This is not the first article I have seen about drones and their use in the entertainment industry, which I think is exciting. Previously, I have had a lot of experience with aerial photography via drone so I am all for drones taking on a more diverse role in the world. Using drones with a light on them to create aerial light shows during concerts and events is exciting, it is a new form of light design and incorporates a new theatrical position of the drone operator. I applaud companies such as Verity Studios that are leading the way in this innovative industry. Previously, Drake’s tour brought a lot of attention to this new field because it was really the first time we have seen drones being used on a regular basis on a live entertainment platform. In the future, I can see this technology evolving into something even bigger where you could assemble an army of drones flying close together to make a sort of flying LED wall.
The shift in the concert industry from traditional moving heads to more complex interactive lighting has been long overdue. It seems as if overnight the concert industry noticed all the technology developing around them and realized how useful that technology would be if it were repurposed. Outside of drones, Taylor Swift has recently been on the forefront of interactive lighting, by incorporating LED bracelets worn by her audiences to create new designs that light up the entire crowd. The diversity of options available through bracelets like that and these drones mean that new things can be done, like the Cirque show or the Drake concert in that video. No longer do lights have to be anchored to a truss, which gives designers new things to do with their designs. I think it's probable that we're reaching a point where we're going to see technology used to send the drones higher and higher, creating designs that cover the entire crowd and can be used to send a message, or even using them to create a sort of holographic projection. It would be useful for the theater industry to keep an eye on the way the concert industry is changing, because just as we have begun incorporating projections that they've used for years, I think that we will continue to repurpose technology like this, just as we could see in the Frozen clip.
I was just explaining to someone not in our business the other day the way that the entertainment industry uses drones or drone like machinery to film a lot of the time. Both in concert style entertainment like the article describes and in pretty much all live sporting events that I can think of. The last time I went to a professional sports game I was fascinated with the amount of technology above my head for the game that was below it. I think that the more technology progresses the more we are going to see it in our every day lives but also the more that it will be used by designers as a part of the show not just as functionality. I was also thinking about the Taylor Swift concert and how she used bracelets that changed colors and were synchronized to create color in the audience with things other than light. As we see lighting and camera technology progress there will become more and more of that and I can't wait. This is a very exciting time to be joining the business, because the tools we use for it are evolving at a spectacular rate.
I think this is an interesting article because ever since the Super Bowl half time show where Lady Gaga used drones I've been curious how they will be used more in concert and entertainment events. The opening line of the article that the author wrote was really off putting though, obviously concerts are not boring as they have been, or it would not be such a huge industry. The main point of the article is fascinating, I do think that shows will start to include this technology, I would think that out door venues would be more interesting to really see them fly around and not be limited by the building. I am curious who the job of programming drones will fall on it. Will it be a separate person who is hired on for the specific task? Or is it a combination of designers? While I am not someone that goes to concerts, I would be very interested in seeing them in a video.
Drone swarm is always a hit nowadays, and I was lucky enough to do one of the projects involving the swarm controlling. The working process is just like it was depicted in the article. The rule No.1 of the swarm is to locate each drone and try to make them recognize each other's position so they can swarm while avoiding collision. During the project, the most impressed part to me was that user interface was so vital for a operator. The console I had was pretty similar to a lighting console, but rather than a list of channels I had a 3D space with grid to show each drone's location and status. For it was a project still on prototyping stage, I literally had to insert every single coordinate to get them move. After weeks of long grinding in front of the monitor, we had a show lasted only 150 second. I think that's where we at now, but I look forward to having a real time console just like MA or other advanced consoles.
Drones seem to be all the buzz in the entertainment industry. Many of the big performers are interested in incorporating drone technology because of the possibilities that can be achieved. I think this is the first time that I've seen the drones fly this close to the stage. Both the software and hardware for drone technology has gotten better and safer making the applications even more vast. Verity seems to be a leader in the industry and offers their clients a reliable product that can be trusted throughout a productions life. I hope to see the technology continue to improve and other big name performers continue to adopt a variation of this technology into their performances. Although the sticker price on a show feature like this is probably significant I think it adds a lot to the audience experience and as the technology improves, not only will the price come down but companies like Verity will continue to adopt the use of drones in entertainment.
After previously reading about how drone’s where used recently at a Drake concert, I was interested in Adam Clark Estes article about “How Swarms of super intelligent Drones Are Taking Over Live Entertainment. This article like the Drake one features the company leading the way on entertainment drones, Verity Studios. Except in this article Adam goes more into detail about how the drone functions, which I’m glad he did because I was interested in more information about safety guidelines, and other limitations that can go into using drones during live performances. I loved hearing about how the drones are choreographed, and i'm glad he also mentioned his concern with safety. He brings up “If a single drone fails, it will simply land in place. If a satellite fails, however, the rest of the network will still function”. I'm excited to follow how the industry, including Verity studios will find ways to work around limitations and further integrate drones into live performance.
I had seen an article about this topic recently, specifically talking about Metallica's drones, and I wanted to read further into this topic because it is terrifying to me. I'm not a big fan of drones or robots the "coolness factor" just isn't really there for me. I thought the drone tornado in Metallica's new tour was very cool artistically, but I worry about audience safety. I know that must have been considered thoroughly when designing and executing the tricks. But having something unattached to any sort of catch fail safe makes me worry if the power goes out or if the control software malfunctions because there is not any sort of mechanical stop. Furthermore, I wonder how audiences, especially under the influence, interact with drones if close enough to touch them. I would be concerned about audience injury from trying to mess with the drones. Ultimately I think it is cool but still very creepy to me.
8 comments:
This is not the first article I have seen about drones and their use in the entertainment industry, which I think is exciting. Previously, I have had a lot of experience with aerial photography via drone so I am all for drones taking on a more diverse role in the world. Using drones with a light on them to create aerial light shows during concerts and events is exciting, it is a new form of light design and incorporates a new theatrical position of the drone operator. I applaud companies such as Verity Studios that are leading the way in this innovative industry. Previously, Drake’s tour brought a lot of attention to this new field because it was really the first time we have seen drones being used on a regular basis on a live entertainment platform. In the future, I can see this technology evolving into something even bigger where you could assemble an army of drones flying close together to make a sort of flying LED wall.
The shift in the concert industry from traditional moving heads to more complex interactive lighting has been long overdue. It seems as if overnight the concert industry noticed all the technology developing around them and realized how useful that technology would be if it were repurposed. Outside of drones, Taylor Swift has recently been on the forefront of interactive lighting, by incorporating LED bracelets worn by her audiences to create new designs that light up the entire crowd. The diversity of options available through bracelets like that and these drones mean that new things can be done, like the Cirque show or the Drake concert in that video. No longer do lights have to be anchored to a truss, which gives designers new things to do with their designs. I think it's probable that we're reaching a point where we're going to see technology used to send the drones higher and higher, creating designs that cover the entire crowd and can be used to send a message, or even using them to create a sort of holographic projection. It would be useful for the theater industry to keep an eye on the way the concert industry is changing, because just as we have begun incorporating projections that they've used for years, I think that we will continue to repurpose technology like this, just as we could see in the Frozen clip.
I was just explaining to someone not in our business the other day the way that the entertainment industry uses drones or drone like machinery to film a lot of the time. Both in concert style entertainment like the article describes and in pretty much all live sporting events that I can think of. The last time I went to a professional sports game I was fascinated with the amount of technology above my head for the game that was below it. I think that the more technology progresses the more we are going to see it in our every day lives but also the more that it will be used by designers as a part of the show not just as functionality. I was also thinking about the Taylor Swift concert and how she used bracelets that changed colors and were synchronized to create color in the audience with things other than light. As we see lighting and camera technology progress there will become more and more of that and I can't wait. This is a very exciting time to be joining the business, because the tools we use for it are evolving at a spectacular rate.
I think this is an interesting article because ever since the Super Bowl half time show where Lady Gaga used drones I've been curious how they will be used more in concert and entertainment events. The opening line of the article that the author wrote was really off putting though, obviously concerts are not boring as they have been, or it would not be such a huge industry. The main point of the article is fascinating, I do think that shows will start to include this technology, I would think that out door venues would be more interesting to really see them fly around and not be limited by the building. I am curious who the job of programming drones will fall on it. Will it be a separate person who is hired on for the specific task? Or is it a combination of designers? While I am not someone that goes to concerts, I would be very interested in seeing them in a video.
Drone swarm is always a hit nowadays, and I was lucky enough to do one of the projects involving the swarm controlling. The working process is just like it was depicted in the article. The rule No.1 of the swarm is to locate each drone and try to make them recognize each other's position so they can swarm while avoiding collision. During the project, the most impressed part to me was that user interface was so vital for a operator. The console I had was pretty similar to a lighting console, but rather than a list of channels I had a 3D space with grid to show each drone's location and status. For it was a project still on prototyping stage, I literally had to insert every single coordinate to get them move. After weeks of long grinding in front of the monitor, we had a show lasted only 150 second. I think that's where we at now, but I look forward to having a real time console just like MA or other advanced consoles.
Drones seem to be all the buzz in the entertainment industry. Many of the big performers are interested in incorporating drone technology because of the possibilities that can be achieved. I think this is the first time that I've seen the drones fly this close to the stage. Both the software and hardware for drone technology has gotten better and safer making the applications even more vast. Verity seems to be a leader in the industry and offers their clients a reliable product that can be trusted throughout a productions life. I hope to see the technology continue to improve and other big name performers continue to adopt a variation of this technology into their performances. Although the sticker price on a show feature like this is probably significant I think it adds a lot to the audience experience and as the technology improves, not only will the price come down but companies like Verity will continue to adopt the use of drones in entertainment.
After previously reading about how drone’s where used recently at a Drake concert, I was interested in Adam Clark Estes article about “How Swarms of super intelligent Drones Are Taking Over Live Entertainment. This article like the Drake one features the company leading the way on entertainment drones, Verity Studios. Except in this article Adam goes more into detail about how the drone functions, which I’m glad he did because I was interested in more information about safety guidelines, and other limitations that can go into using drones during live performances. I loved hearing about how the drones are choreographed, and i'm glad he also mentioned his concern with safety. He brings up “If a single drone fails, it will simply land in place. If a satellite fails, however, the rest of the network will still function”. I'm excited to follow how the industry, including Verity studios will find ways to work around limitations and further integrate drones into live performance.
I had seen an article about this topic recently, specifically talking about Metallica's drones, and I wanted to read further into this topic because it is terrifying to me. I'm not a big fan of drones or robots the "coolness factor" just isn't really there for me. I thought the drone tornado in Metallica's new tour was very cool artistically, but I worry about audience safety. I know that must have been considered thoroughly when designing and executing the tricks. But having something unattached to any sort of catch fail safe makes me worry if the power goes out or if the control software malfunctions because there is not any sort of mechanical stop. Furthermore, I wonder how audiences, especially under the influence, interact with drones if close enough to touch them. I would be concerned about audience injury from trying to mess with the drones. Ultimately I think it is cool but still very creepy to me.
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