CMU School of Drama


Friday, February 09, 2024

Transforming the night sky and the future of entertainment

www.avinteractive.com: In an era where traditional marketing struggles to cut through the noise, innovative brand activation strategies are key to capturing audience attention, fostering lasting connections and tapping into emotional engagement.

7 comments:

Julia Adilman said...

I’m very happy that there is finally a better alternative to fireworks. For quite a while, I have not been the biggest fan of fireworks because on top of them having a high carbon footprint, they also scare lots of animals and people because of their loud noise. I know animals that have almost run away from their homes because of the loud fireworks in their area. I feel like with this new use of drone light shows, people will be able to be even more creative and entertaining, while also being better for the environment and making the animals and people around us feel a lot more comfortable. We do not need to make entertainment that hurts the world and environment around us. I’m so happy that there has been an increase in drone light shows, and I hope that more companies like Celestial can continue to grow in the coming years. More companies need to opt for drone light shows, instead of fireworks and continue this switch for more sustainable entertainment.

Sam Regardie said...

I've always been very interested in these drone light shows, and I would love to see one someday. I think the technology to be able to control such a large amount of drones in unison with so much precision is incredibly impressive. I really wonder how they account for wind because I could definitely see that causing issues. I also wonder if they have ever had issues with birds crashing into the drones. I really love that this technology is much more sustainable than fireworks, as those without a doubt come with a wide range of additional issues. In my opinion, these drone shows are also much, much cooler than fireworks, as I have found fireworks less and less entertaining as I've gotten older. The wider ability of these drones to create designs with significant precision makes them a much better tool for entertainment (and perhaps advertising) settings.

Penny Preovolos said...

I am very intrigued to learn more about drone shows. One because the first one I ever saw was the most horrible thing ever, several of them fell out of the air or flew in the wrong direction. But I always thought that the idea is really unique and a quieter alternative to fireworks (I have never loved the smoke or loud noises they make). But I think this article has a really good point in saying it is a great way to engage with audiences. I think if done right they can create shapes and messages that others can't. You can control them more and fly them in time to music and I think it is really an interesting way technology is contributing to developing our entertainment experience. I also appreciated how the article was talking about how drones could be a sustainable alternative to fireworks in terms of their environmental impact.

Nick Wylie said...

Drone shows have always been very cool to see videos of online. I have never gotten to see one in person, but there are many videos out there that explain all of the intricacies that go into the programming, setup, and run of these shows. On the lower end, setting up a few drones to run from one remote is not that hard. This is a stark contrast to the higher end shows, where the drones each have custom coding and sensors to have real-time data on position, velocity, and how close they are to every other drone. These videos are very fun to watch and try to understand all of the problems that arise when you would be planning for a drone show that consists of hundreds of drones. I think that fireworks shows will always have their own place for large displays, but drones can get to much more specific shapes during shows and are easily reused, which means after the initial trial and error of setting up the show they can be easily run from a show file again and again.

Helen Maleeny said...

The stuff they’re doing with drones now reminds me of one scene at the beginning of The Lord of The Rings, when Gandalf makes a fireworks show that turns into a flying dragon, chasing Pippin and Merry. We’re now doing that with drones, creating these moving images in the sky that can be so incredible. To be honest, I still think fireworks are super cool and if one turned into a dragon it would be awesome, and is crazy to think about the chemical reaction that creates that kind of beautiful firework in the sky, and how they came up with it so long ago. However the work with drones is getting more and more advanced and it’s crazy how they can synchronize everything. I wonder the ability to use it in theater in the future, possibly being able to add drone shows to outdoor productions, or maybe that would go too far and distract the audience from the production, but it is an interesting thought. Overall, I’m very excited to see what they end up doing with these new drone light show developments, and how it may affect the entertainment industry to come.

Joshua Egolf said...

It is on my bucket list to see a drone show because I find them absolutely fascinating. From the designing to the programming, drone shows are incredibly challenging and I am so impressed when I hear about how much time and effort goes into just one show. I think that it is such a perfect blend of technology and art and I think that it opens up a lot of ideas about the mixing of the two sectors. From an environmental point of view, I think that it is a fantastic idea and the mixing of fireworks and drones into one show is a really cool and complex idea. From a marketing point of view, I think it was ingenious for Samsung to use a drone show to advertise their new line of smartphones. Using something like as technologically impressive as a drone show to advertise how technologically impressive your new line of smartphones is is ingenious.

Ellie Yonchak said...

I think that led drones are a very interesting and unique solution to the problems that fireworks pose, but I do have some concerns over how they may negatively impact the environment in worse ways. First of all, while fireworks do explode, which isn't great, and they facilitate the catching of things on fire, I think that drones have the potential to require more energy, to require more upkeep, things like fuel, electricity, and even maintenance would then also need to be factored in. Furthermore, I think the thing that I'm worried about the most is something like the drone collapsing and landing and polluting the Earth even more with its little dead drone body.I'm also really curious about what the definition of sustainable means in this article, as it's never explicitly defined. What makes these drones more sustainable than fireworks? In what capacity? Finally, I’ll be honest and say that I also think that drones have a long way to go before they look as good as fireworks do.