Happy New Year and welcome to 2020. Last night saw the big controversy over fireworks play out and the debate on social media certainly got pretty heated.
Thankfully technology affords many opportunities to change how we do things on this planet and it seems some countries are leading the way in a migration from the fires in the sky (while many burn on the ground) and leveraging stunning light shows using drones and lasers.
One such example is Shanghai who used a massive array of drones to create shapes and patterns and I think you’ll agree the result is pretty stunning.
Singapore also got into the drone action, with part of their NYE celebrations also including a drone light show in the sky.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen drone shows, in fact, Intel famously demo’d a fleet of 100 co-ordinated drones back in 2015, but has since gone on to perform drone displays of over 500 drones around the world.
With drones being a scalable, programmable solution, there’s really no limit to the creative shows that could be enabled, particularly for New Years Eve celebrations.
Kiama Council opted for a laser show instead of fireworks. Paired with music, this can also create a pretty magical experience and these are industrial-grade laser shows that can illuminate large areas or buildings, a little better than your average seedy nightclub.
It’d actually be great to see something like the Vivid festival move to a New Years timeframe, rather than their current May/June schedule. The combination of 3D light projection on buildings around our major cities, with a competition to have the best drone displays and laser shows in the world would be quite something.
For historical reference, this amazing show in London was done back in 2011 and even today still stands up as one of the most amazing outdoor presentations ever created. Combined with the right set of speakers and complimenting music, we really could be about to transition into a much more high-tech New Years Eve celebration.
