It’s no secret that I’m a fan of all issues Star Wars. I like Child Yoda. Ewoks and I are kindred spirits. My favourite drone for youths is that this Star Wars drone (and I had a hoot testing it). And naturally, I’m the Drone Woman. But regardless of having coated this trade for greater than 10 years, I’d nonetheless by no means seen a drone mild present. That’s, till I noticed the Sky Parts drone present.
Sky Parts, which is knowledgeable drone mild present firm primarily based inTexas, has placed on lots of of drone mild exhibits across the nation (and has even executed some worldwide exhibits). However their most particular present — to me a minimum of — was their Oakland A’s Star Wars Drone Present held in August 2023.
It was my first ever drone mild present seen in particular person — and it couldn’t have been higher. Comply with me all through my expertise of the entire afternoon and night spending time with Sky Parts — from set off to viewing the precise drone present — proper right here:
What it’s like watching the Sky Parts drone present
After the Oakland A’s performed the Orioles (and alas, the A’s misplaced), the gates of the Coliseum stadium opened and the viewers was allowed to flood onto the sphere so everybody might sit on the grass and indulge in a drone mild present that includes 500 drone, every fitted with sensible LED lights.
As soon as everybody had their place on the sphere, the stadium lights dimmed and the music began. A hush fell over the group as everybody waited to see what would occur subsequent. Then, immediately, lots of of drones rose up over the stadium, increasing into the phrases “Star Wars” within the iconic font with opening crawl.
From there, drones took the shapes of all types of Star Wars characters and themes, together with a 200-foot Darth Maul from Phantom Menace, BB-8 from the most recent trilogy, Grogu from “The Mandalorian” and Ahsoka Tano from the most recent within the Disney+ spinoff collection of exhibits. All of it, naturally, was set to the enduring John Williams soundtrack.
The designs for the present had been made in collaboration with The Oakland A’s and the Sky Parts crew, which incorporates chief pilot Preston Ward and chief Rick Boss.
Maybe most impressively is that solely did the Sky Parts drones fly into shapes, however Sky Parts designs totally animate. That included an AT-AT lurking in the direction of the stadium as a drone-lit snow speeder swooped in and tangled its legs with cable to carry it down. There was additionally a ‘battle’ between drone-lit variations of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.
And on this present, truly fireworks exploded too, reminiscent of when the AT-AT made its crash touchdown, and when lightsabers collided. Sky Parts says that was the primary time that pyrotechnics have complemented its exhibits.
Sky Parts leads the nation’s drone exhibits
Sky Parts is among the leaders for large-scale, U.S. drone mild exhibits. The exhibits are managed by a single pilot who makes use of software program on a central laptop system to program the drones to observe particular flight paths and exhibit varied colours and patterns with their onboard LED lights.
Its portfolio contains the drone mild present for Serena Williams’ gender reveal get together and it even holds a Guinness World File by producing 40 drone exhibits in a single weekend, which it did in the course of the 2023 Fourth of July weekend.
The corporate has been acknowledged on the award-winning worldwide stage, reminiscent of having been a winner within the SPH Engineering Worldwide Drone Present Competitors.
An alternative choice to fireworks
Drones are largely billed as a substitute for fireworks, which is probably unsurprisingly why the 2023 July Fourth weekend was so crammed with drone exhibits. They’re thought of extra eco-friendly and so they scale back noise air pollution — audiences couldn’t hear something associated to the drones from the bottom of the Star Wars drone present (a minimum of not over the John Williams soundtrack). After all, they’re additionally much more customizable — fireworks can’t explode within the form of Child Yoda, in any case.
And for exhibits like this Star Wars drone present, the drones had been the principle attraction, however fireworks had been sprinkled in for added aptitude. But even in that present, fireworks had been used sparingly, nonetheless slicing down on air pollution versus a standard fireworks present.
How Sky Parts arrange the Oakland A’s present
For the Oakland A’s Star Wars drone present, Sky Parts flew immediately above one of many stadium’s parking heaps, which was blocked off to vehicles for the present.
Whereas only one particular person “flies” the present — which on this case was Sky Parts chief pilot Preston Ward — there’s truly a strong crew of individuals there to calibrate the drones, in addition to to carry out security checks and lay them out in a grid for takeoff (these people are usually employed contractors who come from fields reminiscent of movie manufacturing).
That setup course of takes just a few hours — which means the crew arrived lengthy earlier than even the beginning of the sport. And since the Oakland Coliseum is situated so near Oakland Worldwide Airport, the Sky Parts crew additionally wanted to hunt permission to fly in what was in any other case restricted airspace.
Drone exhibits take to main fan occasions
The present on the Oakland A’s recreation is considered one of an rising variety of drone exhibits introduced in to cap off sporting occasions. In actual fact, simply the week prior, Sky Parts flew one other drone mild present on the Los Angeles Dodgers stadium.
This isn’t even Sky Parts’ first time flying on the Oakland A’s Coliseum stadium. The Sky Parts crew beforehand flew two smaller Star Wars drone exhibits with 200 and 250 drones. It then returned in June 2023 with a 300-drone Pixar-themed present, which got here after one other 250-drone Nickelodeon-themed present in August 2022. This newest Star Wars drone present in August 2023 was essentially the most drones to fly over the Coliseum thus far,
“Growing the drone depend to 500 was the subsequent step in wowing the viewers beneath,” in response to a press release from Sky Parts. “With a better drone depend, the crew was in a position to get rather more detailed with results and faces. A yr in the past, 500 drone exhibits for Sky Parts had been an especially huge deal.”
The Oakland A’s Star Wars drone present additionally seized the chance to advertise future sporting occasions. For instance, on the finish of the Star Wars Sky Parts drone present, drones flew into the form of a QR code, which followers might then {photograph} and obtain a hyperlink to a coupon for $5 tickets to the subsequent Athletics recreation at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. QR codes have been used for drone mild exhibits up to now to take viewers to all types of net hyperlinks, together with one QR code at a Travis Scott live performance that took audiences to an unique hyperlink to take heed to a musician’s single.
One more reason why that 500 drone depend was so essential? Sky Parts says they wanted greater than 300 drones to truly be capable of create the scannable drone QR code on the finish.
Why drone mild exhibits are set to develop into extra widespread
Whereas drone mild exhibits aren’t too widespread for now, that’s possible set to alter. Sky Parts says that —— as a result of drone mild exhibits are nonetheless a comparatively new type of leisure — an enormous issue holding them again from being extra commonplace is solely lack of understanding.
Different components holding drone mild exhibits again for now embrace regulatory constraints and value. The value of a drone mild present from Sky Parts varies primarily based on present dimension, however usually begins at $20,000 for smaller exhibits (with bigger, extra intricate performances unsurprisingly costing extra).
That stated, Sky Parts chief Rick Boss says that costs have already dropped enormously in simply the previous yr although as the corporate finds methods to streamline its processes. Boss factors to simplified present design software program, enhanced present operations and environment friendly drone upkeep procedures as methods they’ve introduced down prices. That features a complicated floor station software program system, which automates drone placement and flight readiness checks — which each reduces danger of human error and makes the setup course of extra environment friendly.
One other enormous think about Sky Parts value is the price to buy the drones themselves. Sky Parts makes use of drones from UVify, which is a South Korean drone maker with headquarters in San Francisco, California. UVify makes all types of merchandise ranging together with the $200 UVify OOri Good Racing Micro Drone. However its standout product is its IFO and IFO-S drone mild present drones.
Costs for UVify’s drones can differ, however they at the moment promote on-line for about $2,000 every. At that worth, the one Star Wars drone present would have featured $1 million price of drones within the sky at one time.
