Record drone and outdoor LED shows ring in New Year
In a year in which New Year’s Eve fireworks celebrations were still scaled back or cancelled in many cities around the world, drones and outdoor LED advertising screens have played a starring role in organised festivities.
Major events included the UK’s largest drone show in London, and the simultaneous display of New Year’s Eve imagery on more than 400 outdoor LED screens in England, Scotland and the Netherlands for the first time.
The UK’s largest drone show featured 500 drones deployed to augment the effect of fireworks and lighting, with drone specialist Skymagic working with brand experience agency Jack Morton which created and produced the show on behalf of the Mayor of London.
Skymagic’s drones performed using real-time kinematic (RTK) technology that delivers improved GPS accuracy and high-definition images, as well as faster transitions between moves.
The content of the show drew on festival and party themes, music moments and sporting highlights, with key motifs including Elton John’s keyboard, a roaring lion, and party popper moments.
Patrick O’Mahony, creative director at Skymagic commented: “We were delighted to collaborate again with Jack Morton to design and deliver the drone light show for London New Year’s Eve for the second year running. Building on last year’s show, we have returned to the capital with a larger fleet and having developed our drone division both technologically and creatively. The 2022 show tells a celebratory story with an emphasis on three-dimensional formations, conceptual shapes and complex trajectories.”
Meanwhile, more than 400 outdoor LED advertising screens in 35 cities in the UK and the Netherlands celebrated the arrival of 2022 with virtual firework displays on screens.
DOOH operator Ocean Outdoor switched more than 380 of its large-format and full-motion, city-centre and roadside screens in England and Scotland to showing celebratory artwork developed in-house for a period of 24 hours. In London, the world-famous Piccadilly Lights carried a 10-second countdown to midnight followed by a 30-second Happy New Year montage. In addition, 42 Ocean screens in 22 cities in the Netherlands wished their local communities Gelukigg Niewjaar.
Ocean chief marketing officer Richard Malton said: “This is the first time we have switched our screens in unison across three countries to celebrate the arrival of the New Year. With so many large events, such as Hogmanay in Scotland and London’s traditional fireworks display cancelled, it seemed appropriate to light up the skies and celebrate with the local communities where we live and work.”
In the United States, too, outdoor LED advertising screens were a key part of scaled-back celebrations in Times Square, New York. Here, interactive solutions agency Tiger Party has been managing the countdown clock and synchronising 38 of the square’s latest digital billboards with an accuracy of up to one-sixtieth of a second, since 2010. The company is also responsible for complex screen management which allows producers of the New Year Ball Drop event to switch from scheduled content to live-streaming at any point.
Source: AV Magazine
