Rick Boss is the chief of Sky Components Drones, the main supplier of drone gentle reveals across the U.S. He just lately invited me behind-the-scenes of his firm’s Star Wars drone gentle present on the Oakland Coliseum as a part of the staff’s Star Wars Night time.
I’ve acquired a huge recap of the occasion right here, together with tons of photographs, which you’ll learn and consider right here. There’s additionally a video on my YouTube channel that includes among the highlights, proper under:
However whereas that video has a number of snippets of our Q&A, it doesn’t embody all of it. Thus, I’ve determined to share our full Q&A in textual content type. In our behind-the-scenes interview, he shares how they handle to journey with all these drones, what the setup entails and extra. So with out additional adieu, right here’s that interview with Rick Boss!
Drone Woman: What are we behind us?
Rick Boss: Tonight we’re 500 drones for a present that’s going to be Star Wars themed. What’s happening proper now’s the crew is organising all of the drones, calibrating the drones, and ensuring we’re able to go for tonight.
DG: And there’s really a fairly decently sized crew. How many individuals do you’ve placing on this entire endeavor?
RB: Usually for a present the dimensions now we have about 15 to 18 folks to get all of the drones arrange, however only one individual flying the present.
DG: So these of us have been doing quite a lot of work calibrating the drones. Inform me, what all goes into the setup forward of time?
RB: Numerous the work, effectively, many of the work, occurs beforehand. So our inventive staff has spent most likely a few hundred and fifty hours of programming only for this present. A lot work goes on forward of the present, and tonight it’s simply organising the drones to ensure all the pieces works effectively at present.
DG: So far as programming, what are we going to see?
RB: You’re going to see quite a lot of Star Wars.
DG: Do you suppose we’ll see Child Yoda?
RB: There’s an excellent probability that Grogu is up there.
DG: Sure! Superb! And so that you do a bunch of those reveals. Simply earlier than this you had been on the Dodger’s Recreation. I hear you additionally did the Serena Williams child gender reveal present.
RB: We did. We did the Serena Williams child gender. We additionally did the Dodger’s present, which was 1,000 drones. For context, we’re doing 500 tonight. Now we have one other Star Wars present developing for FC Dallas with 1,000 drones.
DG: Oh my gosh, so that you’re busy! What number of reveals are you doing every month or every week?
RB: We fly 5-6 reveals each week, everywhere in the nation. So sure, we’re fairly busy. From Key West to Seattle, Washington to the Caribbean in addition to Hawaii. We’re in every single place.
DG: So do you’ve a truck? How do you get drones to all these locations?
RB: So proper behind me is a truck trailer there. The trailer is the most typical manner we transport our drones. The first motive for that’s due to all these lithium batteries. It’s in any other case only a ache to fly twitch them everywhere in the nation.
DG: Flying with drones — and maybe extra critically, flying with LiPo batteries — is difficult, so I’m not shocked to listen to you say that.
RB: It’s particularly powerful when your reveals are huge.
DG: So on that notice, how does the dimensions of this present examine to most drone gentle reveals?
RB: It is a medium-to-large present. Our common drone is about 300 drones. With 500 drones, that’s a pleasant sized present.
DG: How do I get my very own private drone gentle present, like what Serena acquired?
RB: *Laughs* You may name us, or go to our web site at SkyElementsDrones.com, hit the request button and we’ll get you a quote.
DG: And I most likely must win the lottery to get some cash to do this?
RB: The price of a drone present is pricey nonetheless. It’s greater than fireworks, that’s for positive. That mentioned, the costs are all the time getting higher. I imply, the worth proper now’s half what it was a 12 months and a half in the past.
DG: It’s changing into extra reasonably priced, and it’s additionally extra environmentally pleasant — which I do like that facet as effectively.
RB: Little doubt about it. Notably in some states the place there’s hearth hazard, that may be a nice profit. There’s the truth that these are low noise. We’re not impacting the neighbors, we’re not impacting the pets, and it’s actually we’re leaving no particles behind.
DG: And, we get much more customized, actual designs. I’m personally excited to see Child Grogu tonight.
And similar to that, you possibly can watch their timelapsed model of the present proper right here:
You met Rick Boss, however one of many different geniuses powering Sky Components is Preston Ward, who serves as the corporate’s chief pilot. Come again to The Drone Woman subsequent week to learn an identical Q&A, however with Preston!
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