Another kind of magic
Skymagic ’ s spectacular drone show as part of the Queen ’ s Platinum Jubilee celebrations has , according to its founder Mungo Denison , sparked huge interest in the technology . He tells Access about the next steps for the company .
Since its launch in 2015 , as an arm of event design studio New Substance , Skymagic has delivered multi-drone light shows in more than 20 territories worldwide , from the UK to United Arab Emirates and Japan , but its work on the Queen ’ s Jubilee concert has taken interest in the company to another level .
“ The attention has been off the scale for us , we ’ re a small company and we are not aggressively going after that type of exposures but it has been fantastic ,” says Skymagic founder and director Mungo Denison .
The show was watched by a TV audience of more than 13m people in the UK alone , resulted in extensive media news coverage worldwide and even saw Skymagic being asked by the team at ABC Good Morning America to create a drone show for them . But Denison says it was a phone call from a 92-year-old member of the public that was among the most gratifying reactions .
“ He said it had taken him five days to track me down , he was furious with the BBC for not putting a credit for us at the end of the programme , and he just wanted to say ‘ thank you , it was amazing ’,” says Denison .
Having been commissioned by BBC Studios to deliver the show above Buckingham Palace , Skymagic used its 3D animation suite to design and choreograph a 400-drone performance that included a range of multi-coloured images including a corgi dog and a postage stamp with the Monarch ’ s face on it .
It ’ s a long way from Skymagic ’ s first commercial show back in 2016 that involved a 40-drone display marking
Mungo Denison
a theme park opening for Dubai Parks And Resorts . Since then , it has staged numerous shows worldwide , with two consecutive London New Year ’ s Eve displays among the most notable in the UK . Within weeks of the Jubilee , Skymagic delivered the UK ’ s largest ever drone light show . Marking the launch of the Paramount + streaming service , a 600-drone display was created above Hollywood , near Birmingham .
With all of Skymagic ’ s software and hardware being proprietary , Denison says the “ sky is the limit ” when it comes to the number of drones that can be used . The biggest issue for clients is the larger the volume of drones , the bigger the take-off area
Platinum Jubilee
required , which is a key consideration when looking to do an activation in a metropolitan area .
While it is not possible to fly the drones directly above audiences , Denison says there has been a lot of interest from major festivals such as Coachella and Tomorrowland : “ We are talking to festival operators about shows next year . Often festival operators don ’ t have the budgets for such sizeable addons so it ’ s a case of trying to wrap it in with a sponsor .”
The company has a fleet of more than 1000 drones and is able to create both indoor and outdoor activations . As well as its fleet of drones equipped with LED lights that are visible for 2km , Skymagic offers a PyroDrone fleet that has been used for a display that broke the Guinness World Record for the ‘ most unmanned aerial vehicles launching fireworks simultaneously ’.
Says Denison , “ We are exploring lasers mounted on the drones and looking at the ability to fire lasers from the ground to hit the drones . That ’ s in development at the moment , we ’ re always looking to push the envelope where we can .”
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