It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a drone light show!

For the first time in its history, the Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo in Redmond will feature drone light shows. The Bend-Bulletin first reported on the drone light shows, which will take place after each evening’s musical performance and feature more than 200 drones launching into the night sky. The drones are programmed to fly like a hive of bees buzzing with LED lights, swooping into formation hundreds of feet in the air to sculpt recognizable shapes and objects, from corporate logos to an American flag and a dirt bike stunt performer. Drone light shows are growing in popularity at outdoor events and can offer a quieter, more environmentally friendly alternative to fireworks displays. We talk to Jonathan Segali, the CEO of Go Drone Shows, for a preview of the drone performances his company has created for the Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo and the future of using drones for aerial entertainment.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller:  This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The Deschutes County Fair and Rodeo starts tomorrow. It goes through the weekend. For the first time in its history, as reported recently by the Bend Bulletin, it’ll feature drone light shows: hundreds of drones with led lights programmed to make designs in the night sky. Jonathan Segali is the CEO of Idaho-based Go Drone Shows, which is putting on these nightly events. He joins us now to talk about this growing industry. Jonathan, welcome.

Jonathan Segali:  Thanks Dave. How are you?

Miller:  Doing great, thanks for joining us. For people who haven’t seen a drone light show, can you just describe what they look like?

Segali:  Yeah, a lot of people see them online. But in person, it’s a little bit different. You see images, pixels flying in the sky, making different types of geometrical shapes, logos. It’s really fun, really exciting to see. It sounds like a bunch of pissed off bees. But yeah, it’s a lot of fun.

Miller:  I was gonna ask you what it sounds like because I mean, one drone, as you say, can sound like an angry bee. So 300 [drones] is just 300 times that?

Segali: Yeah, 300 times that. I mean, you’re not getting super loud. We’ve flown on ranches where we have livestock that we want to make sure we’re not scaring them. [They were] fine with that. It’s just definitely a different type of sound.

Miller:  You have a background as an event producer. Why did you decide to make the switch and start focusing exclusively on drone light shows?

Segali: Well, the thought was we were gonna add them to our events as an add-on. It was gonna be something different that would separate us from other event producers. As we started going down that path, we just found a stronger passion with that. And, as you know, public events that are usually free to the public are harder and harder to produce with the attendance and just trying to get people’s attention to go to some of these things. And drones are a new medium that allowed us to get on something that was cutting edge and our staff seemed to love it and where the staff goes, I go.

Miller:  Am I right that this means a big capital outlay? With fireworks, I imagine you could buy them for a show, but here you just have to have your drones, your whole fleet of them?

Segali:  Absolutely. It’s not something that existed five to seven years ago so there [are only] a handful of drone producers out there, manufacturers. There is a significant outlay of cash. And depending on the type of drone that you go with, some are definitely more expensive than others, not including training, software, designers. You can’t just go to Fiverr and have someone design a drone show for you. You have to really develop that. So it really is a huge capital expenditure to be able to even operate the drones. And then getting the shows after that is a whole other gambit of interesting experiences.

Miller:  We’ll get to that in a second but how much, if you don’t mind me asking, did you pay for your drones? And how many drones did you buy when you said, “I’m gonna go all in”?

Segali:  We started with 200. With that, the average drone cost when we were purchasing them can, depending on the quantity that you buy, can be anywhere from $2,000 to $4,000-$4,500. So it was significant, not to mention you have to have the trucks, the trailers, the things you don’t think about, generators. All that adds up and it was north of $1million.

Miller:  Are you happy you made that switch?

Segali:  Absolutely. I mean, the stuff that we’ve been able to do, the people we’ve been able to work with. I remember my first fireworks show, being able to provide people’s first drone shows has just been a blessing if you will. It’s seeing kids and adults alike. It’s hard for us to get wowed now. And being in this industry is allowing us to really wow customers again. Wowing the public. And yeah, it wasn’t something that I really saw myself enjoying, but now that I’m doing it I love it.

Miller:  What advantages do you think drone light shows present compared to fireworks displays?

Segali:  Firework displays, I believe, have their place. I mean, it’s something that’s iconic with certain parts of the country. Growing up in Idaho, as you know, it seems like we’re always on fire. So, with that, drone shows don’t have that component. I think a lot of times the fireworks that we are working with on that type of scale, they’re very responsible. They have to go through their permitting too. They’re working with fire departments. They’re really, really good at what they do. But there is that chance, if you will. Not to mention more and more issues with PTSD and with animal control, drones do provide a little bit different approach to that. So we see a lot of real strong interest in relationships along coasts where there is fallout no matter what happens. But you have to have clean-up for that fallout for marine life. Things like that.

That’s where that competitive advantage comes from. It’s renewable energy. We’re using batteries. We’re charging them and then we’re reusing them over and over again. So that’s really nice. I don’t have a lot of waste with that. So the advantages are definitely there. Another thing is that they’re pixels, right? So if you want to fly “Dave” in the sky, we can fly “Dave” in the sky. If you wanted to fly a QR code to your website, we could fly a QR code to your website.

So sponsorship and information is really, really probably the biggest competitive advantage over fireworks. We’re able to really portray a message and most of these places that we’re doing this stuff also have an accompaniment with audio. And at that point, we can tell a story. So there’s one where we did the old rugged flag and we happen to have fireworks and drones in conjunction on this one. And it told a really beautiful story.

Miller:  When you say pixels, meaning each drone is one dot?

Segali:  Correct.

Miller:  So 400 drones sounds like a lot of drones but I got to say, it doesn’t sound like a lot of pixels. A TV has millions of pixels. What does that mean in terms of the limitations of what you can show?

Segali:  I think the big thing that we’re running into, as far as the limitations concerned, is there is a quantity component to it. But the things that we’re able to do and portray, our minds really jump to some pretty cool conclusions and allow us to really play with that. I think as we get more and more aggressive and more and more people enter the space, you’ll start seeing things like 1,000 drones at a time and whatnot. But we do get a lot out of those 400 drones, especially with forced perspective.

Some of these images are as large as a football field, right? And you’re able to see what’s going on. We’ve done things where we’ve created a grid, kind of like a stock ticker and been able to tell messages relatively quickly and be able to do a lot of stuff like that. And again, back to that point of a QR code. I mean, it’s kind of funny but kind of not, that the second these drones fly in the air, the first thing people do is pull out their phones and start recording it. So having access to that and then having people being able to go to specific things and have that call to action really close the gaps of what we’re allowed to too.

Miller:  Actually, it reminds me a little bit of like a 3-D marching band, in terms of creating a series of pictures with moving pieces, although I’m not sure that marching bands make QR code designs with their trombones as they’re running around a field.

Segali:  But hey, you know what, you might have started something.

Miller: If an organizer is deciding between fireworks and drones, how does the price compare for a similarly sized show?

Segali:  You’re seeing a little bit more expense for a drone show. Just right now, and not just because of the amount of people in the market. The availability of the drones, the limitation of how many drones are actually even in that market and are able to get there. Because it’s not something that you can just drop ship and let sit there for a couple weeks until you get your operators there. These things are working. So, as of right now, we have three shows that we’re doing, right next to you guys. We have some in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey going on right now. We have operators all over the country. So when you’re dealing with that, it does become a little bit more expensive.

You’re probably about 30% more expensive than what you would see for a fireworks show. Now, that’s come down dramatically over the last probably year, year and a half. I mean, for a 200-drone show when we were first starting in the industry, it was $80,000. And so now you’re seeing stuff more around that $35,000 range. And depending on how many nights you’re doing it, it actually gets a lot less because you’ve already paid for us to be there in a way. So typically you’re seeing for the 2nd and 3rd night, 20% of the first night. So that’s when it starts to get more competitive with fireworks.

Miller:  Can you give us a sense for what people in Central Oregon can see starting tonight and going through the week?

Segali:  I promised I wouldn’t give away too much. It’s gonna be definitely tied to the history of the fair, talking about things that are relative to the area. And I think everybody would be really excited. It’s a couple hundred drums, so it’s gonna be a nice sized show. You can see them from a pretty good distance away. If you are going to go see them, they are kind of like a movie screen. So just keep that in mind. They’re designed to be viewed from one direction. So really take a look and make sure that you’re in the right spot for the viewing.

Miller:  Oh, because otherwise, if you’re 90 degrees off, you’ll see something, but it’s not going to be the image?

Segali:  That’s a really big line. I wonder what that is? (laughter)

Miller:  Right. “People seem to like it, people who aren’t where I am.” If an organizer says, “I want a horse” or, “I want a hat that explodes” or whatever, I mean, do you just say, “Yes, we’ll make that for you”?

Segali:  Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, there are some limitations to the quantities, right? So if you did want something, I use QR Code because it’s pretty universal. You need about 300 drones minimum to do a QR code. So with that said, we’re very conscious of what they’re wanting and how many drones that they have in their budget. So if they want a 3D duck, like we did for the Detroit Motor Show, you won’t be able to do that with 100 drones. So we say, hey, yeah, we can create you a duck, but it’s gonna be 2D?

Miller:  But why a duck at the Detroit Motor Show?

Segali:  They’ve got that big yellow duck floating in the harbor. And so that’s something that they wanted to put into the show. And I didn’t understand it either until I saw it when I was down there. Then it made sense. But yeah, they got a duck floating in the harbor.

Miller:  Jonathan Segali, it was a pleasure talking with you. Thank you very much.

Segali:  My pleasure. Have a great day.

Miller: That’s Jonathan Segali. He is the CEO of Go Drone Shows. They’re putting on a series of drone light shows, starting tonight, as a kind of preview at Bend’s Hayden Homes Amphitheater. And then tomorrow night through the weekend at the Deschutes County Fair and the Rodeo.

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