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But it’s also the year that drone light shows broke into some of those everyday joys (for example, like Serena Williams’ baby gender reveal party). And it’s the year we saw them in increasingly more theme parks (did you see the Hong Kong Disney Frozen land drone show?), small town July Fourth celebrations and at conferences.
And this year, I had the pleasure of judging the single greatest event in recognizing the best of all those shows: the 4th International Drone Show Competition from SPH Engineering.
Photo courtesy of SPH Engineering
After a year of collecting the best drone shows, countless hours spent among the folks putting them on, and yes — hours of judging all those videos to rewind and replay them all to whittle down the winners — it’s fair to say the best drone light shows of 2023 are official.
This week, SPH Engineering announced the winners, which are a set of 22 of the best drone light shows of 2023.
The 22 best drone light shows of 2023 were chosen from a pool of 105 applicants who come from 24 different countries. Entries were grouped into any of the eight possible categories, which were:
Drone Show Animation (300 drones)
Drone Show at the Event
Drone Show Storytelling
Drone Show as a Marketing Tool
Drone Show for Raising Social Awareness
Drone Show with a Small Fleet
Rising Star Drone Show
Collaborative Drone Show
And with that, here were the winners of SPH Engineering’s Best Drone Shows of 2023 awards:
Best Drone Show Animation of 2023
1st place: Drone Show Japan with animation for the fairy tale “The Bremen Musicians“
That show is pretty extraordinary, merging the fairy tale “The Bremen Musicians” with endangered species. It pays special attention to the use of music, tying each frame of animation closely to the sounds — all the while raising awareness about wildlife conservation.
Watch it here:
Here were the other categories, as well as the top three on the podium in each category:
2nd place: Drone Sky Shows (USA) with Sky Symphony united Drone Sky shows Australia, Japan , China, and Singapore
3rd place: Dutch Drone Shows (Netherlands) with Festival Gijon
Photo courtesy of SPH Engineering
It’s certainly not a coincidence that the top drone shows of 2023 were named through, yes, a drone light show of its own. The results were presented in Las Vegas as part of the Live Design International Trade Show (LDI) at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the LDI 2023 Expo.
Sky Elements Drones (which had plenty of its own podium spots in the competition) put on the drone light show for the awards ceremony, illuminating the Las Vegas sky with 400 drones. This show featured winning-themed icons, including a trophy. As is the trend with many drone shows to arrange drones as QR codes in the sky, this show had a QR code linking to a webpage with the winners.
This is the fourth year of the competition , which began in 2020 as a tiny contest to showcase drone show choreography. Since then, the drone has evolved dramatically with more entries, winners and location representation.
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I’m here to guide you through the entire process of becoming a commercial drone pilot, breaking down the complexities so first-timers can get through it faster.
In this topic have all the facts you need to boldly go forth and pick up the right drone for your professional pursuits so you can live regret-free with your decision
